House Losing Heat Fast -

[old duffer]

Not sure what your point is? Without heat rooms become cold.

heat loss is relative is my point and with good levels of insulation heat loss will be negligible.
No 2 homes are the same so the statement of all homes being cold is wrong.
This season I added underfloor insulation and reduced the room heat loss from 8 degrees to 2 degrees when the temp was -3 outside.

 

[big-all]

heat loss is relative is my point and with good levels of insulation heat loss will be negligible.
No 2 homes are the same so the statement of all homes being cold is wrong.
This season I added underfloor insulation and reduced the room heat loss from 8 degrees to 2 degrees when the temp was -3 outside.

my thoughts that difference seems possibly skewed, it suggests underfloor insulation is accountable for a reduction off 75% off lost remaining heat
now not doubting the outcome but it seems high to me and possible something like draughts from somewhere not noticed before but now sorted would have a greater baring on the situation possibly saving more heat than pure insulation but fully a guess

 

[foxhole]

heat loss is relative is my point and with good levels of insulation heat loss will be negligible.
No 2 homes are the same so the statement of all homes being cold is wrong.
This season I added underfloor insulation and reduced the room heat loss from 8 degrees to 2 degrees when the temp was -3 outside.

You contradict yourself .

 

[old duffer]

You contradict yourself .

explain how!

 

[GeddyMortgage]

Good luck! I hope you get a result from it

Well today's results confirm that im not crazy (obsessed is a different discussion.)

With a 1 being good and a 15 being the worst, the guy said we were off the scale. Unmeasurably bad. He showed me round the property to where the air was being pulled. Not surprised, but shocked.

Every skirting board, most of the floorboard when you lift the carpet, pretty much every window (apart from the landing one which I found funny).

Plenty to address, best couple hundred quid i've spent in a long time.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Sorry it wasn't more positive, however, on the upside you now know exactly where to expend your effort.

On the floorboards one thing I can say which works is covering the floorboards with hardboard (wetted, left to dry, install rough side upwards with tacks). This can drastically reduce draughts through gaps in floorboards to almost nothing (well, in my experience). A cheap and easy fix

 

[GeddyMortgage]

Thanks for the tip, In a lot of ways I’m glad it wasn’t more positive as I knew from the hive readouts there was an obvious problem here, was just struggling to focus in on what.

For the hardboard can I get away with the thinner 3mm variant? How come it needs to be wetted and left to dry? And is there any point do doinf this in areas that will have hardwood floor above? And lastly to compensate for the raised height do you generally compensate with a thinner underlay?

 

[JohnD]

Well today's results confirm that im not crazy (obsessed is a different discussion.)

With a 1 being good and a 15 being the worst, the guy said we were off the scale. Unmeasurably bad. He showed me round the property to where the air was being pulled. Not surprised, but shocked.

Every skirting board, most of the floorboard when you lift the carpet, pretty much every window (apart from the landing one which I found funny).

Plenty to address, best couple hundred quid i've spent in a long time.

Is it gaps and draughts?

I used to have some of those.

 

[GeddyMortgage]

Lots of gaps and drafts, some recent renovative work not sealed properly round windows and doors. Likely solved with caulk/silicone.
All skirting boards on every floor..., all floorboards over suspended floor. Soil stack boxing not sealed properly (piping air from crawl space beneath ground suspended floor)

Havent done the thermal camera stuff yet. As mentioned previous I see that as another angle to come from regarding insulation etc. Half the loft isnt insulated, and the other half that is, is only100mm thick, none of which spans as far as the top of the wall cavities or drops down into the eaves which i've heard really should..... All the loft is a big job to sort due to lack of space to manoeuvre in there.... but I plan to address this over the coming week. 400mm wool on the loft floor, covering the top of wall cavity and dropping into the eaves..... and 100mm wool & 150mm kingspan on the vertical walls seperating the cold loft space from the the top floor bedrooms.

Interestingly the one floor that wasn't blowing through the floorboards was the living room - the one room which we've manually gone down and ran 200mm of mineral wool between the floor joists (hung up with chicken wire). So im hoping that will help address the drafts too when we go down and do the remainder of the suspended floor.

We're basically the meat in a draft sandwhich, it's sh*t.

 

[JohnD]

Interestingly the one floor that wasn't blowing through the floorboards was the living room - the one room which we've manually gone down and ran 200mm of mineral wool between the floor joists (hung up with chicken wire). So im hoping that will help address the drafts too when we go down and do the remainder of the suspended floor.

Bravo!

If you do the edges of the room first, that will make the biggest improvement.

If you can see the ends of the joists going into the walls, try to pack round them with pink fire foam. Clean out the dust and spray with water first.

 

[GeddyMortgage]

Thanks, yeah, will do. We've just been packing wool everywhere to be honest but I know that's anything but cost effective. We really should be foaming more.
It's a bit of a nightmare down there to be honest, 100s of electrical cables from the consumer unit, i've a spark coming to really spend a few days tidying all that up and clear the way for me, It's like a scene from Entrapment at the moment. But I plan to tackle this after he's done.

The air test dude was so shocked at how bad our house was he's agreed to come back and do a second one for free if he can use it as a case-study after we've done the work. Looking forward to seeing the improvement when he comes back!

 

[Deleted member 174758]

For the hardboard can I get away with the thinner 3mm variant? How come it needs to be wetted and left to dry? And is there any point do doinf this in areas that will have hardwood floor above?

We used hardboard for carpeted areas, and it was the 3.2mm (1/8in) variant. The reason you wet it and alow it to dry is to allow it to acclimatise to the house and also to ensure that any crowns or hollows are removed. Used rough side up for extra grip. Unsuitable for tile, laminate, engineered wood, etc for which hardwood plywood is far better

 

[GeddyMortgage]

Will definitely use that for the carpeted areas. Most of the finishing of the renovations will end up being engineered wood with sunken carpets.

Btw just while I’m doing it - for loft areas with no insulation. Does the first layer HAVE to be 100mm in the direction of the joists and 200 over the top at 90 degrees

Or can the first layer be 200mm too with no issues?

Reason I ask is I’ve got about 30 packs of 200mm I need to use and want to get it all done tonight

 

[JohnD]

For best results, the layer between the joists should be about the same thickness as the joist depth.

What's yours?

 

[GeddyMortgage]

130mm

More is more though, right?