Insulating services riser

[jonwestuk]

Hi,

I have a 3 storey town house which has a utilities riser containing the pipes for hot/cold water and the waste pipe for the house. The riser goes from the attic right to the ground floor and I have noticed that there is a large amount of cold air coming into the house from the attic.

I therefore propose to cover and insulate it from that attic, as well as do my best to make easily removable blockers on each floor to reduce the flow and movement of air.

Before I do so, I am wondering if there are any negatives of sealing this. Clearly there is an issue should I ever want to run new pipes along it (but I will make the changes simple to remove for this case). What are the other issues? Do you need such an area to have a circulation of fresh air into the house?

Thanks for your help,

Jon

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

I can only think of positive benefits. For fire resistance it would be good to seal this duct between floors. It sounds like a roll of glass fibre might be the way to go, but if the duct is large compared to the diameter of the pipes, perhaps plasterboard separators sitting on blocks then tightly stuffed with glass fibre to a depth of 6" as floor separators. In the loft, just pile up say 3 layers of 6" glass fibre over the duct exit, should slow the air down!
Frank