10 Year Old House

I was asked to come out to a couples house this week to help them save money on their heating oil bills. Currently they use around 6 tanks a year of fuel which is quite a lot I would think, and really they just wanted to see what I could do to highlight what was causing them to use so much energy.

After a bit of insight and fact gathering, we turned the fan on.  I must say, it was quite drafty for a house that was only 10 years old.  We found three main areas of concern:

Floor Boards
Kitchen Finish
Loft Access Doors

It was interesting though, that the couple had always thought it was the windows that were leaking and causing the drafts.  When we had the fan on high and the house under pressure, the windows were mainly fine.  We did find the odd one that was leaking a bit, but nothing like other areas.

Floor Boards - The main house bathroom had had the lino pulled out for some decorating they were in the process of doing.  This had exposed the floorboards that had been installed.  Most people would expect a house of this age to have chipboard installed instead of 6 inch floorboards.  More alarming for the occupants was the gaps taht had been found between the boards.  I didn't bring my camera, but this is an image I found on the web that is a close approximation.

Needless to say this was causing quite a bit of leakage and a serious amount of effort will be required to correct it across the house.  Every single carpet and underlay will have to be taken out then the floor sealed, probably with Slivers and then reinstalled. It was so bad, the carpets were rising off the floor and their cream carpets were stained inline with the floorboards throughout the house.

Kitchen Finish - Same old, Same old.  Penetrations not sealed behind, stack pipes not sealed around, unfinished plastering and holes in the floors that you could put your hand into.... Once a kitchen is in, it is not really the easiest thing in the world to take out or work around.

Loft Access Doors - These are not going to go away I'm afraid.  The right thing to do is to do it right the first time.  If you are going to have access to use the sides of your loft via an access door, then you must insist that the chipboard is continued to the edge of the roof and the ceiling joins up with that floor area completely.  If you do this, then you will have a finished space to then add your approximately 1m high stud wall to and put in an access door.  Using this as a method finishes off the void area and allows the air to still circulate around the joists from the soffetts, yet keeps that could air from getting into the house. You also get the added benefits of a finished storage space, and probably better insulation to boot.

Here is an example off of Askabuilder.co.uk of the doorway solution that might just work better than a magnetic catch that is typically used. I would still think that the build process could have been improved upon and finished. You notice the addition of the taped Kingspan insulation, Draft Seal, and the door hasp to seal it closed properly.

For more information or to book a test, call me on 01484 686649 or visit my website on http://www.hometestingyorkshire.co.uk/

I hope this helps

Matt

Design Air Permeabilty explained

During your trek for an air tightness test, you will be asked what your design air permeability is.  This value comes from your SAP in section 4.5 of the L1A checklist and will be a number equal to or less than 10.  This is the 'score' that you have to obtain to get a valid pass on your property. (If yours says a 15, you know why and I am speaking to the choir ... )

How did this number come about for your SAP?  It's based on the allowances made for the design elements on your build. If you have opted for a well insulated house with an A rated boiler using thermostats around the house, you will most likely have a 10 in here.  If your choice of boiler was onthe cheaper side and you opted for a B rated boiler .. or you wanted to save money on insulation and use 75 mm of insulation in the cavity when 100 mm would have been better, then you may need to get an 8 to pass. And so on it goes down the scale ...

But Why? Well, it all boils down to efficiency. If you are using an efficient boiler to warm your drafty house, you are probably going to use the same amount of energy as a well insulated house using electric radiators so the impact on the environment is the same. 

So, if I need to get a 10 and I get an 11 or higher what happens?  You fail. But, it is not as desperate as you may think.  You will have to get your house down to a a 9 and change (or less) and it is usually doable on the day of the test if you have a reasonable tester.  I am a reasonable tester, and realise that you ned to get a valid test onthe day and would like ot have your report and certificate there and then. If you have only built the one house, then we go down one route, if you have a development of houses we go down a different route. Single househould builders, you have to get a pass and there are no other houses to retest to confirm the results.  Developers, you may have to have an additional house tested to comply with regulations and to ensure that the learnings are passed on to the rest of the builds.

Getting a failing house to pass is another topic, but, let's just say that you will need to take some action, and it will involve expanding foam, silicone, mastic, decorators caulk, and the like. 

For more information or to book a test, call me on 01484 686649 or visit my website on http://www.hometestingyorkshire.co.uk/

I hope this helps

Matt

Ventilation versus Air Tightness

DriMaster Positive Input Ventilation

I came across this product via a meeting I had with a customer. We were looking for a solution for cutting costs in a new build property and this ventilation system came up.  This is a super idea for well built houses that are very air tight, and in need of a purpose built ventilation system.  They also work with older homes of course to dry them out, hence the name. 

I do not get paid or reimbursed to talk about products, so please don't think I am trying to sell you on this.

http://www.nuaire.co.uk/Product/Residential_Products/Positive_Input_Ventilation/Drimaster

You can read their blurb on the website.  It costs less than £300 and this will be recovered after 2 years in energy savings I believe. 

The principal method is that an automated system will pump warmer air from your loft into the house through a filter.  This air reverses the typical air flow in the home and pushes out the toxins, dampness and causes a stack effect that circulates the trapped warm air at the top of the house throughout. 

First thing I thought was that it was going to make the house colder, but if you think about it, it is actually taking the air form the loft which is quite a few degrees warmer than the outside air and using that to displace the stale and moist air from the house.

Give me a call and we can talk more about it if you like.
For more information or to book a test, call me on 01484 686649 or visit my website on http://www.hometestingyorkshire.co.uk/

I hope this helps

Matt

Sometimes it does pay to read these emails ...

Hello,


I would like to introduce you to your local Yorkshire solution for all of your Testing and Certification needs.

Home Testing Yorkshire Ltd was established in 2007 and we are centrally located in the lovely village of Holmfirth near Huddersfield. We started off as a company focussing on Air Tightness Testing and gradually expanded to include all of the elements that we cover today including: Sound Testing, SAPs and EPCs, Home Energy Assessments, Commercial SAP and EPC elements as well as Code For Sustainable Homes Assessment and Consultations.

As a company we have great ambitions to work with the small to medium sized home builder and developer across Yorkshire and the surrounding regions, bringing them a reliable service that caters to their needs. We strive to provide great customer service and knowledge that will take the burden off of the customer in this ever changing spectrum of regulation compliance.

We are currently able to provide the following services:

 Air Tightness Testing and Pre-Testing for new dwellings

 Pre-Completion Sound Testing and Site Sound Surveys in relation to Part E

 Code For Sustainable Homes Consultations and Assessments in line with upcoming regulation changes in October 2010.

 SAP/EPC/PEA/DEC/SBEM for commercial properties and domestic dwellings

 Home Information Packs at greatly reduced rates compared to typical Estate Agents pricing structures.

Please feel free to contact me at any time and I hope we can be of use to you and your clients in the near future. We have a free monthly seminar at our premises covering all of these topics if you are interested.

As a special bonus to everyone who actually reads this e-mail, because I know we all get enough of them in a day, I would like to offer the following incentive: Once you have booked your first job with us, mention this e-mail and you’ll get 5% off the agreed price for the Air Tightness Testing elements. Sometimes it does pay to read these e-mails.

Thanks,

Matt Hulsey

Home Testing Yorkshire Ltd

01484 686649

08455 212822

07930 915595

Your Local Solution to all of your Testing and Certification Needs

Air Tightness Testing / Sound Testing / SAPs / EPCs / DECs / SBEMs / HIPs / Code For Sustainable Homes

Our Website http://www.hometestingyorkshire.co.uk/

Our Blog airtightnesstesting.blogspot.com

matt@hometestingyorkshire.co.uk

Haigh House // Cinderhills Road // Holmfirth // HD9 1EH

Air Leakage from around window frames

Here are some pictures, taken from test sites around the Yorkshire region in the last year of what not to do:

This is a typical window frame without the plate on, taped and covered with cling film with the house under pressure. the volume of air coming through this is amazing and helps to illustrate air coning from the cavity into the home from all of the cracks in a house. You would never let this go uncompleted of course, but the builder thought it would be okay to have the test with it missing and, of course, it couldn't as we can see ... BTW, I don't know what that green stuff is outside the window, everything around here is all white :)

For more information or to book a test, call me on 01484 686649 or visit my website on http://www.hometestingyorkshire.co.uk/

I hope this helps

Matt

Choices

When you are having an air tightness test, you're living with the choices you made in the build process. Sounds harsh, but it's not meant to be. You could've done a lot of things along the way, but either chose not to or didn't know the impact.  A lot of the time it's a conscience choice such as downlights or oak skirting boards, etc. Other times it's not knowing that leaks really do occur around the pipes coming into the house. 

I can help you understand the impact of those choices either before or during the test.  Better that you know before I would suspect!

My goal is to help you, the developer, on your next build as well. The regulations are getting tighter in October 2010 and you need to be prepared.

For more information or to book a test, call me on 01484 686649 or visit my website on http://www.hometestingyorkshire.co.uk/

I hope this helps

Matt

Code Level 1 to 6 Homes available on the market today!

Miller Homes has built 5 Code for Sustainable Homes from Level 1 to 6 in Bassingstoke if you want to have a look.  I have read the subsequent articles on the BRE site and they say the following:

Key innovations


•Level 1 house: this serves largely as a benchmark, but incorporates mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) and smart meter.

•Level 3 house: has MVHR, smart meter, water saving sanitaryware, air source heat pump (ASHP), and is built using thin joint masonry.

•Level 4 house: has MVHR, smart meter, water saving sanitaryware, thin joint masonry walls, ground source heat pump (GSHP) with two 90m deep boreholes, and underfloor heating

•Level 5 house: has MVHR, triple glazed windows, smart meter, water saving sanitaryware and appliances, 14m2 of photovoltaics, rainwater harvesting via a 200 litre tank for reuse in toilets and washing machines, biomass boiler and was constructed from Kingspan TEK Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs).

•Level 6 house: MVHR, smart meter, water saving sanitaryware and appliances, underfloor heating, approximately double the quantity of photovoltaics of the level 5 house, rainwater harvesting, biomass boiler, full storey height Aircrete panels and external insulation of 300mm urethane foam and render.

Learning points

•The housebuilder worked to minimise the visual impact of the technology. Pipework is boxed in, the cupboard under the stairs houses manifolds and photovoltaic array read out, and the washing machine is in a utility room at the rear of the house, with a short connection to the greywater tank.

•The housebuilder used hollow web floor joists. Ian Beal, managing director with Miller Homes (Midlands and South), believes their use will become more common in housebuilding to accommodate the increased amount of servicing.

•The housebuilder hopes to try different approaches on ecology. Beal says: “We put in bat and bird boxes, but in the middle of this site it was pure point scoring. We'd like to be having conversations about ecology earlier so that we can do something appropriate sitewise rather than tick a box for a plot.”

•The site was set to have a wind turbine, but the planners refused permission.

•The level 6 house cost £50,000 extra, even though the housebuilder innovated to try to cut costs. For example, it was unable to source PVCu triple glazed windows in the UK, and so worked with LB Plastics which developed a new product. Tim Hough, chief executive of Miller Homes says: “It saved us significant cost, but it was frustrating that we had to do it. It would have been better if the conversations with the window manufacturers had taken place when U values were set.”

•Hough says: “Many of the design guidelines and regulations applied here compete and do not talk to each other. We would like to get guidance pulled together in a form that is clear and concise.”

•Hough concludes: “I am not convinced homeowners should be running a mini power station. We need more engagement with power providers on how to provide energy on a site or area wide basis.”
 
For more information or to book a test, call me on 01484 686649 or visit my website on http://www.hometestingyorkshire.co.uk/

I hope this helps

Matt