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