I can hear traffic and feel the cold

[luckielorz2001]

Hello!
I am in need of a little advice seeing as my builder is currently on holiday until after new year!

We recently purchased a 19 year old house that 8 years ago had an extension put in.
The extension is freezing, both rooms in it have had uPVC window put in and from both of them I can feel a draft, and a strong one (did the candle test?!) and i can also hear traffic!!
The window in one area has about a 2mm gap running along the edge of the window (between the upvc and the wall), and I can feel air coming through
The other is the same, though not to the same degree.
We have no water leakage, and when its windy the window doesn't allow any "wind" through. Its just a constant stream of air I can feel, not enough to move the blinds in front of it, but the candle flame has a good wobble when placed by the frame itself.
My question is that if I bought some caulking, could this solve my problem or would I need the whole window until taking out and replacing. Or fitting correctly

Thanks in advance

 

[Alastairreid]

Sounds like they have skimped on the insulation on the extension, maybe consider upgrading with insulated p/b in the future.

Renew the sealant on the outside see if that cures it.

 

[JohnD]

post a photo //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=129539

there is a fair chance they have put plastic trim round the window to cover the gaping gap, that the wind and noise are coming through. If so you can pull it off and pack the gap with insulation, and perhaps also sealant on the outside jointto keep the rain out.

p.s.
do you have cavity wall insulation?

 

[NeilPalfreyman]

I have a very similar ongoing problem with replacement PVCu windows and a patio door.

I took the PVCu flashing strip away from the edge of one offending window and found that the fitter hadn't closed the cavities or used any kind of filler/insulation, so my nice new A rated windows are just sat in the cold draft that blows through the cavity. (You know the really stupid thing is that the rating certificate you get is just for the window/door - it seems to have nothing to do with quality of fitting!)

I have managed to sort out one of them (the worse) myself by taking off all the flashing and using foam filler to fill the gaps around the frame. It's made a huge difference to the one window; the frames are now warm instead of cold, I can no longer hear traffic noise outside etc.

The problem I have with the others is that there's insufficient clearance to get foam around the frames. The un-closed cavity is still causing a problem but I cannot get to it to sort it out. I'm considering getting someone to re-fit them using cavity closures.

 

[JohnD]

It is possible to inject expanding foam into the gap by drilling holes that the pipe supplied with the can will fit into.

Drill all the holes before you start

Inject starting at the bottom so the later blobs can stand on the first ones and not drip down the cavity.

If you can see the foam injected through hole one rising up to hole two you can be fairly confident it has expanded enough to fill the gap.

 

[NeilPalfreyman]

Cheers, John - I had been formulating a similar plan! In fact I had a go with some pilot holes just yesterday to test the theory, but it's hard to tell how successful or otherwise it was.

My concerns are that any foam falling to the bottom of the cavity could bridge the DPC, not to mention costing a fortune in foam filling up areas where it wasn't supposed to be! This would be an even bigger issue under the sill.

Is this something that you have done (or seen done) successfully? Any further info/tips appreciated!

 

[JohnD]

yes I have done it

my house already has cavity insulation so not much chance of the foam falling far.

I suppose if you push the tube so far that it is touching the far wall, it will be pretty sure to stick. I suppose you could put it in a bit at a time so that the first blob will have stuck and firmed before it has extra weight on it.

When you can open up the cavity and remove dust and dirt, and spray it with water, the foam sticks better.

AFAIK the foam does not absorb water and I would not expect water to track across the cavity.

 

[NeilPalfreyman]

An additional piece of information for the original poster: Yesterday I got hold of an installation guide for my frames, which are Duraflex.

It has a series of diagrams showing example installations and these clearly show that when necessary insulation in the the form of foam filler should be used between the frame and the wall/cavity. I had an e-mail form a technical guy at Duraflex who confirmed this, though he also suggested using low expansion foam filler and being careful not to over-fill as this could damage the frames.

As I mentioned above doing this on the one window I have managed to "correct" so far has made a huge difference. No more draft, the frames are warm and there's good noise insulation too.

For info: I took the surrounding PCVu flash off, removed all of the silicon, masked off the frame and brick/plaster inside and out and injected foam filler. Once set I carved the filler back flush where necessary, removed the masking tape, re-fitted the PCVu flash using Gripfill and finally re-sealed the edges using low modulus silicon.

I did the inside of the house first then did the same from the outside. Doing it in two steps meant I could take my time but also limit how cold the room got. If I was doing it in summer I would do it all in one go, i think.