Problems with cold draft

[ripperuk]

hiya there,

After living in my house for the last 18 months or so, i'm about to start decorating my sitting room and living room. But i've realised a problem since this winter. When the weather was really cold/windy the last 2-3 weeks ago, i noticed the sitting room and the living room were extremely cold...even though we had our central heating on full, along with standard tiled gasfires on full too. I also noticed that loads of draft was coming from somewhere.

After feeling around, i've realised that the air is coming from under the skirtboards in both rooms and its not just one place, but of the whole room. I don't know how to get rid of it as the carpet has been pushed into the skirting and the gap must be extremely small. Under the floor, i have a 1 metre gap (no cellar) and i have 2 vents on each side of the house from which air travels through these. I believe that these vents are to allow the house to breath, but i'm sure if i closed these off that this may make the problems worse.

How can i fix this issue guys?

thanks and a happy new year!

 

[imamartian]

Fantastic artwork, can i ask what software you used to do that?

 

[JohnD]

the gas fires are sucking warm air up the chimney. since your rooms are not airtight, cold air is being sucked in to replace it. dump the gas fires and block the fireplaces. Or, put fresh-air vents just in front of the hearth.

Also, keep interior doors closed during the heating season.

 

[ColJack]

time to pull out the caulking gun and go to town.. or an expanding foam squirted under the skirting board and trimmed off with a knife after it cures ( pull the carpet back first obviously.. )

a floor vent into the void near the fireplace as sugested might help also..

 

[ripperuk]

@ imamartian - that drawing was done bit-by-bit using paint shop pro.

@ johnd & coljack - caulking gun /foam is a solution, but might mess up the carpet? Also what do you mean put a floor vent into the fireplace? Can you roughly show me via a picture where this vent would go?

NOTE: the pictures don't show the gas fires, but FYI, the gas fire is located on the chimney centrally on the opposite wall.

 

[JohnD]

expanding plastic foam is available in a big aerosol. You apply it rather like shaving foam, it expands and goes hard. It is amazingly sticky and whatever you get it on will be permanently spoiled*

If you use it, roll back the carpet way beyond what you might think necessary; tape cling film to the skirtings, cover the floor and the carpet with newspaper or dustsheets that you will never need again, cover your hair, wear clothes that you will never need again, wear disposable gloves and have a ready supply of further gloves handy to swap over as soon as you get some on your gloves, use eye protection, clean out all dust and dirt, slide the nozzle tube along the very back of the crevice, apply far less than you think is necessary, do not touch the foam for an hour, even to see if it has set yet. When hard, you can trim it back with a serrated knife, and you can sand it back. *You can also get a chemical called "foam eater" to dissolve it. Best buy this at the same time as you buy the foam. Once you have started using a can it is possible to clean out the nozzle and use it again later, but work on the assumption that you will not manage this. If you drip any on the floor, it will stick to your shoe, and to the carpet and whatever else you tread on and will be almost immovable.

Have a plant mist sprayer handy. moistening the surface with water first makes it expand and stick better You can also spray water on drips and spillages to make them skin over quickly so they are less sticky.

Once you have got the hang of it, it is wonderful stuff.

Once you use it, you will understand what I say.

Decorators caulk is a lot less messy.

The floor grille: you can sometimes get the in brass. They look rather like an air brick. You cut a hole in the floor that teh grill will cover, the cold air comes up through it, but because it is in front of the hearth, the cold air gets sucked up the chimney instaed of blowing through the whole romm and chilling it. The open vent means there is not much suction to create additional draughts.

 

[ripperuk]

thanks for that john. I will consider this most definately, thank you!

But i still want to hear the second idea which is a vent under the gasfire?

 

[JohnD]

edited earlier post above

You could use something like this to cover the hole

But it is the hole that does the work.

 

[ripperuk]

i think this vent idea sounds brilliant mate. But my questions are:-

1. Which part of the chimney do i put the vent on? do i put this higher than the floorboards or under the floorboards?

2. Will this affect the functioning of the gasfire? i.e will it work and if so, will the heat be any less?

 

[JohnD]

you cut the vent in the floor, directly in front of the hearth.

not in the chimney.

 

[ripperuk]

i'm sorry john, but i'm very confused .

If i cut a vent in the floor boards, then that will be where the carpet will cover it later, so how will the air escape up the chimney?

Can u show me it with a diagram?

 

[JohnD]

you make a hole in the carpet as well

the cold air has to be able to flow from outside, under the floor, through the hole, into the fireplace, up the chimney

 

[ripperuk]

don't mind me saying so john, but that would look really silly..can i not solve the problem by making a vent hole in the chimney, under the floor, rather than the floor itself?

Also if i made a hole in the floor, then the air would come straight through the vent and into my room.

 

[JohnD]

Also if i made a hole in the floor, then the air would come straight through the vent and into my room.

yes, and then it would go up the chimney. but at the moment, the cold air comes in through drafts and passes through the whole room, before (warmed) going up the chimney. by having the hole in front of the hearth, the cold air takes a short path into the fireplace instead of chilling the room

anyway, when you take out those fires and close off the chimney (apart from ventilation) the draught will stop.


what sort of gas fires are they?

 

[ripperuk]

i see where your coming from mate, but the problems i'm gonna have with this is:

A. The vent will look extremely ugly and out of place in the middle of a victorian room and a marble mantlepiece.

B. The heat from the fire is unlikely to even reach the room as there will be too much cold air coming from the vent and up the chimney.

The only solution is this that i can solve this with is if i made a vent under the floorboards, in the chimney breast? What do you think? Would this work mate?