Stop draft from roof entering ground floor ceiling void

[myk3]

Hi there,

Early this summer I purchased my 1st property and for the initial 3 months carried out a lot of renovation work which included plastering and where necessary boarding 50% of the property around 70% has been rewired (so having had all carpet and floorboards up at one stage in most of the rooms). This work was done in the summer so was very hot so insulation and draft proofing in conjunction with my lack of experience (this is my first home since moving out from living with parents) was overlooked.

The property is a 1930s semi-detached soild wall (no cavity wall) house. Floor boards are not T&G and are planks of wood with ~5mm gap separating them.

Now the winter has come I am noticing the importance of insulation and draft proofing. I have insulted the loft with the recommended R value and this has helped with keeping heat in in the upstairs bedroom. However I have start to find flaws which of course I would have had the chance to easily remedy when the floors/ceilings where up/down. Now most rooms are furnished, beds in bedrooms, heavy 7 ft wardrobes in the bedrooms and nice new carpet has been laid it is going to be a pain for me to now do this.

The main draft that I have found is in the ground floor ceiling/ 1st floor void. When changing a bulb in one of the down lighters yesterday I noticed a strong draft of ice cold air coming down, I checked all the other down lights and the same was felt throughout. Generally speaking the downstairs stays pretty warm as there are no gaps in the ceiling and all down lighters are draft proofed. My main issue is the room above (carpeted) floor gets cold and I feel a cold draft coming from the edges of the room. Furthermore we have an alcove in the room which we fitted a standing wardrobe which I anchored to the wall, in addition I removed the skirting board so that the wardrobe can site flush to the wall, and I didn’t draft proof the gap like an idiot.

I can of course empty the wardrobe and pull it back and draft proof any gap which should no doubt help but my main aim would be to stop the draft coming into the void totally which I am confident will assist with keeping the whole house a lot warmer. I have a small porch roof and roof over the downstairs bay window (see pic below) and these are NOT insulated, I know this because I had the ceiling replaced. I have also attached pic of the ceiling below the bay window roof (I took random progress pics during renovation, this is boarded, plastered and painted now).

Untitled

• myk3
• 13 Dec 2013
• 1

Untitled

• myk3
• 13 Dec 2013
• 1

My Questions are:

1. I don’t really want to rip down the ceiling again to insulate, I would prefer to do it from the top have a new tiled roof over the bay window and porch. Is it safe to pack these roofs with insulation and also attempt to seal the gaps or is ventilation required to stop rotting of the wood?

2. In the Alcoves in the bedroom above I want to ideally section by section (shuffling furniture around) pull back the carpet and fill the perimeter gaps/draft proof and possibly lay hardboard on top of the floor boards. If I do this say at 2 meters at a time will I be able to put the newly laid carpet back into position (using a knee kicker) or will I struggle to do so as it will lose its stretch?.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[dishman]

I can't speak for where you should and should not insulate.

But.....a note of caution....

All I would say is that you need to ensure you do not insulate to the point where you have minimal airflow and ventilation.

1930s properties were not designed to be draft proof insulated boxes. Especially solid wall constructions. You are essentially retrofitting modern standards to an 80 year old property.

Look at the recent posts about condensation/damp at this time of year. You have to be careful and find a balance of energy efficiency and ventilation.

Ventilation has been overlooked in terms of its importance in the drive for insulation and warmth, "being green" and lower energy bills.

If you draft proof, double glaze and insulate a property, the water vapour produced in an average house has no where to circulate and ventilate, it will get trapped in the house. It will then condensate on a cold surface within your house, as you have solid walls (they may act as a cold bridge to the outside), you could find you begin to get condensation/damp on these surfaces and on the windows.

I am not saying do not insulate the property, but it is not a simple case of stuffing insulation in every nook and cranny to stop drafts.....it needs to be carefully done.

Any house needs a balance of heat retention, air circulation and ventilation!

Read these, especially the first one...

http://www.1stassociated.co.uk/condensation-cold-bridging.asp

http://www.bolton.gov.uk/sites/DocumentCentre/Documents/Condensation and Mould.pdf

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/05/10103020/30224

 

[AronSearle]

Jesus that first link is a joke, opening windows alleviates cold bridging,

All opening a window does is lower the internal temperature, and humidity, reducing the dew point on the walls, or parts of the walls, it doesn't stop the cold bridging, you just replace one heat loss with a bigger one.

Well done, you just wasted your time insulating the place.

Insulate the walls with either insulated plasterboard, or externally insulated render, that will help eliminate the cold bridging.

And If you can't do that, it will still be cheaper make the place airtight and to run a desiccant dehumidifier to alleviate the humidity problem, than to have lot's of ventilation that just leaks warm air to the outside.

Yea, you need ventilation, but a typical UK house with double glazed windows, no trickle vents, will still see over 10-15 air changes an hour, the problem is our ****ty housing stock, not the amount of ventilation.

 

[dishman]

Jesus that first link is a joke, opening windows alleviates cold bridging,

I don't see where it says it alleviates the cold bridging itself. It says it [opening windows] alleviates the effect of damp created by cold bridging (partly through the process you mention) if the insulation installed has not been planned to take it [cold bridging] in to account. It's about reducing damp (without resorting to a dehumidifier), through ventilation. And opening windows does not mean you will have a cold house and heat loss, as you can always close them last time I checked.

As i said, (and the point of that article) was that if the insulation installation is planned properly (and you take into acount the type of property you have), and enough good ventilation is installed, then that is great. But if you just insulate as much as you can, then you may find you have a problem. Having to rely solely on a dehumidifier as a solution is not great in my opinion.