Newlands Ian

As luck would have it, there is a humidity sensor on each of my thermostat/heating controllers so I can monitor it that way. Is there a dangerous level of humidity that it's advisable to stay below?

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction, Jimbo. Otherwise I'd be on the phone paying up for another 'friendly' tester and/or drilling holes in my walls 😉

Well, you wont believe it! When presented with some additional information about the real-world ventilation (number of window trickle vents etc) building control have decided to let me away with it 🙂 RESULT!

Well, an email to BC is free so I'll try to argue my case as a first step. Not holding out much hope but watch this space...

Maybe I didn't explain myself properly the first time. I really don't want my house to leak more, what I actually want is for BC to sign-off the warrant! This is the only item left on their list and I thought it would be quicker and cheaper to get another air-test done after some minor modifications to the house. Cutting 10mm off every internal door is also a real pain. For the bathrooms maybe but all bedrooms? No way, I like the bedroom doors to be snug. With 10mm undercut the noise leakage is also an issue.

Ha! It does feel like a lot of people just want to say 'no' as a default stance. Having said that, I suppose the lesson here is that I should have planned better. I should researched the regs before submitting the first test (even though tester advised it would be fine!). Also, not sure why my architect didn't specify the dmev fans or highlight that it might be an issue. Anyway, that's water under the bridge and I just need to fix it now.

Four dmev fans, plus the cost of fitting them and then cost of an amendment to building warrant to will be significantly more than another air test. I've been living in the house since Christmas and it's super warm, definitely not draughty.

My issue is that building control have said either I show them an air test of 5.0 or worse, or I need to change all the fans to dmev and submit an amendment to building warrant. I'm thinking the best and most cost effective short term solution is to alter the building fabric in some way to get the result I need.

The problem is that the air test guys seems to be very "by the book" and the book says tape up all the vents. It's not real world but it's the way they do it.

Yep, they're not saying I need MVHR but dmev fans and 10mm gap cut at the bottom of all internal doors to allow circulation. Drilling a hole is an option but I don't really want to cut a hole in my nice new render 🙂 Also, the air-test guys tape up all visible vents so would have to be in a non-obvious location.

Hi all I'm looking for some ideas on how to get my airtightness test result up from 4 to 5. I need the result to be 5 or more in order to avoid having to replace all the internal fans and submit an amendment to the building warrant. Needs to be something that looks nicely finished and permanent, not just holes in the plasterboard which I won't get away with. Thanks