Littlebig

Thanks for all the replies. Currently the house is wrapped in scaffold as I’m hoping to get the roof fixed finally. I am also diverting my attention to the front door that will highly likely need replacing. I’m in the process of assessing the best location for a light in the loft so I can then either tuck the insulation behind or use PIR as recommended. Either way I think I will do it all myself as chasing the builder seems like a waste of time and effort. With regards to the voids in the cavity insulation hopefully they will send someone competent to get it all done and we feel the full benefit of a well insulated new build next winter.

Thank you. It is a new build (just over a year old) and I will contact the builder tomorrow and inform them of my findings. I assume they will conduct some sort of investigation but from my previous experience dealing with them I’m not optimistic. In my opinion if there is a part of the cavity with such big gaps of no insulation I assume the whole house could be like this and will request a full cavity survey. No idea whether they will even acknowledge there could be a problem with the cavity insulation as the heat survey would suggest otherwise. I guess then I either contact the NHBC or the CWA or both, but I wouldn’t know the name of the company that has done the insulation.

Are you saying I get in touch with the CWA and explain my problem so they can come and have a look and get it sorted free of charge and hopefully in a much more professional manner than the contractor/builder?

I guess your explanation is confirming my first thought. The constant ribbon of adhesive along the top that should prevent airflow and thermal bypass is basically not there? Unfortunately like your saying not an easy fix and will have to contact the builder and see what their proposition will be to resolve it.

In all fairness this was the first time a someone has given such a detailed explanations about his findings. He also mentioned that instead of 8 bags of insulation material(as per specification) the used 9 so he was very confident in saying there is no problem with insufficient insulation. I also mentioned he suggested draughts as the main issue, this was after he finished his inspection and the 2 main points of draughts was the main front door and the loft hatch and this was concluded after the thermal imaging survey and it was obvious on the pictures. Also in the small bedroom and bathroom was noted that the loft insulation has been pulled too far back to unblock the vents and has caused an issue where cold air could penetrate the cavity and all it needs doing is to fold the loft insulation into the cavity. (The attached picture is just an example of what I was able to see on his camera.) But I’m not sure this is the reason for the cold air in there, so again someone knowledgable maybe will be able to say what is the cause.

Hi everyone, just a little update on the issues mentioned above. We finally managed to get the builder to do a heat survey and get a bit more details on what is going on with the insulation. Survey was conducted by the company blowing the cavity insulation in and the attending contractor gave a detailed explanation of his findings. The highlight of all was that he concluded there is a problem with draughts more than anything, so the report was sent to the builder and now awaiting repair. In the meantime I changed the extraction fan in the bathroom and put a new external vent with a non-return shutter flaps to prevent cold air coming through. When I did that I was able to have a look in the cavity and took few pictures for someone knowledgable to say whether this is OK or not as I am not sure it is.

Thanks everyone for the replies. It is eaves ventilation according to the specs. I only had a look because of the ongoing heat loss issue and when I noticed the amount of condensation I knew something is not right. I am currently expecting a report from the builder investigation as to why reported issues had not been resolved but marked as complete. Once I have a look at the report and what they have outlined as their next step, then I will make a decision on how to proceed with the urgent repairs.

Also I guess seeing daylight through the roof is not a good sign either?

So I decided to have a look into my loft today just to see what is going on up there. I have managed to balance the temp. in the house by setting the heating to come on automatically twice a day for a total of about 120-150mins otherwise the house gets way to warm. What I noticed was a lot of condensation on the roof (across the full width above the bathroom and 2nd bedroom) which in my opinion is the answer to my issue. Looks like all the heat is escaping through the roof and I can’t work out why. If anyone has any suggestions as to what could be the problem please let me know. I am in the process of getting someone to come and do a full survey as I’m fed up with the builder and after the inspection will decide which to go based on the findings.

Well thats I am a bit confused about. When I put the light out in the garden when I cut out the square for the fused spur in the wall I could swear it was dot and dab as I could see it. On the other hand when I put an extra socket for the tv and a dryer up on the internal walls I did see it was batten. Not sure if its different for the internal and external walls?

Well your pretty much spot on in your calcs. I’m not convinced I have mineral wool insulation into the wall cavity, I think insulation has been blown in judging by what I’ve seen on the other house that they are building in the estate. We usually have the heating on in the winter (on cold days) on for few hours mainly on the night but I will try an have it on for 4-6hrs a day for a week when it gets a bit colder and set it to maintain around 22C and see what heat loss I get then. I will still speak to the builder to get a thermal imaging survey regardless as I’m convinced insulation is not sufficient. Radiator in master bedroom is 1066W (single convector) and nursery room is 1056W (double convector) and they are heating the rooms very quick unlike the old ones. I’ll upload the reports from the inspection so you can have a look and see if you can spot something wrong in there as I don’t know much about all. Link 1 Link 2 Link 3

This is something we tried as well. When we first bought the curtains we thought we will get then cut to size to go just behind the radiators when drawn. Due to the fact that we bough them from Next it was cheaper to leave them in full length and when the heating is on we just bunch them up on the windowsill. In the nursery room though we changed them to match the light and chair colour and they are just long enough to fit behind the radiator when drawn. As a lot of these “improvements” were made towards the end of the winter or in the summer I will have to wait for some cold winter days and nights and see what has helped and what not.

The boiler (LOGIC COMBI ESP1 30) is set at the economy mark since the bedroom radiators were replaced. It’s just not that cold inside and/or outside to have to run the heating for long periods. We have TRV valves on all radiators except the two where we have the thermostats in the rooms (master bedroom & lounge). Downstairs room is not overheating, just on a sunny day it gets warm from the sun and also due to the size of the lounge when we use the oven it gets warm as well so we only put the heating on downstairs mainly in the morning and is alright pretty much all day. This is what I’m trying to determine where the heat loss is coming from and all I can think is the gap under doors, walls or the windows as I don’t think is the floor. PS: I don’t know much about combi boilers (I’m electrical engineer and have knowledge on many electrical appliances 😂) but if you or anyone else can let me know what could be the best settings for it I’m more than happy to try it.

In all fairness the temp. drop was within an acceptable range considering the heating was only on for about 30mins, and yes totally agree our room will be warmer because of our body heat. The only problem is that lets say temp. outside drops to -2-3C the nursery room drops to 16C (the case last year) which is fairly low and it does happen rather quick. I can’t remember if I mentioned this here but both radiators in the bedrooms were replaced with bigger ones and this has significantly improved the time it takes to warm up as even when heating is turned off they keep warm for longer. In the winter months we do keep the heating on for longer but at the moment the temp. outside is still fairly high and it doesn’t take too long to heat up as it is a small house.