Littlebig

Thanks for the reply. Just received the ones I ordered and put the new vent in the bathroom where I had the old one broken. It’s not a great fit but it’s ok so I’m not bothered. I just hope none of the old ones break as I will have to replace them all then.

Hi all, A while ago we bought a new build and all our uPVC windows and doors were supplied and installed by BPS Windows. They went bust not long ago and now I’m struggling to find spares for the windows. I need trickle vent covers as I have two broken ones and after speaking with the developer to get details of their new supplier. After speaking with them they said they will send some out but on two separate occasions they said they sent them out (in June & July) and I’m still waiting for them. Can someone let me know if I can just fit a different type as long as it is the right length and width? Thanks

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.

I understand these gaps under the internal doors are somewhat standard to allow the air to circulate but I don’t try and reduce that air flow the heat loss will be even greater. I have a draught excluder which has reduced the air flow not completely blocked it, but didn’t have it last year and can’t say how beneficial it is yet. The window fitter came to replace the handle on the window and I asked for few spare trickle vents as I broke one downstairs and replaced a total of 3 myself which were like for like.

Hi @AliG, Thank you for your reply. Please see the requested information in the attached files. My house is on the right and floor plan is for a left one but is exactly the same otherwise. When I said draught proofed I meant all internal doors as the gap under some of them was fairly big. The bedroom in question is a north facing one and I expect to be colder but the problem for me is why is not retaining heat. South facing bedroom is warmer and when its sunny outside we wouldn’t need to put heating on either. Windows are standard as you mentioned with trickle vents and they were replaced when I first reported the heat loss to the builder. Floor feels absolutely fine and when I had carpet removed for the wardrobe to be fitted checked around the skirting boards and could not find any issues. I haven’t been in the loft yet but had the builder coming over to check the insulation and I had a look and could not spot a layer missing and it was very thick, but I’m in the process of getting a ladder fitted so I can get access to the loft when I need to. Builder is a company called Gleeson and and they are known for building houses in not so good areas, so not a very reputable builder. Although when we were looking for a house checked the likes of Barratt Homes and Persimmon and speaking with friends who bought houses built by them their advice was to stay away from them and in fairness the issues we had with our house were something I could have fixed myself. For comparison we paid £60k less than we would have paid for a house from Barratt Homes we liked (yes Barratt was a bit bigger) but our plan is to buy a bigger house in 3 years anyway. On another note last we had the heating on for about 30mins between 6pm & 6:30 and temperature in both bedrooms at 22:30 was about 21C. This morning (outside temp. around 3C) when the baby woke up at 6am temp. in her room was 18C with door closed all night and our bedroom was above 19C and bedroom door is open all night. I know the heat loss is actually not bad at all but I would expect our bedroom to be colder considering door is open.

Thanks for the replies everyone and apologies for the late update. I have no information about cavity insulation yet as I am waiting for the colder winter days to see if we will experience same issue as last year and request a survey from the builder. I have draught proofed all bedrooms and this has had an impact as during the few cold days recently temperature had stayed relatively same. With regards to the humidity level I bought these hygrometers and the readings are relatively same across the whole house, so I think the one we have on the camera is either too sensitive or just incorrect. I am still to add a door at the bottom at stairs in the landing to stop/limit any cold draught/air from outside going up and after that will check what impact this will have on the upstairs temperature and will give an update.

Hello again everyone, As the winter and cold weather is approaching I am back with some of my problems… again. The problem with the bedroom being cold is still present, however it’s early days to say how bad it can get as we haven’t seen minus temps yet. The other problem we are coming across now is a high humidity in the room. We have a camera with a built in temp. and humidity sensor and apart from the summer I can’t remember seeing the humidity level below 70% (usually 75-78%) and it will only drop a bit when we put the heating on. I wonder what could be causing this as the other bedroom is around 60%? Any ideas or suggestions on what could be wrong (if anything), please let me know. Thank you.

Thanks for all the replies. The bedroom is not above garage, it is above the kitchen. I don’t really talk to the builder, normally will report the issue online and someone will come and fix it, but I could and do if they don’t act on the repairs or it needs an urgent response. Loft insulation looks ok, but I’m still to get a ladder to have a proper look. I was thinking of getting a company to survey the house and check for cold spots but it will cost around £400 which I could invest in a device that I will attach to my phone and do myself if really needed. I could do the fan test but it probably won’t be as cold now to come to a conclusion, however I will try the candle draught check as this will take no time. There is still over a year warranty left on the house from the builder so I believe I can always wait for the winter but ideally want this sorted before that. I will contact the builder and request a full survey and if they don't do it I’ll just hire a company and if there is something wrong will forward them the invoice.

Hi everyone, not so long ago we bought a new build. We’ve lived in it for a full summer and a full winter now and I was wondering if I can get a bit of help regarding few little “issues”. Our ground floor is quite warm unlike the first floor and the bedrooms just won’t retain heat for long. Master bedroom is a south facing and very warm when sunny, but the spare bedroom is a north facing and is absolutely freezing during the winter. Main problem though is once we put the heating on both rooms get warm but about 2hrs later the spare bedroom goes to about 17-18C from probs around 22-23C (it could drop to 16C sometimes if too cold). This will be a nursery from next month and I’m trying to get it sorted before the winter. I’m thinking there is either no insulation or not across the whole wall, just doesn’t make sense to be so cold otherwise. It is a semi detached house and this is the outside wall, it’s meant to be full fill insulation, but not sure what this means exactly. We have draught excluders on every door and I’m putting insulating film on the windows next week to trial (of course a bit late but there could be some cold nights still) and see if this will improve heat retention. The builder at the moment is not much help and I can’t be bothered waiting for them. I’m trying to find out at what stage of the build the insulation goes into the cavity as the estate is still developing and there are a fair amount of houses I can see the ground floor is nearly done, however no insulation in the cavity yet and wondering of they put it in at all, so if someone knows when the insulation is supposed to go it will be helpful. Also any idea why it could be cold, what we need to look for or to check and/or some suggestions how to make the rooms warmer or retain the heat for longer. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply. I’ll ask the roofers to check it out and correct it as recent storms make feel a bit anxious considering last time I had someone else's shed in the garden 😂.

Hi everyone, almost a year ago I completed my first ever property purchase and it was a new build. Overall I am quite happy with the build but of course there have been some issues with the house. It is a semi detached and one of my concerns (not saying issues as I’m not sure if it is actually wrong) is the roof. At the back of the property there is a section in the middle where the roof tiles are elevating - this is right in the middle between the two houses, and one section on the side of the house where the tiles are lifting and looks like they are not sitting in properly. This was reported to the builder as there was a broken tile as well and they came and replaced it pretty quick and also found another one that needed replacing. However when I asked them about the the little “belly” at the back they said its because the wall separating the two houses is too high but once they have been authorised by the builder they will come and sort it out. This was in the beginning of the winter and I told them I don't want any kind of work done on the roof until the summer months. I will chase this up and get to come back soon and sort it but was wondering if someone can tell me if thats actually what the problem or if it’s a problem at all. I looked at the other houses but couldn’t see a similar problem on any of them.