Draught proofing house

[jayc89]

I was hoping to get around to our internal wall insulation this year, but time is getting away from me. It's unlikely I'll get it all done before the colder months set in. 

Thinking more tactically, I plan to roll out another layer of loft insulation and tackle the draughts over the next couple of weekends instead.

We have a room that's back to brick, and lets in significant draughts, in some places you can see daylight through the brickwork. I'll repoint and parge these walls with something to hopefully mitigate this, and the other biggest draughts seem to be coming from around the skirting boards where they haven't been caulked yet. I'm not entirely sure how the air flow is reaching between the skirting boards as we have a solid floor and no historic air bricks in the area, no noticeable gaps in the outside brickwork either.

Will standard decorators caulk do to seal these up, both to the top of the skirt to the wall and the bottom to the tiles, or should I be using something else? Hopefully it's just to see us through the winter, the skirts will be getting removed when I fit internal insulation next year.

[SteamyTea]

I am at work at the moment, but I have been draughtproofing more at the moment.

 

What sort of construction is your house?

 

If a draught is coming out of the skirting, it may be bypassing insulation, you don't want that happening.

But nor do you want condensation.

[jayc89]

3 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I am at work at the moment, but I have been draughtproofing more at the moment.

 

What sort of construction is your house?

 

If a draught is coming out of the skirting, it may be bypassing insulation, you don't want that happening.

But nor do you want condensation.

 

Solid brick. The only insulation we have is under the slab and the perimeter upstand I quite religiously filled and taped any gaps in the insulation so it looks to be coming up the back of that. 

I'll check the external wall in this area again for any holes, gaps etc.

[RobLe]

Bit of a faff caulking just before you remove the skirtings.  Decorators caulk will work short term, but it will quickly go stiff and crack, so fine if it's really just a year.  Acrylic will last longer without cracking, and yet be paintable.

My experience of houses is anything you can't see will generally be worse than you'd like.  I expect behind the skirting there's no plaster, and plenty of holes in the brickwork.  In our 1963 house between floors there was no wet plaster, and there was plenty of airflow.  Behind wooden panelling there were gaps I could get my hand in!  All kitchen pipework that went outside leaked.  All windows leaked around them, none were foamed into place.  Our sockets leaked.  Upstairs ceiling roses leaked.  Loft hatch leaked.  Kitchen extractor leaked (now it has a double flap valve).

 

Obvious question - sure you want iwi not ewi? 

 

[jayc89]

2 minutes ago, RobLe said:

Bit of a faff caulking just before you remove the skirtings.  Decorators caulk will work short term, but it will quickly go stiff and crack, so fine if it's really just a year.  Acrylic will last longer without cracking, and yet be paintable.

My experience of houses is anything you can't see will generally be worse than you'd like.  I expect behind the skirting there's no plaster, and plenty of holes in the brickwork.  In our 1963 house between floors there was no wet plaster, and there was plenty of airflow.  Behind wooden panelling there were gaps I could get my hand in!  All kitchen pipework that went outside leaked.  All windows leaked around them, none were foamed into place.  Our sockets leaked.  Upstairs ceiling roses leaked.  Loft hatch leaked.  Kitchen extractor leaked (now it has a double flap valve).

 

Obvious question - sure you want iwi not ewi? 

 

 

I'd love EWI. So much easier. The house is an old farm house in semi-rural Yorkshire, it has too much character to hide behind EPS and render.

[Linto]

You'd be surprised how much character you can add/preserve using ewi, creative use of brick slips, shaping the render etc.

I remember seeing a picture of an old house that had ewi put on and they had managed to pretty much recreate the original facade. But annoyingly I can't find it now.

Could be pricey though.