# Very cold bedroom - how to find if heat is escaping



## NJ10

Our house is 4 years old. We have gas heating. The front of the house is north facing. The main bedroom upstairs is always cold, no matter how much heat we have on. There is good insulation in the attic - I think about 10 inch insulation

Just wondering is there any way of finding out where heat is escaping i.e. have the builders left some insulation out from behind the walls or if there are gaps in the walls or what ?

Help - tired of a cold bedroom.


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## Fanto1

Have you got double glazing?
Another way would be to light a candle beside the window to make sure they are filled properly!


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## MacTheKnife1

Fanto1 said:


> Have you got double glazing?
> Another way would be to light a candle beside the window to make sure they are filled properly!



At the risk  of sounding stupid.... how will the candle help?


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## Fanto1

It helps to find draughts that are caused by not being filled properly! Usually it happens in the bottom & top corners of the window, the draught causes the candle to flicker or blow out!


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## LadyJane

Maybe that room is haunted.


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## tosullivan

Is the radiator hot when the heating is on?

Check for gaps in the window seals....also feel the walls and see if they are cold..might point you to a wall not having being properly insulated.

Try the candle or smoke test as already suggested


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## carrielou

*Tosullivan*, 

sorry for butting in on post but just you mention smoke test.  I am looking for a smoke pen, do you happen to know where I would get one.  Thanks, I have a draught, bad one, under my sitting room door and am trying to find where it is coming from.  Thanks if you do.


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## sydthebeat

carrielou said:


> *Tosullivan*,
> 
> sorry for butting in on post but just you mention smoke test. I am looking for a smoke pen, do you happen to know where I would get one. Thanks, I have a draught, bad one, under my sitting room door and am trying to find where it is coming from. Thanks if you do.


 
is your draught coming into your sittingroom?? do you notice it more where a fire is on?

what is happening here is that the fire sucks air into the sitting room, all the air gaps throughout the house let air in and this is mostly directed towards the fireplace... it is after all, a huge hole in the construction....

you might find that theres not one single large are of air intake, but many many small ones....

check here for more:
http://www.environ.ie/en/Publicatio...g/BuildingStandards/FileDownLoad,18749,en.pdf


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## Smashbox

They seem to be very hard to get in Ireland (correct me if I'm wrong)

[broken link removed]


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## Sammie

Hi, I live in a duplex and the upstairs rooms have been freezing, I just can't heat them.  I might aswell be outside with a radiator it's is that bad.  
I am in a new build.  I got the builders to take a look and one of my double glazed windows wasn't put in properly, they said they fixed it but I can still feel a draught flowing through the top if the window constantly.  
I then showed him the bedrooms and he commented that they were freezing, there was cold air blowing out of the sockets on the wall.  He climbed out onto the balcony and discovered there was a hole in the wall that was not filled in, he filled it in with something.  I have been on to the developer and the foreman doesn’t answer his phone.  I’m sick of it at this stage and it is going to also make me sick!

How do I know now if the walls are insulated?  And does home bond cover this?  It annoys me that our insurance for our block policy will probably go up if I claim on this all because someone couldn’t do their job right in the first place!


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## sydthebeat

Sammie said:


> Hi, I live in a duplex and the upstairs rooms have been freezing, I just can't heat them. I might aswell be outside with a radiator it's is that bad.
> I am in a new build. I got the builders to take a look and one of my double glazed windows wasn't put in properly, they said they fixed it but I can still feel a draught flowing through the top if the window constantly.
> I then showed him the bedrooms and he commented that they were freezing, there was cold air blowing out of the sockets on the wall. He climbed out onto the balcony and discovered there was a hole in the wall that was not filled in, he filled it in with something. I have been on to the developer and the foreman doesn’t answer his phone. I’m sick of it at this stage and it is going to also make me sick!
> 
> How do I know now if the walls are insulated? And does home bond cover this? It annoys me that our insurance for our block policy will probably go up if I claim on this all because someone couldn’t do their job right in the first place!


 
walls have to to be insulated to such a degree that they comply with building regulations..... is your duplex a timber frame??

you would need to hire a professional to check the on-site conditions.


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## Sammie

No it's concrete build.  I just think it's incompetent of them to leave a hole drilled in my wall without filling it.  It could have started a fire if the rain had gotten to the electrics.  What would this hole been drilled for anyways?  

It annoys me that I have to pay for someone to come and take a look…. The builders are still on site, just avoiding all calls!  I don’t have the money to pay for a surveyor!  And it’s getting colder and colder!  It’s a waste of energy and money trying to heat it.  So frustrating!


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## sydthebeat

Sammie said:


> No it's concrete build. I just think it's incompetent of them to leave a hole drilled in my wall without filling it. It could have started a fire if the rain had gotten to the electrics. What would this hole been drilled for anyways?
> 
> It annoys me that I have to pay for someone to come and take a look…. The builders are still on site, just avoiding all calls! I don’t have the money to pay for a surveyor! And it’s getting colder and colder! It’s a waste of energy and money trying to heat it. So frustrating!


 
as they is an obviously new build, the building SHOULD be built to good standards of insulation..... something sounds seriously wrong.

unfortunately you do not have much of an option other than to hire someone... the builders on site have caused the problem so dont expect them to be capable of solving it....

if it can be shown that the building doesnt comply to regulations then you would have a strong case if things went legal....


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## carrielou

Dont understand the most of that link but the one thing my OH keeps saying is he reckons the joists are not sealed and dont know how to check without ripping up carpets and floors.

The draught is always under the sitting room door, fire or no fire.  It's a pain.

We done the candle test which is hard but we saw on Duncan Stewart program a smoke pen but cant seem to find one to buy.


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## newname

There are some thermal imaging specialists about - they will assess your house for about €400. All cold spots will show up and they can identify exactly where heat is escaping


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## tosullivan

carrielou said:


> *Tosullivan*,
> 
> sorry for butting in on post but just you mention smoke test. I am looking for a smoke pen, do you happen to know where I would get one. Thanks, I have a draught, bad one, under my sitting room door and am trying to find where it is coming from. Thanks if you do.


A draft under you sitting room door is not a draft you should be worried about. Its obviously coming from somewhere else.

Look at it this way.

If you have a windy day, then your chimney is going to cause a vacuum up it. If you have a leak in your front door, say in your hall, then the vacuum caused by the chimney will suck through your living room, into your hall and in through your front door from the outside.

Stop the vacum up the chimney by fitting a chimney balloon and seal your front door. The living room door is not your problem

If you were to put a towel or blanket at the bottom of your living room door and open another door into your living room, if you had one, the air flow would just go that route instead..!!!

Does this make any sense?

I'll ask a mate of mine about those smoke pens. He does the thermal imaging aswell
What he suggested to me is what I have suggested to you. Block the chimney if you don't use it with a chimney balloon


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## carrielou

I know exactly what you are saying about the chimney and I presume every small bit of cold air coming into the house is literally being drawn to the sitting room but what we have is a gale force wind, I am not joking.  I am after ordering a smoke pen and if that dont find the solution I may well get the thermal imaging done.  I only got new doors and windows fitted last October due to teak being hopeless, I thought anyway, so have already had the guy back to tighten doors and seal windows where we found a problem to be.

I will be back on here when I get the smoke pen and we check the place out and thanks a mill for your help.


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## glic83

is there a minium standard of insulation that has to be put into an attic my house is a new build but when i was up in the attic the other day there was a few gaps either side of the insulation and the joists?im going to have to put more insulation in but i just wanted to know if there is a certain standard that the insulation in the house sould be up to


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## extopia

carrielou said:


> what we have is a gale force wind, I am not joking.



Come on now, the source of that shouldn't be hard to track down.


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## tosullivan

extopia said:


> Come on now, the source of that shouldn't be hard to track down.


 it could be a combination of a lot of leaks including the air vents....coming from the upstairs aswell.

Start by closing off some bedroom doors, one by one and seal the bottom with a towel and see if you notice any differences


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## LadyJane

carrielou said:


> We done the candle test which is hard but we saw on Duncan Stewart program a smoke pen but cant seem to find one to buy.



Use a stick of incense.


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## PaddyBloggit

LadyJane said:


> Use a stick of incense.



brilliant .... an excellent and aromatic alternative!


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## tosullivan

I think RS have smoke pens


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## Teabag

LadyJane said:


> Use a stick of incense.



Could be handy for the exorcism too.


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## Pope John 11

If the builders are still onsite.....send them a blank cheque the next time they ask to be paid....

Check & consult with your Architect....insulation issues are afterall architectural issues....


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## LadyJane

Teabag said:


> Could be handy for the exorcism too.


 

hee hee 

You would actually want to 'smudge' the room with burning sage for that. Not that I am some sort of witch or anything. Just what I have heard.


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## carrielou

Hi all,

Got the smoke pen and I used it first but wasn't sure if I done it right because I got a bit of a fright.

My OH done it today and got the same result.

We have draughts or leaks, whatever it is we call them, in and around all our new PVC windows and doors.  These are just over a year old but the problem has been there since day one.

I will have to contact the supplier and installer in the morning.  Not looking forward to this.

Has anyone come across this problem before?

Now I know why it seemed like a GALE under the sitting room door.


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## AlbacoreA

Theres been a lot of shoddy workmanship over the past few years. Nothing would surprise me.


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## sfag

Builders will skimp on insulation - remember there is no building control. Adherence to regulation is virtually self certifying by nature of the fact that that the builder pays the self chosen engineer to sign off on very few site visits. 

If your room is cold - and its not above a draughty hall or garage - and you have good room insulation - high density stuff that is - then you probably have wall insulation problems - ie they used the old white crumbly stuff. 

The other things builders skimp on are radiator sizes. 

Describe the radiator size and the room size and I'll be able to tell you if the room will ever get warm.  If its small and single panel its probably not big enough to heat a main bedroom.

If the main bedroom is above a heated room it should be tepid just by passive heat rising.


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## davek36

the standard of insulation in an attic is 10inchs


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## dubgem

I have an old house that I renovated, and the only double glazed window in the house was in my south-facing kitchen, yet it was freezing.  Turns out when the builders installed it they forgot to seal it on the outside wall, that's why there was a gale force cold wind (which also sucked itself under the door of other rooms).  I got onto my builders, they came out and fixed it no problem - and no charge, it was just an oversight in a large job otherwise very well done.

However I did also have a very cold master bedroom for a while, before I discovered it was coming from the hot press, as there were gaps around heating pipes coming down from the attic, and the hot press door wasn't a snug fit - it's probably unlikely to be the prob in a new build, but it could be worth checking out.


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## ninsaga

You can get a blower door test & thermographic imagery tests conducted. Will cost €450-€550 or there abouts but is effective enough to pin point sources of these kinds of problems.


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## dub_nerd

glic83 said:


> is there a minium standard of insulation that has to be put into an attic my house is a new build but when i was up in the attic the other day there was a few gaps either side of the insulation and the joists?im going to have to put more insulation in but i just wanted to know if there is a certain standard that the insulation in the house sould be up to


 
I am no expert, but aren't some gaps in the insulation required? Your roof still has to "breathe".


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## K-Man

carrielou said:


> I will be back on here when I get the smoke pen and we check the place out and thanks a mill for your help.


 
How did you get on with the smoke pen ?

If it was good - where did you get it ?


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## Declan123

what type of roof, is it tyles? most common cause of draft is trough atic check there first, maybe hole in felt somewhere.


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## carrielou

K-man

Got the smoke pen and used it. Its after showing up a lot of problems with windows and doors. Am starting new thread for a bit of advice if you would like to check it out.

I used Smashbox link to get the smoke pen.  Had it within a week.

(Thanks Smashbox )


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## Smashbox

carrielou said:


> K-man
> 
> Got the smoke pen and used it. Its after showing up a lot of problems with windows and doors. Am starting new thread for a bit of advice if you would like to check it out.
> 
> I used Smashbox link to get the smoke pen. Had it within a week.
> 
> (Thanks Smashbox )


 
Your welcome, glad to help.

The link I gave carrielou for the smoke pens is here :
[broken link removed]

As I may or may not have mentioned, I have no affiliation to that site or the company. I'm not into advertising.

And her new thread is located here :
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=100402


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