draught proofing a home

H

HouseHunter

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I am interested to know if it is possible to get an audit of your home done to identify sources of heat loss, with the aim of draught proofing the building.

I know there is the obvious things to consider like windows and doors but we live in a very old victorian property.

Any suggestions??
 
there is some series on TG4 dealing with this...haven't seen it but heard about it on The Last Word. You can check out TG4's website - [broken link removed] for more information but think they do an audit of a house to see these very problems!

HTH
 
Hi Househunter,

The best thing to do to identify sources of heat loss is to do a blow door test on the house. This is where someone attaches a fan to a door or window and starts extracting the air from the house. As this happens air is pulled in through whereever the draughts are. These places are checked with your hand as these will have a cold draught. I am finihseng a self build and did one of these tests before the slabbing was done and it was a big help but it can be carried out at any stage.

Lastbuilders
 
Lastbuilders
Where did you procure the equipment for this test or did a specialist carry this out for you?

Carpenter
 
Does anyone know if you can buy any kind of underlay-type material for solid wood floors for keeping heat in. We are laying new wooden floors on an old wooden floor in a victorian property that has a large drop under the floorboards. Some of our piping comes through this flooring in the kitchen under the units and Ive noticed a significant draught. I am planning to seal these gaps with expanable foam but wouldlike to maximise the draught proofing throughout the room.
 
househunter - did you make any progress on the insulation / heating audit as i am keen to get a similar survey done on our old home and at least help prioritise which things to tackle first.

the SEI website is basic to be honest and really only told me the blatantly obvious pointers but i can not find any links to companies / consultants who would carry out such work
it really does surprise me as surely such a person would be assisting home owners with how to improve insulation and reduce heating bills

having just went on the power of one website it is equally as useful in terms of telling you the basics not what companies can provide this which would be much more likely to get people to improve heat loss in their homes.

even such help as to where to buy the chimney vent blockers as they are not available at main stream DIY stores (and dont want to simply start sticking peice of cardboard up the chimney)
 
I got a friend of mine to carry out the test so he charged me a minimal fee. It normally costs aroud 500 euros to get the test done. As i said earlier I got it done before the slabbing was done which is a good time as it is easy to rectify holes in the vapour barrier but it is of benefit to get it done on a completed house too. I got a company in to do the slabbing for me and I got a test done again after this was finished and it showed where they ripped the vapor barrier in a few places which led to angry words etc but I was able to rectify it.

Lastbuilders
 
Jo90 said:
househunter - did you make any progress on the insulation / heating audit as i am keen to get a similar survey done on our old home and at least help prioritise which things to tackle first.

the SEI website is basic to be honest and really only told me the blatantly obvious pointers but i can not find any links to companies / consultants who would carry out such work
it really does surprise me as surely such a person would be assisting home owners with how to improve insulation and reduce heating bills

having just went on the power of one website it is equally as useful in terms of telling you the basics not what companies can provide this which would be much more likely to get people to improve heat loss in their homes.

even such help as to where to buy the chimney vent blockers as they are not available at main stream DIY stores (and dont want to simply start sticking peice of cardboard up the chimney)
Click to expand...

Sorry no progress yet. I have started looking for someone to do this. I done some research on the web and found some interesting stuff. We are laying a new solid wooden floor on top of the old floorboards. I intend to have all gaps sealed between the boards and around any piping. I am then going to have a layer of insulation put down with the flooring on top of that.

If you find anyone to do it please let me know.
 
HouseHunter said:
Sorry no progress yet. I have started looking for someone to do this. I done some research on the web and found some interesting stuff. We are laying a new solid wooden floor on top of the old floorboards. I intend to have all gaps sealed between the boards and around any piping. I am then going to have a layer of insulation put down with the flooring on top of that.

If you find anyone to do it please let me know.
Click to expand...

funny you mention that we have an old house and we put new wooden floors on top of old floor boards last year and it made a big difference but i was thinking of insulation (on top of boards) when we do this for the other rooms in the house. we have a large cavity underneath the house so with original floorboards only it creates quite a draft upwards.

problem is there is a million and one things we could do to improve insulation hence i would like a professional to advise and assist but can not fund of such a service which amazes me
 
Ask the advice of your flooring supplier. Take a look at the pdf on [broken link removed] page for all the info you could ever need on installing hard wood floors.
Leo
 
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