Builder Advice: Why is my home so drafty and cold

Tackling the myriad of reasons why the cold gets inside

Mon, 24 Jan, 2022 - 09:26

Kieran McCarthy

Hi Kieran, hope all is good with you and yours, loved you on Cheap Irish Homes and your column, missed you last week. I would appreciate your advice with a problem. My house is 14 years old but over the past couple of years, the front of the house has gotten very cold. I don’t have a hallway, windows are double glazed, there’s definitely cold coming down the chimney. I have a gas fire, no window on the upper landing, but the loft is insulated and can feel cold coming down the stairs. Hope you can offer some solutions.thank you.
Yours kindly, Gertrude Shortland, Cork

Hello Gertrude and thank you for your question, and your kind words.

Yours is a somewhat complex question and difficult to answer with certainty as I am not familiar with your home, but I will offer some general advice and at least point you to likely issues you may need to address.

It would appear to me that the first element in your home that needs detailed investigation is your chimney. It seems from your letter that you are experiencing some sort of cold air downdraught from your chimney. There are a number of reasons this could occur but one of these may be due to the fact that you now have a gas fire installed instead of your original fire and you may not have a damper to control the pressure/passage of air through the chimney. This can cause a negative pressure to build up in the chimney and thus drawing cold air back in from outside. I have always maintained that chimneys are the most complex part of any building and their maintenance and repair are best left to professionals. I would seek out a local chimney repair company, let them survey your chimney and advise on the best course of action to reduce/eliminate your downdraft. They can monitor your chimney thereafter and advise if any further action is required.

Chimneys are the most complex part of any building and their maintenance and repair are best left to professionals.

I feel this is likely the principal issue you are experiencing but there may be others. Given that your house was built 14 years ago, this would indicate that the prevailing building regulations are very different to those in place today. The principal areas of concern would typically be insulation and airtightness, and ensuring your heating system is adequate.

In order of potential bang for buck, I would next look at the following elements. Are you losing heat through drafts? This can prove to be a very significant generator of heat loss. This can be as simple as ensuring your external doors and windows are sealed property to the frames and thresholds (are all the rubbers in place and in good condition?). If not there are window repair companies who can upgrade and repair these systems. If you were happy to spend extra you could add airtightness tape around the edges of your windows and wall to floor junctions as these are significant areas of heat loss.

Is your heating system working optimally and are all your radiators fully warm (no cool patches) and adequately sized for the rooms involved? If not they may need to be assessed by a plumber.

As your house was built 14 years ago it may be that the cavity between your blockwork leaves is only partially filled. If this is the case then you could likely fully fill this cavity by having a specialist contractor pumping insulation into the remaining space.

Kieran McCarthy: 'There are grants available for most of the above energy saving works.'

If you are facing north at the front of your house it may be worth considering triple glazed windows for this elevation. The issue with double glazed windows is that a double glazed window today is an A-rated double glazed window and has a U-value of around 1.2w/m2k. As your windows would have been fitted 14 years previous to this their U-value is likely to be significantly higher (ie, more heat lost). Depending on the actual window system fitted it may be that you can swap out your double glazed window panes for triple glazed and on one elevation this may not be a very significant cost. Clearly if you have to replace these windows entirely that would cost much more.

If your house was built 14 years ago it may be that the cavity between your blockwork leaves is only partially filled. If this is the case then you could likely fully fill this cavity by having a specialist contractor pumping insulation into the remaining space.

Finally, it should be noted that there are grants available for most of the above energy saving works, depending on your eligibility, so it is well worth exploring these elements, their cost and their likely impact but I would certainly start with your chimney as I feel this may in fact be the key culprit. Hopefully you’ll be enjoying a warm and cozy front room very soon!