Thermal bridging - further info. required please.

Nick Lawson

I've had a thermography report carried out and the following are the images:

[/URL]











The above images are thermal pictures and actual photographs of the relevant areas.

In the bay window area, the problematic area is where the load bearing lintel meets the ceiling.
In the external door areas, there are doorsteps outside and it appears that they are causing a problem.

Does anyone know in terms of heat loss what exactly this means? Has good building practice and/or building regulations been contravened here?

There is also a problem with drafts where the window board meets the window frame. The external seal between the window frame and the walls,cill and lintels is intact - does anyone know how this air would be getting in?

construct06

photo links do not seem to be working

Viking House

Nick Lawson wrote:

In the bay window area, the problematic area is where the load bearing lintel meets the ceiling.
In the external door areas, there are doorsteps outside and it appears that they are causing a problem.

Does anyone know in terms of heat loss what exactly this means? Has good building practice and/or building regulations been contravened here?

There is also a problem with drafts where the window board meets the window frame. The external seal between the window frame and the walls,cill and lintels is intact - does anyone know how this air would be getting in?

You need to take off the cill and put expanding foam where the window meets the wall or the cill to try and eliminate the draught.

We got similar results from most houses built with partial fill cavity walling.
Many engineers are specifying details (steel beams etc) that bridge the cavities.

Your house is like a car tyre that has a lot of holes in it, you have to keep pumping it every 15 mins. Your heating system will kick in every 20 mins because all the heat gets sucked out towards the cold bridges.
Its like trying to get hot enough to fall asleep when your foot is outside the blankets on a frosty night when the heating is turned off. You can put as many blankets as you want over the rest of your body and you will never heat up.
You can look at fixing hard polysterene to the outside of your step outside the doors.
I have no answer for the lintel except external insulation or drylining.
Don't use Polyeurethene backed plasterboard if you want to dryline because you will get fungus growth at that point. Use breathable Softboard instead.