Apartment Heating Woes:Insulating Apartment Balcony/Patio doors

Duffler

Hi Guys, i've had heating issues in my apartment since i moved in about 3 years ago and after last years cold winter if just had enough. I know the source of the heat loss to balcony doors in my apartment (living room and bedrooms) as you can physically feel the draft come in at the bottom and side of the door. I've tried everything in terms of the insulating strips that you can buy in B&Q with little effect. At best with full heat on and electric heaters i can reach a maximum of 20 degrees. The heating bills have been absolutely massive to say the least.

I really don't need advice on a BER assessor to do thermal imaging etc as i know where the heat is being lost. Can anyone thus please recommend an insulation company that specialises in this type of problem? I really would love to get a permanent solution in place to this problem before the onset of the coming winter.

Thanks in advance
John.

Carlow52

Duffler wrote: »

Hi Guys, i've had heating issues in my apartment since i moved in about 3 years ago and after last years cold winter if just had enough. I know the source of the heat loss to balcony doors in my apartment (living room and bedrooms) as you can physically feel the draft come in at the bottom and side of the door. I've tried everything in terms of the insulating strips that you can buy in B&Q with little effect. At best with full heat on and electric heaters i can reach a maximum of 20 degrees. The heating bills have been absolutely massive to say the least.

I really don't need advice on a BER assessor to do thermal imaging etc as i know where the heat is being lost. Can anyone thus please recommend an insulation company that specialises in this type of problem? I really would love to get a permanent solution in place to this problem before the onset of the coming winter.

Thanks in advance
John.

This is not an insulation problem, this is a crap workmanship with crap products.
IMO you need to consider
1: reducing the area of glazing.
2: improve the quality of the reduced glazing

For example, do you need floor to ceiling/wall to wall glazing in both rooms

These ideas may require planning but there is no point in messing with sticking plaster when the patient has a severed artery.:)

martinn123

Carlow52 wrote: »

This is not an insulation problem, this is a crap workmanship with crap products.
IMO you need to consider
1: reducing the area of glazing.
2: improve the quality of the reduced glazing

For example, do you need floor to ceiling/wall to wall glazing in both rooms

These ideas may require planning but there is no point in messing with sticking plaster when the patient has a severed artery.:)

Bid drastic, I think, but agree its probably poor quality doors and fitting.
So instead of going to the expense of a major construction effort, which will require planning probably, and which you may not get, how about replacing the doors. Not the cheapest option I know, but a long term solution. well fitted, doors with Low E Argon filled units, and perhaps a heavy curtain inside should solve the problem leaving access to the patio for those days when its a nice place to sit.
The existing doors if poor quality, standard glass, and badly fitted are not worth the effort

BryanF

air-tightness seems to be the issue the op is referring to but I wonder is the thermal bridge of the balcony also a problem along with insulation and crap windows

OP is this a 3 year old apartment? can you give us a bit more detail

Carlow52

M123: Drastic perhaps I agree but the OP needs to get away from the current mind set and not waste money on 'sticking plaster' solutions for which loads of folk will happily take his money.

BF: agree re cold bridge, the cold draft could be due to poor glazing creating lots of cold air dropping down giving the impression of leaks: you know the point, want OP to be aware also, especially if balcony is north facing and shaded

hopalong_ie

He also needs to remember that he does not own the doors, the managment company will own them, he may own the glass as we do in our development but not the doors. I think his first remit is with the management company with a view to having them inspected by a professional to determine a resolution.

imitation

Yeah, the fact its an apartment might make it more complex, I can't imagine the apartment complex owners being too happy about somebody sticking some oak windows in the middle of a complex with black aluminium windows.

Best bet is to get them inspected by an independent professional, they might be good windows badly fitted or just need to be replaced.

For the moment, maybe some heavy curtains and maybe tape any draughty joints you can feel, it would look horrible though.

Carlow52

hopalong_ie wrote: »

He also needs to remember that he does not own the doors, the managment company will own them, he may own the glass as we do in our development but not the doors. I think his first remit is with the management company with a view to having them inspected by a professional to determine a resolution.

Interesting idea this: suppose a break in results in a balcony door being jemmied and the glass gets cracked.

Is this 2 different insurance claims ion the basis that you cannot insure what you dont own?

hopalong_ie

Yes, this would be two claims, the management company would be responsible for the door and the glass would be the owners concern, for the management company it would not be a claim though, in cases such as this if it was a matter of repairing the door it would be most likely covered from the sinking fund as we would do as the excess on the insursance policy would make a claim prohibitive. It also depends on the insurance policy, as a managment company unless they take the building we would have little to nothing which could be stolen bar some gates and again the excess would make it pointless to claim and in the OPs case a break in is unlikely to result in the entire sliding door assmebly needing replacing unless they used a JCB or something :-) Last year three units had to replace window or door glass of some from due to tenent or 3rd party behaviour and as such there was no liability for the management company even if we did own the glass.