Cold draft in the hall.

Vanbis

Looking for advice on what to do or someone i could speak with?

Every winter our hall gets very cold with a draft. I've checked the door and around it every year but everytime i do i can never find any draft or leaks for cold air getting through. The draft through the door leaves the hall and up the stairs very cold. I've absolutely no idea what to do next. I thought of getting a porch built but its not exactly the ideal solution and i don't particularly want one either. I could put a heater out their but it would have to be on from 4pm every day every winter, again not the ideal solution.

The only other idea is getting the front of house filled with insulation through the cavity's and around the door. Not sure how expensive this is again or if would even solve the problem.

Any advice or ideas would be great.

Carlow52

a proper porch would work wonders as well as give additional personal security.

The type of door, age, type of construction for floors and walls would help: a few pics would be A1

Vanbis

Carlow52 wrote: »

a proper porch would work wonders as well as give additional personal security.

The type of door, age, type of construction for floors and walls would help: a few pics would be A1

It's a 3 bed semi, 35 years old with a PVC door. A porch would be the last resort at the moment. I'd like to try a couple of other things before this but i do like idea of it giving extra security and i know it would solve the issue.

I was just reading up about insulation plasterboard. I wonder if this would be a good option to put up and if its difficult? I'm quite handy when it comes to DIY?

MicktheMan

Before making "improvements" and guessing where the problem is, if I was rhe OP, I would first have a heat loss survey including an air tightness test done. After this you will be in no doubt why your hall is cold and what will fix it.

Paudi04

Hi I wondering could anyone give me advice on how to solve the draft problem in my attic. I recently had it converted. There is storage under the eaves and access to them via bedroom (newly converted). I've narrowed down that the draft is coming from there. There is no insulation on the back of the access door. The attic itself is adequately insulated but the draft is killing me on heating costs. Could anyone give me suggestions on how to minimise the draft??

Thanks in advance.

MicktheMan

I'm guessing there was little if any attention paid to airtightness when the attic was converted. If this is true, then you have effectively opened up a hole in the top of your house allowing heated air to escape and drawing in cold outside air down stairs.
Additional insulation wont help much as air will still pass through/around the insulation. You need to make airtight all junctions of floor to walls to ceilings and all penetrations of same. You also need to treat the access door to the attic as an external opening (i.e. sealed the same as a window or external door). In the attic you will also need to airtight seal the void between the ceiling downstairs and the floor upstairs.

Paudi04

MicktheMan wrote: »

I'm guessing there was little if any attention paid to airtightness when the attic was converted. If this is true, then you have effectively opened up a hole in the top of your house allowing heated air to escape and drawing in cold outside air down stairs.
Additional insulation wont help much as air will still pass through/around the insulation. You need to make airtight all junctions of floor to walls to ceilings and all penetrations of same. You also need to treat the access door to the attic as an external opening (i.e. sealed the same as a window or external door). In the attic you will also need to airtight seal the void between the ceiling downstairs and the floor upstairs.

I think you hit it on the head there. Airtightness... Is it a massive expense to rectify this? Generally without going into specifics (i.e floor area etc)

BryanF

Paudi04 wrote: »

I think you hit it on the head there. Airtightness... Is it a massive expense to rectify this? Generally without going into specifics (i.e floor area etc)

This should have been done when you were extending,but I'm not surprised. It can be a massive job, but start with silicone sealant & draft strips! As mick suggests: there is help available

yellow50HX

Vanbis wrote: »

Looking for advice on what to do or someone i could speak with?

Every winter our hall gets very cold with a draft. I've checked the door and around it every year but everytime i do i can never find any draft or leaks for cold air getting through. The draft through the door leaves the hall and up the stairs very cold. I've absolutely no idea what to do next. I thought of getting a porch built but its not exactly the ideal solution and i don't particularly want one either. I could put a heater out their but it would have to be on from 4pm every day every winter, again not the ideal solution.

The only other idea is getting the front of house filled with insulation through the cavity's and around the door. Not sure how expensive this is again or if would even solve the problem.

Any advice or ideas would be great.

Did you check the letter box. Sister as the same problem. Was asking me over Christmas about it. Spring was gone on the flap so was open a bit all the time.