Draughts coming in sitting room door.

Micky8728

Since the weather has become alot colder lately and the fireplace is in use every evening there is a cold breeze coming in around the sitting room door.. Cant find any obvious source of the draught. The hallway is always cold. Only a small radiator to heat the downstairs and no radiator upstairs on the landing. Any ideas to solve this as room seems to get cold very quick once heat is off. Sounds like a gale force wind coming in round the door when your heads up xlose to door.

MicktheMan

What type of house and from what era?

James 007

A draught will always enter from one place and exit another route. Your fireplace is most likely the exit point. If you close this up by installing a stove or gas fire affect you will probably eliminate the majority of the draught. Trial it & block up the fireplace with a sheet of ply & tape all round.

listermint

If your using the fire. You have to ventilate the room. If under the door is he only spot you'll have to live with it or make sure a proper vent is open elsewhere in the room. Be it walls or Windows.

Fires should never be lit in a room with no adequate ventilation.

Best of all worlds is to block the fire cap it and use he house heating.
Biggest source of heat loss on houses is poor air tightness. Fires will be gone soon. New homes don't get chimneys. The future.

Micky8728

listermint wrote: »

If your using the fire. You have to ventilate the room. If under the door is he only spot you'll have to live with it or make sure a proper vent is open elsewhere in the room. Be it walls or Windows.

Fires should never be lit in a room with no adequate ventilation.

Best of all worlds is to block the fire cap it and use he house heating.
Biggest source of heat loss on houses is poor air tightness. Fires will be gone soon. New homes don't get chimneys. The future.

Sitting room has vent in it Which gets alot of airflow through it since we live top of hill and now coverage around house.

listermint

Micky8728 wrote: »

Sitting room has vent in it Which gets alot of airflow through it since we live top of hill and now coverage around house.

I'd suggest then looking around the front door or Windows in the hall.

Top tip. Curtains across a bad hall door can do wonders and it's a cheap fix for a cold hall. Make sure curtain are heavy. Check charity shops for good quality ones.

Micky8728

MicktheMan wrote: »

What type of house and from what era?

Timber frame house built 2006/2007

Micky8728

James 007 wrote: »

A draught will always enter from one place and exit another route. Your fireplace is most likely the exit point. If you close this up by installing a stove or gas fire affect you will probably eliminate the majority of the draught. Trial it & block up the fireplace with a sheet of ply & tape all round.

I may use up my supply of coal and logs and then will block up fireplace

MicktheMan

Micky8728 wrote: »

Timber frame house built 2006/2007

I suspect that no air barrier was installed during construction and therefore your house suffers from significant air leakage. The draught up the open fire is a symptom of this.
I suggest you have your house tested for air tightness and take it from there. A lot of the solutions to the weaknesses uncovered can be dealt with diy once you know what the problems are.

Yellow_Fern

listermint wrote: »

If your using the fire. You have to ventilate the room. If under the door is he only spot you'll have to live with it or make sure a proper vent is open elsewhere in the room. Be it walls or Windows.

Fires should never be lit in a room with no adequate ventilation.

Best of all worlds is to block the fire cap it and use he house heating.
Biggest source of heat loss on houses is poor air tightness. Fires will be gone soon. New homes don't get chimneys. The future.

Fires will be a feature for a minority for a very long time.

Stigura

Micky8728 wrote: »

Sounds like a gale force wind coming in round the door when your heads up xlose (sic) to door.

Keep ye head away from the door. Sorted! :cool:

Always Tired

I once had this problem with 2 sitting room doors and blocked them all off with sticky draft excluder strips. Then the smoke from the fire started coming into the sitting room as the air flow wasnt right any more, good thing I looked it up then and discovered I could have killed everyone in the house by blocking out the draft in such a way.

_Brian

There is probably a small amount of air ingress all over the house. The draw on the chimney is bringing all this air into this room via the door and out up the chimney.
Really the open fire is causing more problems for you than anything.

A stove is a good solution as it restricts air flow, particularly when it’s not lit it’s easy to close it.

I would definitely try closing the chimney temporarily and see are things better.

Micky8728

Stigura wrote: »

Keep ye head away from the door. Sorted! :cool:

Wish it was that easy. Can find the cold on your head sitting on armchair.

Micky8728

Stigura wrote: »

Keep ye head away from the door. Sorted! :cool:

Wish it was that easy. Can find the cold on your head sitting on armchair.

Stigura

I was being facetious ~ as I do when stressed myself

Seriously though; As AT intimates, that draft could be keeping you alive. It's primary logistics that the heated air, sucked up by a good chimney, is what's dragging the fresh air in through that door.

Manage to block the door and ye risking a lack of suction and thus a blow back of carbon monoxide into ye sealed room. Good night. Sleep for ever.

For the sake of twenty five yo, I can't too strongly stress the value of a good CO meter / alarm. Nothing quite focuses the mind like one of those things going off as ye sitting there, without a care.

Ye probably safe as houses, with that howling draft. Remedying it though could change the situation unknowingly.

Yellow_Fern

Draughts also protect against radon.

Micky8728

Thanks everyone for the advice. I went on the hunt last night for any draughts and I found quite a big one in behind the presses in the kitchen. When I pulled the washing machine out just to the side of it looks like the gas pipes for the boiler coming in thru the wall. The plaster board ends and there is a red plastic sticking out of the wall. Im guessing its a damp proof layer. The is quite a significant breeze coming in behind the plaster boards...not sure what I can do with this as I dont want to start messing around the gas pipes.

Yellow_Fern

Micky8728 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the advice. I went on the hunt last night for any draughts and I found quite a big one in behind the presses in the kitchen. When I pulled the washing machine out just to the side of it looks like the gas pipes for the boiler coming in thru the wall. The plaster board ends and there is a red plastic sticking out of the wall. Im guessing its a damp proof layer. The is quite a significant breeze coming in behind the plaster boards...not sure what I can do with this as I dont want to start messing around the gas pipes.

You can seal draughts coming out of the drywall and it will help but to me its only a 30 % solution. A real solution is where there is draughts behind it.

The chimney is sucking air through your house causing the percievable draught.

Get a wood burning stove with a door.

Yellow_Fern

Deleted User wrote: »

The chimney is sucking air through your house causing the percievable draught.

Get a wood burning stove with a door.

Its very clear its more than the chimney due to builder error or oversight.

NIMAN

Could you not just buy some rubber door seal, and stick it around your door frame?
https://www.homebase.co.uk/silent-seal-brown-6m_p284189

And maybe one of these for the bottom?
https://www.homebase.co.uk/stormguard-consealed-fixings-brush-door-bottom-strip-draught-excluder-white_p274252

antiskeptic

Micky8728 wrote: »

Since the weather has become alot colder lately and the fireplace is in use every evening there is a cold breeze coming in around the sitting room door.. Cant find any obvious source of the draught. The hallway is always cold. Only a small radiator to heat the downstairs and no radiator upstairs on the landing. Any ideas to solve this as room seems to get cold very quick once heat is off. Sounds like a gale force wind coming in round the door when your heads up xlose to door.

The flue is effectively a hoover attached to your room. It will suck air out all the time, moreso when a fire is lighting. Meaning air will be sucked into the room from whereever it can be sucked in. Not unusual to have a freezing house when the fire is lit due to cold air being drawn in.

Two solutions:

A childs football (soft, plastic one) popped into the flue ope when fire not lit stops the hoover effect. Just make sure the ball is an inch or so larger diameter than the flue (flue usually 8"). It will hold in place with a light push, the vacuum of the chimney will hold it in place.

If you've a suspended wooden floor, put a vent in the floor to either side of the chimney breast. Air will be drawn in there and supply the fire rather than being pulled in elsewhere. You can get attractive aluminium grills that slide shut when not in use. I use these as an alternative to wall vents.

listermint

Micky8728 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the advice. I went on the hunt last night for any draughts and I found quite a big one in behind the presses in the kitchen. When I pulled the washing machine out just to the side of it looks like the gas pipes for the boiler coming in thru the wall. The plaster board ends and there is a red plastic sticking out of the wall. Im guessing its a damp proof layer. The is quite a significant breeze coming in behind the plaster boards...not sure what I can do with this as I dont want to start messing around the gas pipes.

Ultimately you'll want to set a goal. If everyone did this then we'd all have more efficient homes within a few years. You should take room by room and just work through them . It could take 12 months or 24 months depending on budget.

Airtight tapes are excellent places to start.
Can involve removing all skirting boards and architrave and sealing first with low expansion window and door foam. Let it dry cut and then seal over with the draught tape. Replacing skirting and architrave with the original or put in new if you wish.

Seal up sockets using the same tape and then holes like the ones you described. Eliminating an exit for the draught stops the draught from coming in. Many draughts are from poorly fitted cavity vents and or access of plasterboard into the attic space above. And wind just blows down behind the boards and out any exits it can find.


One room and a time . Low cost and ending with an all around more airtight house.

For suspended floors you would have to lift the floor and putdown airtight membrane and seals sides with airtight tape. All of this is doable for a diyer and would have massive long term paybacks in cost and comfort.