Inspect insulation in porch

bobgaf

Hi.
I need to check the insulation in a porch roof and possibly a canopy. There's a noticeable draught coming through the hole where the mains cable for the light passes through and dust in the light fitting. What's the best and least intrusive way to do this ? One possibility is an inspection camera. If anyone has used one and can recommend or suggest avoiding, that would be appreciated. Or is there another way to check this ? Will buy a camera if necessary but don't want to spend on one unnecessarily.
Thanks.

Doop

Camera would be a good starting point although you will have to open it up properly if you want to do any work on it.

You can hire endoscope cameras like the below

https://www.hirehere.ie/inspection-camera
Just need to drill a 10mm hole and off you go.

listermint

Insulation doesnt stop draughts BTW

There could be 100mm in your cavity and 300mm in your roof space and it still wont stop draughts unless air tightness was specified in the original build.


Was it ?

bobgaf

@ Doop : good to know that that camera can be hired. Was looking at the Bosch and Rotek cameras in particular. Could buy the Rotek for the price of 2 days hire. Curious to know if anyone has experience of the phone-as-screen offerings. They seem to be mostly Chinese so I'd prefer a good recommendation before going down that road. Have enough failing tech in the house already.

@listermint : I take your point. Don't think air tightness was in the specification. Will look up the specification though from the architect.
Had a bedroom draught coming in under the skirting that would move tissue easily and when it was pointed out to the carpenter, he was unmoved saying the extension project did not include air tightness. The new canopy is under the new bedroom window.

listermint

bobgaf wrote: »

@ Doop : good to know that that camera can be hired. Was looking at the Bosch and Rotek cameras in particular. Could buy the Rotek for the price of 2 days hire. Curious to know if anyone has experience of the phone-as-screen offerings. They seem to be mostly Chinese so I'd prefer a good recommendation before going down that road. Have enough failing tech in the house already.

@listermint : I take your point. Don't think air tightness was in the specification. Will look up the specification though from the architect.
Had a bedroom draught coming in under the skirting that would move tissue easily and when it was pointed out to the carpenter, he was unmoved saying the extension project did not include air tightness. The new canopy is under the new bedroom window.

Airtightness is vitally important but people get stuck on the depth of insulation.

Membrane and tapes should have been used but there is a cost associated with that that many homeowners wont pay as it means the final cost goes up.

bobgaf

Thought the architect would have taken care of all that. That was what he was well paid for. Sadly, not the case. Unhappy with builder and architect after the whole project which is still not complete.

TheBoyConor

Insulation is unrelated to drafts.

My real world advice is that if you have a bad draft coming down through a hole where a cable enters, then just infill the hole with caulk or Polyfilla, whichever is appropriate to the size of the hole.

Is it really necessary to check the insulation? The amount of insulation in the ceiling of a presumably very small porch is only a tiny proportion of the building envelope and whether there is 500mm insulation there or none, it is unlikely to have any substantial impact on the energy usage of the house. The cost of investigating, hiring cameras and installing insulation will vastly probably outweigh any increased long term cost associated with any deficiency in insulation, if there even is any deficiency.

Basically, plug the drafty gap.

Airtightness is vitally important but people get stuck on the depth of insulation.

definitely. 100mm of good quality high R material installed properly is infinitely better than 600mm of cheap spurious Chinese rubbish sloppily laid in by some disinterested, buck toothed apprentice.

bobgaf

There's a bigger picture in that the insulation was part of an house extension build. If I paid for the porch and canopy to be insulated and the architect specified the same, I want to know that it was done as it was supposed to be. It's really disappointing to feel a strong draught coming under the skirting in a new bedroom. Same with the porch. New pvc door and windows in the porch but I could still fell a draught coming in through the inside hardwood doors to the hall. Traced it to a strong draught coming in through the hole for the mains cable to the porch light.
Plenty of dust and debris in the light fitting also. This is all about the quality of the finish I payed for.