Cold Bedroom

Kevwoody

One bedroom in our house is always cold, no obvious problem in the bedroom itself, radiator working, no draught at the window etc.

Directly below this bedroom is the garage, which is always freezing. I don't use the up and over door at all, and have it blocked up with a heavy curtain to reduce the draught coming in around it. The ceiling was done with plasterboard, and I can see insulation behind it, however, the ceiling was never skimmed or plastered, and there is a small gap around each board.

Could this be the cause of the cold bedroom above? And if so, would taping the joints be any good?

I'm currently renting, and if it's something I could fix reasonably cheaply without bothering the landlord I'd be happy to do it myself.

tnegun

It can't hurt to tape it with air tightness tape but that bedroom has cold surrounding it on at least 3 sides I guess? So its loosing heat everywhere. I've similar with a box room it has two external walls the ceiling and porch underneath and its the coldest room by far despite reasonable insulation its only warm when the heating is on.

Whats your attic insulation like ?
I had the same in my old place,freezing garage under the bedroom.
poxy set up.

Kevwoody

tnegun wrote:

It can't hurt to tape it with air tightness tape but that bedroom has cold surrounding it on at least 3 sides I guess? So its loosing heat everywhere. I've similar with a box room it has two external walls the ceiling and porch underneath and its the coldest room by far despite reasonable insulation its only warm when the heating is on.

Yes you guess right, 2 external walls. But the bedroom behind it also has 2 external walls and is always warm, but its above the kitchen and utility room, which is why I'm guessing the garage is the reason?

listermint

If it's the ceiling in the garage that's been boarded you could assist this by filling any gaps with some spray foam. Let it set trim back and then put air tight tape over that.

It's a small detail but all details add up.

I don't think you might see major improvements though they are all incremental. A room like that might need for example external facing walls warm boarded . The external and the garage basically saps any heat out quickly. They would be big draws. No different to how your body would lose temperature with no jacket on when standing outside

Kevwoody

BrownFinger wrote:

Whats your attic insulation like ? I had the same in my old place,freezing garage under the bedroom. poxy set up.

I've actually never been up in the attic!

km79

What is the aspect of the bedroom/bedroom windows ?

Mimon

Maybe worth drylining the garage and putting a radiator in there.

listermint

Kevwoody wrote: »

I've actually never been up in the attic!

Definitely check this first. Attic insulation makes a dramatic improvement. If done to a decent spec. 300 mm for example.

Kevwoody

km79 wrote:

What is the aspect of the bedroom/bedroom windows ?

There doesn't seem to be any issue with air coming in at the window. This morning it was the only window in the house with condensation on it though.

looksee

We had an identical situation, the bedroom had floor and two walls exposed. We got the walls pumped but it only made marginal difference. We eventually discovered that the place where the bedroom joined the garage (part of the garage stuck out from the house with a flat roof) was barely sealed - if you took up the floorboard nearest the front wall there was daylight coming in above the garage.

By the time we had finished we had:
Pumped the house walls
Sealed up the gap across the floor/roof of the garage, and put on a pitched roof with insulation on top of the flat roof.
Taken down the garage ceiling and insulated, put in new ceiling
Put in a false floor with insulation in the garage (it had been very basically converted to a room before our time, but was as freezing as the bedroom above.
Gone round the bedroom inside builder-built in wardrobes and sealed the joins between the door framing and the plasterboard, and covered the floorboards (the whole house suffered from draughts within the wall cavities, we eventually sealed all of them I think).

The end result was a huge improvement, though the bedroom was never as warm as the rest of the house.

grassylawn

I got a kit to seal and insulate my garage door. You glur a rubber ramp into the floor to block the bottom and flaps around the edges. Then you stick a sheet of insulation onto the door. I didn't complete the last bit but the sealing makes a difference.

As well as checking the insulation in the attic, feel the walls and ceiling for cold spots which indicate gaps in it. I found some in a cold bedroom this way. (Gaps in attic insulation and the esb cabinet was a gap in external wall insiulation.)

km79

Kevwoody wrote: »

There doesn't seem to be any issue with air coming in at the window. This morning it was the only window in the house with condensation on it though.

If the room/window is North/North East facing it will be colder than the other rooms though
Especially over the last few weeks as the winds changed to northerlies

Lumen

I had a similar cold corner bedroom over an unheated unfinished space.

Resolved it by pulling off the skirting, painting the internal faces of the blocks on the external walls with airtightness gunk, sealing any mortar gaps, pulling up the floor, putting in relatively high density acoustic rockwool between the joists, glueing and screwing T&G OSB, taping the OSB to the walls, taping the OSB joints, having a new engineered floor put down with dire warnings not to f'ck up my taping.

It's now the cosiest room in the house.

Obviously not practical for a rental though.

ted1

Take the board off the ceiling in the garage and insulate it the ceiling the put the board up abs tape the joints.
Also insulate the attic