We recently visited a modern flat, late 1990’s and we found some tiny draughts round the window and door frames, these seemed to have been sealed with silicone rather than acrylic sealant designed to be painted over. These draughts were all but insignificant but there were draughts emanating from the trickle vents even when closed. These vents were surprisingly insubstantial and it was rather a shame to find that they were letting in draughts. It would be possible to seal them to the frames to prevent some of the draughts but this would be tricky. The windows and doors were very high quality which makes the trickle vents shortcoming all the more surprising.

The front door had smoke seals which were unfortunately not closing the gap between the door and the frame. Light was visible from the lobby outside, this should not be the case and if yours are like this they should be reported and dealt with by replacing with ones that work even if this means adjusting the frame.

The bathroom fan was functional but in our opinion not ideal. Some flats have had problems with excessive condensation leading to mould in their bathrooms. There are now fans available that are much more controllable and nearly think for you. I was personally involved in very successfully installing 36 of these in newly renovated social housing units a couple of years ago. The idea is that the fan runs slowly all the time and turns itself up if the room is used, and even more when it gets humid, sometimes needing to go on boost, returning to trickle mode once the humidity drops. It can be told not to come on at night, all the speeds can be adjusted and the fan is simple, safe and easy to clean. The fans are obtainable on E-bay at reasonable prices, I got all the ones for my project from there. List prices is crazy high but group purchase should be possible but likely higher price than online. https://www.vent-axia.com/range/lo-carbon-svara

We had concerns about the insulation barrier suffering from thermal bypass but it is beyond our remit on DraughtBusters visits. Thermal imaging would show up any problems but a key indicator would be draughts emanating from socket outlets which we hope will not be the case.

DraughtBusters unfortunately do not have the resources to visit individual flats, we offer this information in good faith and without any liability. Further information is available here https://readinguk.org/draughtbusters/

Winter 2020 we saw this under a bath 

 

There is daylight showing over (actually all round the bath waste pipe) the hole was big enough to let birds, bats, mice and other vermin in through! 

We filled it in. 

Please don’t think that you haven’t got a problem as your soil and vent pipe is internal so no pipes go outside 🙂  We suspect than in common with the vast majority of homes there is an air path from the bath, either directly up the soil pipe boxing or via the underfloor void or a small boxing into the vertical section which leads up into the loft where cold air can enter. 

DraughtBusting activity continues with some work and a lot of consultancy outside the area.

Some very very draughty new homes in the British Isles contacted us to seek advice on rectification works. This is tragic and widespread in England but generally unknown about, not rectified or reported. I intend to visit Ireland in February hopefully with a student or researcher to write reports on the problems that were encountered.

Draught proofing activity was carried out on single properties in both Bristol and Brighton.

Locally about twenty properties were attended to, we are still finding missing draught seals to loft hatches, holes round pipes, draughts round window frames and under window boards. Several letter plate secondary brush seals, general holes, gaps and cracks. 

We have seen a lot of problems with uPVC doors, the vast majority of these were adjusted either at the latch keep or the shoot bolt keeps. One needed new tubular rubber seals fitted as existing were perished, brittle and useless. We saw two windows with broken friction stays, we do our best to make these work again at least temporarily but recommend contacting the housing association to get replacements. The most remarkable was a 30 year old wooden casement where the sash missed the frame mullion be a few millimetres and had daylight visible when closed, moving the friction stay over 5mm sorted the problem, it is unbelievable that it had not been done already by someone else.

We are starting to find jumbo size trickle vents that don’t/won’t close and sealing them up.

Draught Busting Flier 2017 to 2018