Garage conversion problems with draughts - advice please

ed2712

Hi

We have had our garage converted into a playroom but the draughts in there are really bad - the wind blows through the sockets (we keep these covered at all times now) and the wind also blows through the spot lights in the ceiling and through the wooden floor. The company did come back out and their answer was to put a sealant around the skirting of the floor. This did stop the problem there but obviously nowhere else. To try and help with the coldness I have had a cavity wall company out for the house walls and the playroom, however, he said due to the playroom not being brick to brick, he can not put the cavity insulation in that room, but can in the other walls around the house. The playroom walls have a plasterboard with insulation inside which is a third of the width of the wall itself and therefore the wind is blowing around inside the void. Could someone please suggest or advise me on what may be able to be done to solve this cold problem as now the cold weather is here the children won't use this room as it's too cold. As the garage was attached to the front of the property the draught comes right throught he whole house so we really need to do something to stop this. I did contact building regs today who said the job has not been signed off yet and that I need to contact the building company or trading standards - but to be honest im getting nowhere as the building company said the plaster board with the insulation between which is only filling a third of the wall cavity is enough (obviously the wind blowing through proves it's not though).

I really appreciate you reading this long post.

thanks

Lorian

Where's the wind getting in from the outside?

ed2712

The floor and roof to the conversion were both raised 2 foot each to make the floor level with the house and the roof level with the exsisting porch, which they knocked through to make the convertion bigger.

The wind is getting in through the ceiling and wall socket, Im assuming if the wall was filled with insulation this problem wouldn't be as severe but I honestly don't know where the draughts are getting in - even as I type this my hands and feet are freezing cold due to the draughts coming through the house.

brig001

Wind shouldn't be able to get to the void behind the plasterboard, there should be another barrier on the back of the timber frame. Normally this is OSB, but could be a vapour barrier or something (not my field, I'm afraid). It sounds like this hasn't been fitted or it has failed somehow. You could take a socket off and have a look, if you can see the brick, then that is your problem. It certainly won't meet building regs with only a third of the void filled with insulation.

The other place the wind can get in is from the floor joists upstairs - we had this problem in our house and had to take part of the upstairs floor up to fix it. We had this under the floor of the bedroom above the garage.

The gaps at the side of the joists were letting the wind in from the cavity. It was a fairly simple job to seal it with mastic - once the floor was up. The cables to the consumer unit in the garage weren't sealed either, so cold air was getting in under the floor from here too.

HTH,
Bri.