Freezing downstairs in my house

alkalinetrioman

Hi all,

This is my first time posting on these forums; I hope you can help as I'm truly freezing!

My house has recently been fully renovated including:
-Brand new full gas central heating with efficient combi boiler
-Brand new UPVC double glazing and UPVC doors all round
-Cavity wall insulation
-Loads of other stuff that has no bearing on warmth...

My problem is that downstairs is seriously cold, so much so that my heating cannot even compete - its as if it isn't on. Its so cold my feet, toes, hands and fingers literally start to go numb.

It feels like there is a strong, intermittent, low level draft - but I have draft proofed the house fully and just can't trace it.

I'm running out of ideas and am starting to despair as I have just spent £20,000 on major refurbishment and I cant even keep it warm!

timmmers

Wood floors? Some people have problems with draughts under skirtings I hear when they have those?

A reasonably simple way to find a draught is a candle...see if the flame reacts in certain areas where it's likely.

If you close doors in rooms not being used maybe the heating may compete better?

It's looking like a cold winter coming...good timing to get it fixed

t

alkalinetrioman

Thanks for the reply.

I'm suprised by the things you said actually, seemingly very accurate - the drafts are worse in the dining room and kitchen (wooden floors) and the drafts are worse near skirting and is coming from under it.

How can this be solved? I used expanding foam and silicone today to fill all holes / cracks and seams around window frames and door frames. Gutted.

ilikedrawing

I've got the same problem in my rented house. High ceilings and wooden floors in the living room and its always cold, my hands are freezing and even with the fire on full blast makes no difference.

I can feel drafts all over the place but don't know what to do!

timmmers

I've only had this skirting problem in a small area and fixed it by tucking insulating foam strip that I had spare that's meant for round doors under the gap with a paint scraper.
I think beading is the other option with veneered floors ideally though, mine are floowboards so I had quite a wide gap..enough for carpet anyway.

Apparently the hot air rises around the heat source...where people usually like to be....and colder air is sucked long the floor to replace it causing draughts? Makes sense I suppose.

My problem wasn't as bad as a naighbour who also had wooden floorboards, but with gaps. There is tape you can use to push between them to seal those, before staining or waxing ...to eliminate that so it doesn't show. Then you have a problem with ventilation sometimes if you have a woodburner or similar. Life is hard eh? :rotfl:

t

McKneff

You could try round beading around the skirting boards to cover all the draughts, same colour as the floors. I have it all around my rooms.