New house is always cold

poet123

jebervic wrote: »

So true, but it's worse in that we are sitting in the living room freezing to depth on a warm spring day and yes putting the heating on in throughout the year is going to be very expensive
.

To combat it we have had to get extra insulation, put down large rugs, and use interlined curtains on windows and in the depths of winter we put one up across the hallway.porch door and the open ( no door) entrance to the conservatory from the kitchen. I had them specially made and they make a huge difference. Also, we have a cupboard in the hall under the stairs where the meters are, there was a huge gale coming through there so we removed the door and insulated it and put it back on again, that helped too.

I love my floors but when the kids have all gone we may go back to carpet, that said, I might have to get rid of DH too with his penchant for red wine which does not mix with carpet!!:rotfl:

jhe

i have carpet throughout (apart from ceramic in the kitchen) and heavy curtains i use in winter. its still baltic unless heating is on 24/7. i usually run the heating from around teatime till around midnight in winter and it seems to take hours for the house to even start warming up so have use a gas fire as well in the living room. which works out cheaper than 24/7 central heating on
maybe on hindsight i should not have got the walls insulated because its cooler in summer in the house since i got it done.
at least i have a large garden i can escape to on a nice sunny day which seem to be few and far between though

keletkezes

I'm in a westsouthwest-facing end terrace (end is mostly north-facing) with solid brick walls: it gets down to about 10°C on winter days. We have large bay windows so solar gain in the front bedroom is quite high (enough to make it perishingly hot in summer if the curtains stay open!). We've got concrete ground floors. Turns out our radiators are way too small for the room sizes: we've got ginormous rooms with high ceilings. If after a 10° day we just have the heating on for 4-5hrs in the evening, the house might reach about 14°C by 9pm... We tried putting the heating on low all day (set to 10-14°C depending on sunniness) and that worked really well. Hopefully won't have to do that anymore with larger radiators! But yes, worth asking someone to have a look and see if they're too small.

tyllwyd

We've got original 1930s tiles in our hallway, and tiles laid about 5 years ago in the kitchen. When you step on them, the old tiles feel noticeably colder than the new ones, which I'm assuming is due to the amount of insulation underneath the new tiles.

I'd say that unless you are planning on a quick move, it would be better to be comfortable than worrying about resale, and carpet with a thick underlay would have to be better insulated than bare tiles.

cyclonebri1

jebervic you won't get any real valid answers until you describe the new house in detail, and possibly what you lived in before.

The relevant bits are as follows;

Age,
type, semi, terrace, bungalow. detached, flat etc
type of wall, solid brick, cavity, etc
heating source
type of windows
level of insulation

that would be a start.;);)

jebervic

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

jebervic you won't get any real valid answers until you describe the new house in detail, and possibly what you lived in before.

The relevant bits are as follows;

Age,
type, semi, terrace, bungalow. detached, flat etc
type of wall, solid brick, cavity, etc
heating source
type of windows
level of insulation

that would be a start.;);)

Have given most of the information already on this thread, but i'll give it again

Age 1930, terraced, over 3 floors (built into the loft)
solid brick, gas CH Combi boiler
double glazing

Leif

jebervic wrote: »

Have given most of the information already on this thread, but i'll give it again

Age 1930, terraced, over 3 floors (built into the loft)
solid brick, gas CH Combi boiler
double glazing

I don't know why you ignroed my earlier post, and the pertinent questions.

If you have solid brick walls as you say above, heat will flow out of the house like nobody's business. You can add insulation inside, at the cost of some room space, and having to redecorate.

cyclonebri1

jebervic wrote: »

Have given most of the information already on this thread, but i'll give it again

Age 1930, terraced, over 3 floors (built into the loft)
solid brick, gas CH Combi boiler
double glazing

Well I'm afraid you didn't give the most important info and I am trying to help you.

The confusing bit, which I thing also relates to a post above is that you say you have "wall insulation". Given solid walls, how are the walls insulated and do you know what with?

As above the greatest amount of heat will be going straight through the walls.

Again, you say you have loft insulation, given the cost and difficulty in addressing heat loss any other way, you have to max out this, 12" min I'd say.

I did ask before, but what are you comparing this cold house to?
Something smaller or more modern maybe

screwedagain

You mention that the house is 'built into the loft'.

If that means that the third storey of the house goes right up to the underside of the roof, then you probably have minimal insulation up there. You can't use the conventional method of putting down foot thick quilt insulation on the 'floor' of the loft with a loft conversion, so you usually need rigid insulation board (eg Kingspan) fitted between and across the rafters supporting the roof, then plasterboarded underneath. If the loft was converted any length of time ago this bit is unlikely to have been done properly i.e. to current standards. Chances are you're losing a lot of heat this way.

Make sure all doors opening into the hall/stairs/landings are closed as much as possible, and draft excluders placed below each one. The secret to a warm house is a warm hall and staircase, so if you can limit the heat loss from these areas it should help somewhat.

cyclonebri1

screwedagain wrote: »

You mention that the house is 'built into the loft'.

If that means that the third storey of the house goes right up to the underside of the roof, then you probably have minimal insulation up there. You can't use the conventional method of putting down foot thick quilt insulation on the 'floor' of the loft with a loft conversion, so you usually need rigid insulation board (eg Kingspan) fitted between and across the rafters supporting the roof, then plasterboarded underneath. If the loft was converted any length of time ago this bit is unlikely to have been done properly i.e. to current standards. Chances are you're losing a lot of heat this way.

Make sure all doors opening into the hall/stairs/landings are closed as much as possible, and draft excluders placed below each one. The secret to a warm house is a warm hall and staircase, so if you can limit the heat loss from these areas it should help somewhat.

:T:T
Very few are done correctly, the rafters need extending in deep to allow for the kingspan and a couple of inches of void for air flow.

OP seem convinced it's the floors?, try carpet tiles.

Also, gripper can be fixed with adhesive than should be removable later so fitted carpet is a possibility.