Polyurethane Form Insulation a good idea?

thebaldwindowfitter

your condensation issues are also caused by your heating patterns you have your heating on for a number of hours each day and like i say with everybody you have it on an hour before you wake up and goes off when you leave then it comes on again an hour before you get home and then on for a couple of hours before you go to bed when you turn it off again .Most probably you also have windows open allowing more cold air in . Do you also use a gas fire and dry clothes in the house . Instead of having heating on for a few hours each day have it on constant a few degrees lower .
you need to sort these issues out first rather than thinking you can pin this on somebody installing cavity wall insulation then blaming it on them and expecting a warranty to cover your pre existing issues

phil24_7

To be fair. I heat my house like you say not to, have my bedroom window open overnight and others open at random times here and there, dry washing indoors and recently found out my bathroom extractions is only a step up from useless, yet I have no such problems of damp, condensation or mould.

diymonkey

@ thebaldwindowfitter - I've already set the CH timing to run constantly at lower temps, but this hasn't made much of a difference, although the condensation has reduced slightly. The reason in my opinion is because of where we live as it's much higher and the air is more cold & moist outside & inside, hence opening windows has no effect. We don't use the gas fires and only dry clothing at launderettes.

I have bought a karcher window vacuum, so this should make it easier to remove any water quickly.

I want to ask, if I've got little or no insulation in the loft, could this be the reason for colder bedrooms and condensation?

thebaldwindowfitter

phil24_7 wrote: »

To be fair. I heat my house like you say not to, have my bedroom window open overnight and others open at random times here and there, dry washing indoors and recently found out my bathroom extractions is only a step up from useless, yet I have no such problems of damp, condensation or mould.

Maybe so but there again you probally live in a totally different house with better insulation in a less open aspect . the methods i have given are proven methods to lower the occurance of condensation and i always tell this to people whos only reason for changing there windows is condensation if they have double glazing already .

phil24_7

I live in a draughty Victorian house, with an open fire, on a hill (albeit near the bottom), with nothing behind me down the slope (south) and very near the coast. The attic is well insulated and as of last year I have external insulation though no discernible differences have been noticed in damp/moisture levels.

I don't like downstairs to be too cold but I love the bedrooms to be cold, so maybe I create a nice flow of air through the house by doing this.

thebaldwindowfitter

diymonkey wrote: »

@ thebaldwindowfitter - I've already set the CH timing to run constantly at lower temps, but this hasn't made much of a difference, although the condensation has reduced slightly. The reason in my opinion is because of where we live as it's much higher and the air is more cold & moist outside & inside, hence opening windows has no effect. We don't use the gas fires and only dry clothing at launderettes.

I have bought a karcher window vacuum, so this should make it easier to remove any water quickly.

I want to ask, if I've got little or no insulation in the loft, could this be the reason for colder bedrooms and condensation?

how long have you had the central heating on constant for is this a recent thing or for some time ,do any of you walls feel damp to the touch .can you tell me what type of house tou love in is it terrace semi or detached and what age .are there any air vents in the house that have been blocked up
if you dont have much insulation to loft this will make the house colder but wont give you condensation heating and ventilation causes this

diymonkey

thebaldwindowfitter wrote: »

how long have you had the central heating on constant for is this a recent thing or for some time ,do any of you walls feel damp to the touch .can you tell me what type of house tou love in is it terrace semi or detached and what age .are there any air vents in the house that have been blocked up
if you dont have much insulation to loft this will make the house colder but wont give you condensation heating and ventilation causes this

An honest answer is only 3 days. But I must add....I don't know whether it's because of your suggestion or maybe the moisture level outside has generally lowered, but my condensation has reduced quite a bit. So right now I've only got it about an inch on edge of the internal double-glazed glass. I would need to wait for a few more days before deciding if this actually has made the difference. My worry is the cost of heating though.

Regarding your other questions....

My hallway wall once was found to be a bit moist, but haven't noticed anything as yet. This btw is the external wall for the side of the house. All external walls of my house are pretty cold to touch compared to the rest.

This is a 1930s semi-detached, part stone and part pebbled. There are air vents on ground-level and the basement also has vents. The basement vents were originally blocked, but I opened these in summer. There is one vent in a bedroom almost near the ceiling which has been sealed by previous owner, but if I opened this, it would be absolutely freezing cold and draughty, so I've left it. BTW, this bedroom is the only one that has no condensation issues.

There is an unused large room in the roof with a velux window. It has almost no insulation. This room is absolutely freezing cold and it's like stepping outside.

thebaldwindowfitter

The air vents you mention to ground floor go right through the walls or just external venting the cavity .Your bedroom vent has this been blocked up inside and out . When you say basement is this area used or simply crawl space underneath the ground floor joists . Now im going to hazard a guess here and say that the loft room you dont heat and your upstairs rooms the heating is turned down in or at least was until three days ago

diymonkey

thebaldwindowfitter wrote: »

The air vents you mention to ground floor go right through the walls or just external venting the cavity .Your bedroom vent has this been blocked up inside and out . When you say basement is this area used or simply crawl space underneath the ground floor joists . Now im going to hazard a guess here and say that the loft room you dont heat and your upstairs rooms the heating is turned down in or at least was until three days ago

AIR VENTS - All the air vents on the ground floor go right through. The bedroom vent looking from a distance seems to be clear on the outside and is blocked on the inside only.

BASEMENT - The proper walk-in type of basement is only part of our ground floor (runs under the hallway) and the rest is a suspended floor/crawl space.


LOFT ROOM - This is properly accessible via a staircase and you can walk around too. It's unheated and has a very thin layer (10-15mm) rock-wool insulation on the floor. The roof is not boarded on the inside and the joists as well as tiles are fully visible. The temperature here is no different to the outside.

BEDROOM - The bedrooms are heated just like the living rooms. However as mentioned before, the original CH setup was that heating would come on in morning and at night, but the rest of the time it would be switched off. But since your suggestion it's constantly on albeit at a much lower temperature 17.5C and 16C nighttime and sometimes in evening because it gets too cold, I'll nudge it to around 19C for an hour or two and then turn it back down to 17.5C. I don't know if it's simply because the weather has changed and the outside moisture/humidity level has dropped or because you told me to keep the heating on constantly, but we have noticed a large drop in the condensation level. I need to wait at least a week or two to see if there is a definite difference.


Please take note: I followed Bluesnake's advice and checked the cavity four drill holes the surveyor had made. Using a knitting needle (bent at 90 degrees), I managed to measure the gaps:-

1 x 40mm
2 x 130mm
1 x 160mm

What do you guys make of this? Is it worth it?

thebaldwindowfitter

These days people want a warm draught free house fully sealed but you havent got this and this with your old heating pattern can cause condensation can you answer a few more questions
Is the loft room able to be shut off either by a door if so i would try temporarily taping up this door or putting some form of cover over because this could be creating a cold spot in upstairs rooms (your hopefully free insulation will help this but bear with me )

Same with Basement is your ground floor insulated /carpeted or bare floor boards laminate

Ground floor vents could you temporarily cover these up with cardboard or bubble wrap
the measurements are these cavity sizesor from face of outside wall /fascade
any insulation is worthwhile

The reason i have asked you to do the above is i feel your house is as you say in an exposed outlook you are getting plenty of cold air in basement /ground floor through ventilation and loft room then you have been heating this cold air up for a few hours a day which has been causing your condensation . Hope this helps once you have sorted this issue the foam insulation is better than all others in my opinion