Timber frame house, new French doors no cavity closers and insulation in cavity wall. Advice needed!

FreeBear

stuart45 said: Looks a bodge. The insulation doesn't even reach the skirting.

And there appears to be a ruddy great gap open to the cavity between skirting & door frame - Not surprising there is a big draught coming in..

essex_grl

Apparently they want to trim that bit.. no idea what that means or how they’re going to fill all that in. It’s all plastered now.

Once it’s finished gonna cut our losses and start over.
Plan

new builder
remove reveal plasterboard 
remove pir
Close up cavity with closer - confused about how this is done with a timber frame.
Board over with insulated plaster board
replaster.
lose £££s we don’t have

FreeBear

Another question for you - Has that door frame been sealed where it meets the brickwork ?

Usually, any gap is filled with expanding foam on the inside, and a bead of mastic applied around the outside. If it hasn't been sealed, that is going to be another source of cold draughts.

stuart45

essex_grl said:

Close up cavity with closer - confused about how this is done with a timber frame.

Once the plasterboard is off you'll see it's easy. Have a look at Thermabate closers online. You probably need a 50mm one. You need the type that has only one flange, which you nail to the timber inner reveal. There is a weak spot where the brick is just showing inside the frame. When frames were normally set in the outer skin a vertical DPC was tacked to the frame and taken into the cavity to stop penetrating damp.
If you don't like the price of the closers, you can make them up by glueing some kingspan on a strip of ply.

essex_grl

FreeBear said:

Another question for you - Has that door frame been sealed where it meets the brickwork ?

Usually, any gap is filled with expanding foam on the inside, and a bead of mastic applied around the outside. If it hasn't been sealed, that is going to be another source of cold draughts.

They did that but from the outside with foam and then silicone.

essex_grl

stuart45 said:

essex_grl said:

Close up cavity with closer - confused about how this is done with a timber frame.

Once the plasterboard is off you'll see it's easy. Have a look at Thermabate closers online. You probably need a 50mm one. You need the type that has only one flange, which you nail to the timber inner reveal. There is a weak spot where the brick is just showing inside the frame. When frames were normally set in the outer skin a vertical DPC was tacked to the frame and taken into the cavity to stop penetrating damp.
If you don't like the price of the closers, you can make them up by glueing some kingspan on a strip of ply.

Thank you. 

I will take a look at them. 

stuart45

Might be worth also looking at the issues with fire regs on timber framed houses. The correct closing of the cavities along with other fire stopping methods in the cavity are really important in timber framed houses. 
If the fire can get into the cavity quickly it will whip round the house in minutes.

essex_grl

I really thought by having someone Fensa registered that this would be done right and current regs.

FreeBear

essex_grl said:

I really thought by having someone Fensa registered that this would be done right and current regs.

You'd have thought so too... Currently looking at a window that was fitted in June 2022. Have been using this room over Christmas, and can hear the frame flexing in the high winds. Also found a draught coming in along the top where no sealant has been used. Annoyed as fixing it properly would need scaffolding over a bay window which I don't have money for.

essex_grl

So annoying and tomorrow we have to pay him and he will get us the fensa cert.

Sorry you’re having issues too Freebear. 

This has cost us 4K and instead of getting the cold bridging gone we have increased the chance of it, made the house far less fire proof and potentially done something that could make our timber frame wet.

None of this is stuff I know about and trusted the builder when he said he’d worked on timber frames and knew how to “insulate the reveal”

If the timber frame gets wet our house is worth nothing.