Unsure about whether we have Cavity Wall Insulation

A question about : Unsure about whether we have Cavity Wall Insulation

Can anyone tell me how I can go about finding out whether or not we have cavity wall insulation or not please?

The house is around 10 years old now, but our living room has three external walls because it's front to back and we simply cannot keep the room warm.

I've changed the radiators from singles to doubles effectively doubling the output and although the room feels OK when the heating is on, as soon as the heating goes off, it lasts maybe 30mins and the room is cold again. I've also cut the sealant out around the front and back windows, filled the gap with expanding foam and re-sealed because there was originally open gaps in the sealant allowing a huge draught to come through the room, but still when you open the curtains and blinds there is a cold feeling radiating from the windows and I can't pinpoint where it's coming from.

The only other thing I can think of is that because the room has three external walls, we're losing heat out of the walls too, but I don't know how you go about finding out whether or not you have insulated walls or not.

I'm between jobs at the moment so have been at home all day every day for the last three weeks while I look for work, and I feel like I'm freezing cold sat in here unless the heating is on and I don't want to have to run the heating constantly, especially considering we're down to one income at the moment.

Best answers:

• Drill a hole in the motar joint in the external brickwork.
• When it was being built?
• As the house is only 10 years old, the chances are it already has cavity wall insulation.
  You could always get a cavity wall insuation supplier out to give you a quote. They usually send someone out to do a survey first who should check 1st to see if it has already been done.
• A 10 year old house will have had CWI fitted when it was built, as well as loft insulation. Are your windows double glazed?
• Yeah windows are double glazed. We also have a metal front door which acts like a fridge in our hallway, but that doesn't explain the problem in our living room.
  First "new build" I've ever lived in and I've never known such a cold house. We've been in here 2 years next month and not once have I felt like we need to knock the heating off because the house is too warm.
  I had considered the idea of getting a CWI company out to do a survey, I just wondered whether the age of the house would make it obvious or not first before I got anyone else involved.
• You can hire thermal cameras from building equipment hire firms, which should show you where the heat leakage problem is if basic investigations don't work.
  To really use it properly, you need to know a bit about how to interpret the images (in particular, whether a small intense problem is more of an issue than a larger moderate area)
• It sounds to me like a problem with the heating. I live in a solid walled house and even here, when the heating is on, the rooms are warm enough. It's just that they don't hold the heat when the heating goes off.
  A ten year old house is likely to be well insulated already. Are you sure there isn't another explanation? How big is the room, how big are the radiators?
  Is the living room open plan to the stairs?
• Yeah I did a BTU/KW calculation for each room of the house and the rads in the living room weren't even covering half of what was needed for the size of the room, hence I changed them to doubles and the boiler can still cope with the output so as I say the room is much better now when the heating is on, but it's once the heating is off, the room just seems to lose it's heat in next to no time.
  Thermal camera might be an idea. Just need to find somewhere I can get one around here in Northumberland.
• Are we talking about just the one room that feels excessively cold?
  What type of floor is it and what is directly above the room in question?
• The Thermal Camera idea is a good one, do you have a fireplace?
• Well to be fair the whole house is fairly cold, but of course unless we're cooking in the kitchen or asleep in bed we don't really spend any considerable amount of time anywhere else in the house, so although the rads are probably inadequate for the rest of the house too, I just concentrated upgrading the ones in the room we feel cold in the most.
  We don't have a fire at all. Just central heating and the floor is concrete, room above is the master bedroom.
• Always difficult to advise on this type of problem on a forum, however IF you are happy that the rads are suitable for the size of the room now you need to think about a cost effective way to help retain the heat in the room.
  One product I use regularly (daily at the minute) is a product called Suretherm thermal anti condensation paint, I've had some fantastic results with this. Google the term and you'll find a few suppliers out there (I don't want to be accused of favoritism )
  The good thing about this product is that you can apply it, you don't need to pay anyone to do it for you.
  Good luck
  DD
• Does your house get much sunshine? My house gets loads but my neighbour over the road hardly gets any due to position of her house and other buildings and the difference in temp. Is staggering.
  I hung some clothes straight out of washing machine on a little airer about 10 pm last night and our heat is off all night. All day the sun has been pouring in through the patio doors and no heating on and by lunchtime the washing was dry.