Cold rooms on one side of house

[Neilflounders]

I am just wondering if anyone had the same issue. The living room and two bedrooms above it on one side of the house are colder than the rest. When I removed sockets and light pendant there was cold air coming in. The other bedrooms and upstairs hallway would be about 22-22.5 degrees and the other bedrooms about 17-18. Heaters are all hot and bled.

I passed all this on to Barratt and took pictures of behind the plasterboard when sockets removed, this shown a gap between plasterboard and the insulation (pictures attached). After a formal complaint Barratt have said there's nothing wrong, but I said NHBC's guidelines state the insulation should fill the full void with no gaps.

Do people think this is acceptable?

[New Home Expert]

Really difficult to see what wall this is. Internal. External timber frame. Internal but party wall.

What I will say is if cold air can get in so can smoke in a fire. Timber burns.
In addition, foil backed plasterboard isn't really a substitute for a polythene vapour barrier which the insulation needs to stop interstitial condensation.


Barratt are trying to fob you off as fixing this will mean taking down the plasterboard and doing it properly. 
I very much doubt it would pass an air tightness test and a thermal imaging survey will confirm where the cold is getting in.

Do not accept it it is NOT right.

Tell the regional office (in writing)  if they continue to fail to address your quite valid complaint, you will write to the CEO David Thomas.

[Neilflounders]

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply.

It's an external timber framed wall. My argument was air moving behind the plasterboard and sapping the heat out the room. They done a thermal camera and no spots of missing insulation shown up, just cold spots at junctions with the roof and corners. But I did note a 2 degree average difference in wall temperatures between the other rooms that aren't cold.

I put in a formal complaint and they said nothing was wrong. I highlighted the fact NHBC says the void should be filled fully and no gaps left. They said its fine as the back box and timber dwang push the I solution back but no problem.

It's an absolute farce and I've got NHBC involved now. Was just looking for clarity that I'm not wrong.

[New Home Expert]

With timber frame, there should be insulation between the studs on the inside which is the same thickness as the width of the stud.  It is OK for a electrical back box to crush the insulation in that small area. But.... there should be a fully-sealed vapour barrier over the insulation (behind the plasterboard) of all external timber frame sections.  This should not let in cold air.