During November, and some cold days and nights, another problem came to light with the design and/or construction of our Wood Newton/Taylor Wimpey Oxley Woods eco home. And once again, it involved water, and glass.
This time, rather than water coming in through walls or windows, we noticed some small, expanding water marks on our top floor ceiling. These were reported very quickly, but still developed to become even worse, and have left stains and marks in several places which are, largely due to the weather, still untreated.
The problem, it turns out, is cold bridging around the edges of our skylight, which have meant a great deal of condensation can and clearly has, on more than one occasion, formed on the glass. This has then apparently been finding its way behind and down the plasterboard, pooling, then coming through the plaster on the ceiling and around the sky light.
At first, due to the volume of water and size of the water marks, we all feared the worse, more leaks, but condensation is the conclusion reached after a couple of inspections.
We have been presented with two approaches for repair. One is to wait for a spell of dry and frost free weather, so a team of men can lift the glass from the roof and infill the cavities with foam insulation. The other is to drill several small holes and pump the insulation in that way, from the inside of the house.
Given the previous record with repairs and damaged done, not to mention hassle caused, we decided to go for option one, and as I write this, now in March (over three months since the problem appeared) we’ve not had any update on when this will be carried out.
The ceiling, still looks a mess. The photographs below were taken at the end of November and start of December, it now looks even worse I’m afraid.
4 Comments
From your pictures it looks like this is a flashing problem. That is too much damage for condensation, typically. Also if the skylight itself was dripping condensation then I’d look for the brand of the skylight. (Probably inexpensive) Send pictures of exterior flashing for more detailed report. Rob
I’d have to go on the roof to get at it, you can’t really see any condensation running on the glass, but then the glass is frosted and very high from the floor, so you probably wouldn’t even if it was there.
We too thought it was a bit much for condensation, but we do seem to get a lot of this, despite the eco-hat, the trickle vents, and the general air circulation and apparently high levels of insulation?
If I can get any more information I’ll post it up. I did take a look on the roof when the guys from Wood Newton and Wimpey were up there and the roof lining goes all the way up and under the sky light edges, which is a metal (aluminium I guess) frame with the glass on top.
Now I’ve typed that, a light bulb came on, the roof material details can be found here: eco therm at Oxley Woods and the skylights are made by the rooflight company. Who, as it happens, sponsored the Riba Manser Medal this development won!
I’ve just read the comment posted by Paul on 11th March 2009 and need to point out that, although the Manser Medal was sponsored by the Rooflight Company, the rooflights installed are most definetly not supplied by us.
Valerie King
Chairman of the Rooflight Company
Hello,
Thank you for the clarification. Apologies for my mistake.
I wish I knew who DID supply the rooflights though!
Paul
One Trackback
[...] In early December 2008 we reported our problem of a worrying wet patch on our ceiling by our skylight on the top floor. It wasn’t addressed until November/December 2009, when we moved into temporary accommodation while our windows were replaced and various other repair work (and associated damage!) was underway. Here’s the original post on the blog concerning our wet ceiling: Skylight proves a damp squib. [...]