I visited a third floor two bedroom flat that was built in the 1990’s in October 2022 and report as follows:-
The tenants had reported whistling and howling noises coming from their windows. They had double glazed UPVC windows which were in good condition with all the seals present and functioning correctly. The locking mechanisms and friction stays were in good condition too. The problems were underneath the window boards where they were likely never sealed and draughts were entering explaining the noise. These were sealed and the noises ceased.
Two rooms had roof windows and on both of these the foam rubber draught seal had completely perished, see pic, and were letting in draughts.
There were some ongoing mould problems next to the bathroom fan, in the kitchen and to part of the main bedroom ceiling. Suspecting problems with the insulation I decided to look in the loft, sure enough a patch of insulation had been removed from beside the fan, insulation was missing from beside the RH pipe which was a piece of soil pipe serving as a fan duct. The quality of the insulation work was poor and incomplete.
from part of the sloping soffit of the kitchen, I never like to see ‘Gyproc’ written anywhere as it means that the insulation is missing – and had been overlooked during the build and inspections 20 to 30 years ago!
and nine square meters was missing from the original build above the main bedroom ceiling, a large area that was never insulated at all. See pics.
Then there was the front door, this was worrying, no smoke seals or intumescent strips. See self explanatory pic.
