Leaders in Indoor Air Quality
and Healthy Buildings

The fact is these problems have been commonplace in UK domestic property stock ever since we first started double glazing in the early 1970s to save on energy costs in response to the last energy crisis. Insulation improvements (double glazing, loft, cavity) have the effect of sealing up a property which results in more of the pollutants produced by the occupancy (moisture, CO2, odours, pet dander) or ingressed from outside or below (radon, pollens, CO, H2S etc) which places greater reliance on the performance of the ventilation strategy in order to maintain ideal indoor air quality.

The most common domestic ventilation strategy relies on natural background for supply and mechanical extraction but it is the underperformance of this strategy that is the reason why so many properties suffer from these common problems. The purpose of background ventilation is to dilute/displace indoor pollutants with fresh air. Part F demands scalability for this process as occupancy sizes differ but this is impossible for natural background ventilation. Furthermore, it facilitates uncontrolled heat loss which negatively impacts indoor relative humidity and surface temperatures whilst causing occupant discomfort and increasing heating costs. Also, extraction performance is usually significantly below minimum Part F requirements and other dependencies that affect the problem are often misunderstood (internal air transfer, air bricks/trickles that exacerbate mould growth due to uncontrolled heat loss).

There are literally millions of existing domestic buildings in the UK with this ventilation strategy. Why ? Because it is the cheapest and easiest way to comply with Part F for profit driven stakeholders. Therefore they are doing nothing wrong by choosing this strategy despite the fact is is behind these major consequential problems. In truth we have been building these inefficiencies into our property stock for the past 50 years and continue to do so right now. If you look at any new build project in the UK today the vast majority will comprise natural background ventilation. Natural ventilation strategies also present a paradox for energy efficiency. During winter when humidity related problems caused by insufficient ventilation become visually evident occupants have no option but to open windows for ventilation which results in significant heat loss, thermal comfort problems, increased heating bills and increased carbon footprint. Some specifiers will specify air bricks and trickle vents to improve ventilation without knowledge or understanding of the common unwanted consequence that the uncontrolled heat loss can exacerbate a mould problem rather than help it. So the very thing that is supposed to help is actually exacerbating the problems in winter.

Better Indoors brings knowledge and deep experience to these most common problems. We understand why these problems happen. Our unique survey process accurately identifies root cause issues and our designs and specifications comprise all the features and address all the dependencies that most contractors tend to miss. The fact is solving these problems permanently is not a product specific discipline as most people think. You can take a perfectly good product but if you mis-specify it and/or miss dependencies it will not work. All too often we come across poorly specified ventilation installations that do not work where the specifier or contractor blames the product rather than their own competence. We can make our solutions work with any number of accredited products from various manufacturers because what is at the heart of the art is not product specific but entirely in knowledge and experience.