Cold gable north facing wall

Lleucu

Hello, wondered if I could have some advice.

The problem: north facing gable wall in 1900 Victorian semi. Double wall, but could not have it cavity wall insulated because of rubble left between the two walls.

House: The house generally is well insulated (loft, secondary glazing, some floors, new extension with ceiling, wall and floor insulation. Gable wall dry lined and insulated in 2008. This helps but not completely. Gas central heating plus wood/coal burning stove.
In recent very cold weather gable wall freezing. Husband has a heart condition and I am worried about the effect on him of such cold.

I wondered if it would be possible to remove the rubble and have the cavity insulated. An alternative is a well insulated lean to garage at the side but this would only help with the ground floor.

Any thoughts??

Thank you.

SailorSam

I would have thought that a house built around 1900 would have solid walls, cavity walls generally started getting built between the Wars. The early ones didn't have metal ties but a brick would join the two 'skins' every so often, and it's around these bricks that rubble tended to build up, but normally this would have shown up long ago by a damp patch.
If there is rubble i can't see how you could remove it without taking the wall down, maybe they could remove a few bricks at a time, clear it and then make good and then move on. I think you may have a big job ahead, you need to speak to an expert i'd always start at the Council they want charge and are normally very helpful.

Mankysteve

I take it teh gable wall has been insulated on the inside you could also insulate and render the outside wall.

ormus

as above, it makes more sense to insulate the external wall and then render it.
not a cheap option either.

27col

How do you know that the cavity is blocked by fallen mortar/rubble.

CLAPTON

it would seem the cheapest way would be to increase the thickness of the insulation in the dry lining .... how thick is the current insualtion in the wall?

plus of cause increasing the heating in the room if your OH's health is being affected

LisaLou1982

To extract the rubble in the cavity is very expensive. Youd want to check how wide the cavity was before even considering doing this. It needs to be a minimum of 50mm for CWI.

If youve already had internal wall insulation, then additional external wall insulation would be your next step but this is costly and would not necessarily help you that much.

You might be better spending your money on upgrading your heating system/radiators

Lleucu

Thanks for all your replies - I know that the gable wall has buttering rubble because a surveyor saw it when he had a look (they do this before installing cavity wall insulation). The internal insulation is as thick as we could do given it reduces the width of the stairs.

You are all right next step to look at the external option but it is so expensive (quote a few years ago £4000 plus scaffolding).

There are also millions of houses like this in the UK ........

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

We live in a late 1800s house with all external walls and they do get very cold,infact we joke our house thinks it's a fridge.
We just upgraded our heating system and that seemed to help a bit.
I know it's no comfort but I always think if you want to live in a lovely old house with character,modern day grade heating is something you have to sacrifice.
Can you not just use the internal rooms for your husband in the winter if his health is suffering.
I know my friend does this every winter as she has health issues too and she lives in an early 1800s property,not ideal but it gets her through the winter.

Lleucu

You are right in summer lovely!

Does any one know any research about how effective the external systems are in terms of insulation?? Or has used them??

LisaLou1982

The external insulations only really make a difference on park homes and the like. It would make very little difference on your property and would take around 40yrs to get back in savings what you paid out!!!

(Im an insulation and heating surveyor so can safely recommend that you save your money and dont go down the external insulation route)