Advice needed- Old House- Best Thermal insulation for a cold room?

catlovin_gal11

Our house is a brick, end of terrace house built in 1911. We have loft insulation, but cannot have cavity wall insulation as the company said the cavities were not big enough. Our living room is north easterly facing and the room does not get a lot of light/ sun. We were looking to decorate but thought about putting some form of insulation on the walls. There is a dado rail and skirting all around the room, and we don't want to move these unless necessary ( I know Thermal Board is quite thick). We have polystyrene liner on some walls upstairs. Anyone any ideas on the best/easiest way to do this? Hope you can help !

27col

I would have thought that the first thing to do was to get another company to look at the job. To see if they confirm what the first company have said. If there is a cavity then it can be filled. If the cavity is not the expected 50mm, then all that means is that the improved insulation value will not be quite as good as it would have been, if the cavity were wider.
If you decide to go the other route and insulate inside. You can insulate the wall any way you like. If it means covering the dado and skirting, it does not matter, as they can be reproduced on top of the improved insulation.

catlovin_gal11

Thanks 27col . I will make enquiries. It's just that there seem to have been some problems with companies doing cavity wall insulation, when they shouldn't have done, if cavities were not sufficient and damp and serious problems with internal walls arising after. But it is worth asking. Cheers!

jc808

If you cant insulate the cavity, lift the floorboards and chuck loft roll 200mm insulation in the gaps and stud the exterior walls with 2x3 and do the same, then board and skim over - youll lose about 4 inches off those 2 walls but nice and toasty

muskoka

I'm also very interested in the best method of insulating internal walls (solid wall old house). So far I've come across - celotex, Kingspan or Sempatap - none of which are cheap & wether any of them will actually do the job - ?? who knows.

Orkatec

Hi Muskoka
I am in the process of renovating a 1860 sand stone cottage.
Walls are about 600 mm thick.
I striped the wall back to the stone and re pointed inside and out.
The inside is battoned and insulated with 50 mm celotex plasterboard over that. I am using one of the bedrooms (It was too cold to sleep in the mobile home)
The room stays nice and warm using a small electric heater set just above the frost setting.
Going to start on the downstairs soon.
Not sure what to do about the damp problems yet, walls are rubble filled.
James

glubalub

Celotex and Kingspan are the best you can get in terms of rigid insulation board. jc808's suggestion is along the right lines. It's a good idea to insulate under suspended floors but make sure it's rockwool rather than fibreglass as rockwool is more resistant to damp. The insulation should also be supported by netting or battens to make sure it stays in place between the floor joists.

Lining the walls internally by using 75x 50 treated timber and filling between the studs with PIR insulation is a good method. Put a vapour barrier on the inside of the insulation to reduce the risk of condensation.

There is an alternative, which is to insulate the walls on the outside. This involves attaching insulation to the outside of the walls and then rendering over the insulation. This is a job for a specialist. It saves room inside the building but changes the appearance of the outside of the building. Downpipes, soil stacks and eaves details can look a bit odd unless the job is planned really well.

Vems

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/...nsulation.html