Cavity wall

Lennon

I live in an old (1895) end terrace which is freezing cold most of the time.

I presume there must be some sort of cavity because the outer skin is built from stone but the inner skin is brick. I'm guessing the cavity would be uneven, narrow and hard to fill, if possible at all?

Has anyone had this done on an house like this? I've tried speaking with energy companies who offer it for free but due to the age of the house they aren't even interesting in looking at it.

Has anyone come across anyone who will actually do this for free the same as an easy to treat cavity ?

I'm not even sure where best to start to find someone who could do an assessment for free. There seems to be masses of companies offering various things and it seems daunting trying to figure out which ones are any good.

Furts

You may have a solid wall where the outer stone is tied to the brickwork that you see. The benefit of this is that the inner walls are true to line and level making all finishing work such as plastering much easier. If the stone is like a veneer this also makes the building quicker and cheaper - stone laying is expensive!

I would expect your walls to be solid in the era of 1895, and probably around 9 inches thick. Have you measured the thickness to see what you have?

But equally if they are an early cavity wall I am always willing to learn.

new_owner

My house is around the same age and has a cavity but it is to small to insulate and under the minimum for all cavity filling companies to do and could potentially lead to issues..

IWI or EWI are going to be your realistic options.

I have opted for IWI with great success and I am very pleased the result. a nice warm house.

However you can always check. Simple check would be are all the bricks full width to full width or full width with a half every so many? if full width with a half every so many then no cavity

if full width to full width then it might be worth exploring.

Lennon

I've measured the width of the wall by the door and it's around 14 inches thick. The bricks are all width to width. The front and rear of the house are like stone bricks whereas the side is big stone blocks (of a uniform size, i think it's Yorkshire stone)

I'm not really holding out much hope it would be suitable but we have friends down the street (rented) who have said their landlord has claimed they have had it done. I can't see any evidence of this though in terms of filled holes etc but their house is significantly warmer than ours though! Massive noticeable difference when we walk in. We have the heating on 24/7 and use it far more than they do. I know there are many other factors which may be influencing this though.

new_owner

If your house is cold...

I would do loft insulation 400+mm, eliminate all drafts insulate under floor (if you have a suspended floor)

You can investigate the cavity wall option but you might need to remove a brick or two (unless your replacing windows/doors, which is a great time to see whats going on). Platinum bead is the stuff your after if you can fill it through.

Lennon

We have a loft conversion so unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that.

This was all done many years ago long before we bought the house and on closer inspection the roof doesn't appear to be insulated properly at all. It's really odd as half the roof appears to have insulation and the other half doesn't. When I say half, most people assume that i mean the front/or back but it's literally one half of the front is insulated but not the other half..... I don't have access to see the back roof though.

There is insulation under the loft floor but whether this is adequate or not i don't know. Either way both jobs are massive upheaval and expense we can't afford right now.

It's become clear since we bought the house the previous owners did everything themselves (from fitting doors, electrical wiring, to fitting the central heating) and completely bodged everything. Every trades person who comes to the house scratches their head and says "well ive never seen anything like this before!"