Cold wall help

valleyboy22

Hi everyone,

our outside wall which has a alley way between our house and next door to get to the gardens is really cold in the winter.
I presume this is a single cavity wall so wall cavity insulation will not help at this. When we cook in the kitchen especially and the walls are so cold it builds up condensation which eventually leads to mould which is a pain in the bum. We try and keep our kitchen window open to try and eliminate this but no joy. Same as the front door where again the same wall gets really cold which makes that area cold.
Has anyone got any ideas how i can tackle this please because i really dread the winters if honest.
Thanks

Doozergirl

Insulation. You can insulate internally or externally if you don't have a cavity. Internally, it's a case of adding insulated plasterboard and skimming over the affected outside walls.

While it's useful to open the window while cooking, a decent extractor hood that vents to outside will provide more help at the right time.

Other than ventilation, the absolute key is warmth. I actually would not leave the window open all the time as you're reducing the temperature of the room and keeping the wall cold from inside. I think warmth is more important than ventilation as we generally have draughty houses anyway in this country.

More radiators, more heat to keep moisture as gas, not as condensation on the walls but more impactful and cost effective is going to be insulation in the long term.

Mr.Generous

Is it the ex council houses style where the alley between is built over so its a passage? If so they are double skin, we have fitted kitchens in quite a few and drilled through for venting cooker hoods, they are brick - cavity - brick every time. The wind usually whistles down the passage (oh er misses) which I suppose has a cooling effect on the brick. The houses were originally built with a coal house - generally knocked through to make a bigger kitchen now. Does yours have any brick vents to the outside, usually several of those in the houses we've done?

valleyboy22

spot on Mr Generous this is what we have.
We have a cooker hood but not vented outside. We drilled a few holes by the side of the units on that side of the wall and put a plastic vent over it to discard the holes. We have no brick vents whatsoever just a closed up wall all through the alley. There was an extension also on the kitchen so its allot bigger than the other houses in the street so warmth is not fantastic to.

FreeBear

Mr.Generous wrote: »

Is it the ex council houses style where the alley between is built over so its a passage? If so they are double skin,

Not necessarily - It depends on the age & location of the property. Before the introduction of national building standards, there was a lot of regional variation in how houses were built.

Just down the road from me is a short run of terrace houses built in the 1920s. The walls are cavity front and back, but for the unfortunate occupants either side of the passage, they have the joys of a single skin brick wall - One of the properties was renovated last year, and the builder needed to drill a hole through that wall.
Properties dating back to the Victorian era, I would have expected solid brick walls. Either single or double thickness.

For the OP - Insulating a wall internally was a question asked a few days ago. Have a look here --> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5567861