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Following on from the various energy saving threads...
Looking to improve our draughty old Victorian tenement. Looking at wall insulation but advice seems mixed about adding to an old property with no cavity wall. Some suggest adding it can impact breathability of older properties leading to damp problems. Windows are already draught proofed and it created significant condensation issues.
Any advice of what we should consider? Has to be internal.
Also any contractor recommendations in Edinburgh, don't even know where to start there's so many.
If it was me I would insulate the internal walls with 30mm kingspan and replaster.
Maybe worth looking at a green grant. They will give you 5k towards the cost of the work.
Old stone walls need to breathe or you’ll get damp problems. Approach these days is to leave an air gap between old and new, effectively installing an insulated timber frame wrapped in a vapour membrane inside the old walls.
We use kingspan or another solid foam type in the attic bedrooms of ours. Also the bathroom. They had a lot of external wall and were always cold. It helped a lot.
Condensation is where humid air hits a cold surface ours got better after insulating. Particularly the bathroom.
It was expensive as it involved replastering everything. But we were having other work done.
It may be worth seeing if thats the most efficient thing you can do. Other options involve:
Fixing draughts - doors etc.
Insulating the floor - same damp problems
Balloons in chimneys
Heavy curtains for Windows
Looking at radiators and boiler efficiency.
Condensation is where humid air hits a cold surface ours got better after insulating. Particularly the bathroom.
And interstitial condensation occurs inside your walls because you've insulated too well. Can be compounded by using materials that are not allowing vapour to escape the walls.
Speak to Natural Building Technologies / Soprema - they've got breathable products and advice on exactly this.
https://www.soprema.co.uk/en/natural-building-technologies-and-soprema-a-perfect-match
Cork and woodfibre can be used internally and help with the moisture control.
I am not a builder, please take professional advice.
"It may be worth seeing if thats the most efficient thing you can do. Other options involve:
Fixing draughts – doors etc.
Insulating the floor – same damp problems
Balloons in chimneys
Heavy curtains for Windows
Looking at radiators and boiler efficiency."
putting on a jumper!
I'm partway through ours. 50mm Kingspan, 100mm in some spots, squirty foam and foil tape gaps and joints, boards held back tight to brickwork with battens to not leave voids. Plasterboard and skim. Toasty in the rooms we've done it, freezing in the ones we haven't. Project to accelerate this autumn. Solid walled 1901 three storey semi, rooms plenty big enough to not care about losing a few inches. There are suppliers out there for replacing original plaster mouldings, but big old skirtings and timber mouldings have required more custom approach.
A couple of our rental properties suffered from mould as a result of condensation. They are solid walls, one is an end terrace. As they're rental properties you can tell the tenants (who are lovely in all other ways) they need to keep a tiny bit of ventilation in winter as the properties pre-date the double glazing, but you're just wasting your breath.
We had a company from Stoke fit a couple of passive vents and on a couple of walls he hacked off the plaster, fitted some sort of membrane and re-plastered.
I'm not sure if there was any extra insulation added but the houses have been fine since.
We stripped the old plaster to let the wall breath, put batons with air gap vented up into ceiling void above then insulation and plaster. Works fine, much warmer and not damp.
I’m now thinking about exterior insulation on rear 70’s extension.
As they’re rental properties you can tell the tenants (who are lovely in all other ways) they need to keep a tiny bit of ventilation in winter as the properties pre-date the double glazing, but you’re just wasting your breath.
Or, as we have in our own family home, the issue/mechanism is so bad that even having windows open, more heat and/or dehumidifier daily, you still get condensation.
Genuinely some of our buildings are shockingly built from energy / condensation / ventilation point of view.