Insulating Old Solid Stone Walls

Insulating solid walls old and historic buildings.

Insulating old solid stone walls.

The only trouble is things just don t work that way. Solid walls can be insulated internally from the inside and. However adding insulation to solid walls can lead to a significant reduction in heat loss but thought and care is needed to make sure the works are appropriate effective and do not cause long term problems. How old the wall is.

Traditional solid wall construction is often the most difficult and in many cases the least cost effective part of a building to insulate. How to insulate stone foundation walls that present you with an irregular surface. Rigid insulation boards are around 2 to 4 inches thick and made of plasterboard backed with insulation material usually foamed plastic. Insulating the walls should be last on your list as other measures are often cheaper and easier yet also effective in improving a.

Older heritage and traditional buildings are usually constructed from vapour open materials such as brick stone timber frame wattle and daub or cob with lime or earth mortar in the joints and plaster render or paint made from lime on the walls. Insulate the inside of the house make it nice and warm cozy no heat loss. Insulating your solid walls could cut your heating costs considerably and make your home more comfortable. The main factors to take under consideration will be.

It seems at first glance very sensible. Let s go through this process in more detail. The thicker they are the less they lose. Where to insulate first is worth some serious thought.

Oftentimes stone foundation walls must be repointed or even rebuilt if the old mortar joints have deteriorated. Solid wall insulation may be suitable for a variety of property types such as brick stone steel framed and concrete construction. Cavity walls are made of two layers with a small gap or cavity between them. So it s best to make sure you re maintaining your property well before thinking about adding insulation or making other improvements.

Solid walls have no gap so they can t be filled with cavity wall insulation. Solid walls if they are dry don t lose a lot of heat. Material from which the wall was built for example stone brick or timber. Those walls have a u value of 2 30w m current building regulations demand 0 3w m.

If your home was built before the 1920s its external walls are probably solid walls rather than cavity walls. It is important that we understand insulating walls will depend on many variables. Solid walls can be insulated internally by fitting rigid boards to the wall or building a separate stud wall and filling the gap with insulating material for example mineral wool fibre. It is not always the case that insulation is essential to all elements of the building envelope but in the above case with a nine inch solid brick wall it is difficult to get away from the idea that insulating it will be a good thing.

Internal solid wall insulation works by adding a thermal layer of material to the existing wall. If it s an old foundation first make sure that the foundation is in good condition.