Heating in our home

junii

Our house is a 25yr old bungalow. We always have had issues with heating it. We have an oil heating system for many years now. It just about keeps the house warm. When we turn the oil off the house gets cold very very fast. I also shoul point out that we have to turn the thermometer up to 90!

Originally when we got the oil we had no double glazing or no attic insulation. We have since got these but it never really made an awful lot of difference. We could never figure it out and either could any plumber seemingly! Mum was talking to a friend recently and they were talking about this. The friends brother had a similiar problem and he got the cavities on the walls filled in with "foam" or something. Apparently, it has made a huge difference. Our cavities don't have insulation in them at the moment. It seems very obvious that this must be the problem but I would like your opionions because in the past we were assured that the attic insulation was "big thing" that would sort it out and likewise with the windows. I think the cost is about 1000 euro so its probably worth giving it a go anyways I suppose.

Mellor

if you have no insulation at all in the walls, then pumping in some now will make the world of difference,
i dont know how much it costs, but alot of people around here ave gone this route

Lex Luthor

some good info here

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=19642

junii

Lex Luthor wrote:

some good info here

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=19642

Great thread. Thanks for the link.

Aeneas

I had Warmfill Silver Beads (a beaded polystyrene) pumped into my cavity walls a few weeks ago. There are several similar products on the market. The job took a morning. The work is done outdoors -the company drills 1in holes in the outside wall at about three feet intervals and pumps the stuff in. They then make good the holes and if you have the paint will paint over the new plaster to match your existing finish. It cost me €1300 for a 2000 sq ft dormer bungalow. It has made quite a difference. If you look it up on Google you will find the technical details. And if you search under Irish Agrement Board you may find a supplier in your area. The supplier should do a survey first to determine if your house is suitable and normally will give a 25 year guarantee against faulty workmanship. I went with the beaded polystyrene because of its resistance to water and a fear that mineral wool would act as a transmitter of moisture across the cavity. There are issues like this that you should look up before making a decision.

Do-more

What kind of floor do you have? Is it a suspended wooden floor?

A mate of mine had a bungalow of similar age and when they raised a few floorboards they found that there was water lying in the crawl space beneath the floor! Did some remedial work (can't remember exactly what) and insulated under the floorboards and it made a world of difference. (In addition to insulating the walls and attic of course!)

renedescartes

Hi Aeneas
I am interested in your project. I have adormer bungalow 1950s vintage. I have the walls insulated but the dormer windows are not and i was wondering if insulation could be pumped into the cheek walls and roof of the windows from the inside? Did you have this problem? If so what did you do?

michael

Aeneas wrote:

I had Warmfill Silver Beads (a beaded polystyrene) pumped into my cavity walls a few weeks ago. There are several similar products on the market. The job took a morning. The work is done outdoors -the company drills 1in holes in the outside wall at about three feet intervals and pumps the stuff in. They then make good the holes and if you have the paint will paint over the new plaster to match your existing finish. It cost me €1300 for a 2000 sq ft dormer bungalow. It has made quite a difference. If you look it up on Google you will find the technical details. And if you search under Irish Agrement Board you may find a supplier in your area. The supplier should do a survey first to determine if your house is suitable and normally will give a 25 year guarantee against faulty workmanship. I went with the beaded polystyrene because of its resistance to water and a fear that mineral wool would act as a transmitter of moisture across the cavity. There are issues like this that you should look up before making a decision.

Aeneas

In my case the builder installed fibreglass insulation in the side walls of the dormer windows where they project out from the roof of the house. For the roof of the dormer window itself I was able to access it through the attic and I insulated this with fibre glass. For the remainder - the walls of the dormer where they form part of the bedrooms I was able to crawl behind the bedroom walls through trapdoors that luckily I had asked the builder to construct so that I could use the eaves for storage. The builder had put 6in of fibre glass in the walls and I supplemented this by covering the fibre glass with sheets of Extratherm polyiso. (Not everyone agrees with this procedure because of condensation risks within the fibreglass) I was also able to lay fibre glass along the joists behind the bedroom walls to prevent wind penetrating under the bedroom floors. From what you say you may have difficulty accessing behind your upstairs walls. The idea of pumping in insulation eg rockwool through the plaster would need to be looked at carefully in case you blocked up the eaves completely thereby preventing air circulation. I hope all this is intelligible!

311

On the heating side of things ,maybe get the system fully serviced.
Have the system properly flushed and seal the system if possible ,maybe get the boiler serviced aswell.
Sorry if you've done this already.