Yet another insulation question......

sonny liston

Hi folks,

I failed to find a similar question on other threads. Here is my issue........

I have a 4 year old appt. All of the rooms are very warm, except for the living room which I find very cold.
There are two external walls in this room. One of which has plasterboard on the interior, the other has just a thin layer of plaster on solid concrete/brick.
The solid wall is very cold to touch(particularly in the winter) & the room seems colder when you move over beside it. All the other walls in the room are warm to touch.
I hope/presume the solid wall is a cavity wall which already has some insulation(as per building regilations). The solid wall is 450mm thick(from exterior to interior).
The rest of the appt. is well built & there is 2 foot of insulation in the attic.

Could this solid wall be the reason why the room is so cold & difficult to heat?
Would it make sense to pump more cavity insulation into this wall?
Or is the fact that the solid concrete is in direct contact with the room interior mean that it will always be cold & absorb the heat from the room regardless of more insulation on the far side.
Would dry-lining be a better alternative despite the extra cost/hassle?

Also, does this scenario contravene building regulations? All the other solid-walls in the appt. are internal walls.

Thanks in advance.

gsxr1

sonny liston wrote: »

Hi folks,

I failed to find a similar question on other threads. Here is my issue........

I have a 4 year old appt. All of the rooms are very warm, except for the living room which I find very cold.
There are two external walls in this room. One of which has plasterboard on the interior, the other has just a thin layer of plaster on solid concrete/brick.
The solid wall is very cold to touch(particularly in the winter) & the room seems colder when you move over beside it. All the other walls in the room are warm to touch.
I hope/presume the solid wall is a cavity wall which already has some insulation(as per building regilations). The solid wall is 450mm thick(from exterior to interior).
The rest of the appt. is well built & there is 2 foot of insulation in the attic.

Could this solid wall be the reason why the room is so cold & difficult to heat?
Would it make sense to pump more cavity insulation into this wall?
Or is the fact that the solid concrete is in direct contact with the room interior mean that it will always be cold & absorb the heat from the room regardless of more insulation on the far side.
Would dry-lining be a better alternative despite the extra cost/hassle?

Also, does this scenario contravene building regulations? All the other solid-walls in the appt. are internal walls.

Thanks in advance.

Pumping a cavity may not suit as you live in an apartment and the outer wall is usually not yours to deal with. It also may be better to dryline due to cost.


. Solar heat . I block cavity wall usually is never a problem if it gets sun even winter sun. But north walls can be cold.

A cold wall will draw lots of heat from the room.

sonny liston

Thanks gsrx1,

the wall is north facing & gets zero sun.

I was thinking that in my case that the cavity could be pumped from the inside, ie. through the internal wall & existing insulation? (I know its normally done from the outside).
But I am in the 2nd floor appt., & a builder friend told me that the cavity runs right thru all floors & anything I pump in would just fall down to ground level.

Sounds like internal insulation is the way to go!

CBYR1983

It should cost you nothing. The grant will surely cover it if you use a registered contractor. Provided all other walls are sufficiently insulated that is. Check out the sustainable energy Ireland website.

Those thick warmboards should make it very cosy altogether.

trackerman

I agree, warmboards or similar will defintely help, and will probably solve the problem.
Think of how much surface area the cold wall wall has versus the surface area of the radiotor..... probably x 4 or x 5 right, now think of the net effect of the heating versus the cooling effect of the wall.

No need to rip anything out, just apply the best you can afford on top of the existing wall, skim then paint then finally re-apply the skirting, easy!