INSULATION How to get it right
Insulating a house is one of the most important things you can do to reduce heating bills and make your home cosy and comfortable but, before starting out, it’s important to understand the potential complexities of insulating an old building. To achieve a solution that works often involves a balancing act between potential gains and avoiding the unintended consequences of getting it wrong. The pitfalls of using inappropriate materials or of them being installed incorrectly include damp and mould – these may be damaging to both your health and that of the building.
When adding insulation the aim is to improve the thermal performance of the building’s external envelope – in other words the roof, walls and floors. With this in mind, you must weigh up the pros and cons of insulating each element and to understand whether doing so is cost efficient, practical and right for the house. The first step is to understand how the building works.
Breathability
Old houses are different from those built after around 1919 because they generally have a breathable structure with solid walls that use mortars, renders and plasters of lime or earth. As long as the breathable nature of the
