Bathroom Wall and Ceiling Insulation

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Manchester
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Hi all,

Sorry if this is the wrong area but I wasn't sure where to post.

I need to start thinking about what kind of insulation to use in our small downstairs bathroom as there is not long to go now until I can fit the plasterboard.

To give you an overview of the wall types:

1x External wall, single skin brick with stud timber frame and insulation "wool".

1x EX-External wall, used to be external to the front of the house but now has a utility room on the other side. Utility room is next job on the agenda as it is bloody freezing! This is same setup as the other external wall except it has a window which I have just replaced with a uPVC one.

1x Internal prefab wall, "prefab" is the only way I can desrcibe it. It's very thin and is strengthend by cardboard squares throughout. Can't insulate this I dont think.

1x Internal stud wall, currently no insulation.

I was thinking of installing 50mm Kingspan in the ceiling and allowing gaps where the downlights will be.

For the walls I was thinking of using insulated plasterboard and leaving the original wool insulation in the walls. The internal stud wall would only have insulated plasterboard (no wool).

Does this sound ok?

I was wondering if putting Kingspan in the stud walls would be better but I dont want to spend the money if it is not going to actually make a difference. Especially if the prefeb wall will just leak the warmth anyway?

If however it is advisible then I would rather spend the extra money to have a better insulated room.

Thanks for any advice.
 
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What is the insulation like in the rest of the house? To be honest I can't see much point in insulating small areas of wall if the rest of the house is poorly insulated.

A pic of the layout might help.
 
Ok thanks, but back to my original question, what is the insulation like in the rest of the house? I'm struggling to understand why you want this room to be so well insulated. Presumably the rest of the house is well heated?

If you insulate this room from the rest of the house then, without any heating, it will be cold as there won't be any heat transfer from the house into the room. Insulating the outside wall might be worthwhile but will only have limited effect IMO, so I can't really see what you're hoping to achieve.
 
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Thanks again,

Heating for the bathroom will be a towel rail and underfloor heating will also be fitted, I know neither of these are that effective when compared to a decent radiator but with it only being a small room I was wondering if the insulation would help?

The rest of the house has wool insulation in the external walls and joining walls (to neighbours). The only current insulation in the ceiling is the loft but I was going to look into whether or not it would be feasible to lift the floor boards upstairs to insulate the ceilings of all the downstairs rooms (eventually).

I guess my original question should of been:

Is it worth insulating the bathroom to keep the warmth created by the towel rail and underfloor heating in the room?

and

Would it also be feasible to insulate each ceiling via floorboard access and installing kingspan, or is it a waste of time and money?

Thanks
 
So, is it worth insulating the room to keep the heat in? I can't see why.

Insulating the downstairs ceilings? Again I can't see why you would. In general you would expect downstairs to be heated to a higher level than upstairs but the heat transfer through the floors will keep the upstairs from feeling like an icebox. You would have to have the heating on high up there as well, which would negate the use of insulation between floors.

In short, make sure the loft is well insulated, minimum 270mm and let natural convection do the rest in terms of balancing the heat within the insulated envelope. You have said the cavity is already insulated so not much more you can expect to achieve. Personally I would not be considering insulation between rooms or floors within that space.
 
Ok, thanks for setting me straight.

Most of this is a learning curve for me so I appreciate the advice.

Thanks again.
 

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