Dear All,
Despite having been a member here for more than a decade, I’ve never previously tried to document the “big picture” of what I’m doing. So I’m going to fix that now with some posts about the latest instalment of my years-long project to insulate my flat.
I live in a ground floor flat in an old building - originally built in 1643, but remodelled several times, most recently in about 1980 when it was divided into flats. The old construction is very thick stone, and the newer parts are either brick (where load-bearing) or stud. The stone walls are lined with plasterboard on studwork. The floors are boards on ~60mm joists sat on a modern concrete sub-floor. There is zero insulation anywhere, and as there are also single-glazed sash windows it is cold and/or expensive to heat (or both).
Over the years I have been improving it room-at-a-time. So far I’ve done two rooms plus the hall, and now I’ve started on the living room. My hope is that I made all the mistakes in less conspicuous places and now I know what I’m doing I’ll get everything right in this main room!
The room is something like 4.5m x 5.5m. It has two large sunny windows on the South wall. The North wall, on the other hand, is somewhat subterranean (the building is on a slope). Here’s a photo of the South wall:
I’ve removed the plasterboard, but the studwork is still in place. The walls are a mixture of good dressed stones, other old stones and some modern brick to fill gaps. Below window level, everything is covered with a layer of modern cement - presumably as an attempt at waterproofing.
Here’s the East wall:
There are a few nice old stones, but most of it is lumps of rubble and bricks of various ages. The bricked-up fireplace was a surprise (for reasons that will become clear later!); it has a missing brick as a vent, but the corresponding vent in the plasterboard had been blocked up so I guess I’ll need to reinstate that.
This isn’t actually an external wall - but being about 1m thick and in contact with the ground at the base and its left end, it will still benefit from insulation.
In the other rooms I’ve removed the studwork and rebuilt from scratch to suit the insulation, but here it seems to be in better condition and I’m considering how I can modify it to accommodate the insulation batts, as that will reduce cost and waste. The timer is 50x47mm; for the external walls I’ll use 100mm wood fibre batts. I was considering making it deeper by adding battens to the front, but I’m also considering detaching the frames and moving them forward into the room, with or without something attached to the back. In any case, I will add more noggins to hopefully make them feel a bit more solid.
The next job, and the final bit of demolition, is to remove the floor.
Stay tuned for updates!
Despite having been a member here for more than a decade, I’ve never previously tried to document the “big picture” of what I’m doing. So I’m going to fix that now with some posts about the latest instalment of my years-long project to insulate my flat.
I live in a ground floor flat in an old building - originally built in 1643, but remodelled several times, most recently in about 1980 when it was divided into flats. The old construction is very thick stone, and the newer parts are either brick (where load-bearing) or stud. The stone walls are lined with plasterboard on studwork. The floors are boards on ~60mm joists sat on a modern concrete sub-floor. There is zero insulation anywhere, and as there are also single-glazed sash windows it is cold and/or expensive to heat (or both).
Over the years I have been improving it room-at-a-time. So far I’ve done two rooms plus the hall, and now I’ve started on the living room. My hope is that I made all the mistakes in less conspicuous places and now I know what I’m doing I’ll get everything right in this main room!
The room is something like 4.5m x 5.5m. It has two large sunny windows on the South wall. The North wall, on the other hand, is somewhat subterranean (the building is on a slope). Here’s a photo of the South wall:
I’ve removed the plasterboard, but the studwork is still in place. The walls are a mixture of good dressed stones, other old stones and some modern brick to fill gaps. Below window level, everything is covered with a layer of modern cement - presumably as an attempt at waterproofing.
Here’s the East wall:
There are a few nice old stones, but most of it is lumps of rubble and bricks of various ages. The bricked-up fireplace was a surprise (for reasons that will become clear later!); it has a missing brick as a vent, but the corresponding vent in the plasterboard had been blocked up so I guess I’ll need to reinstate that.
This isn’t actually an external wall - but being about 1m thick and in contact with the ground at the base and its left end, it will still benefit from insulation.
In the other rooms I’ve removed the studwork and rebuilt from scratch to suit the insulation, but here it seems to be in better condition and I’m considering how I can modify it to accommodate the insulation batts, as that will reduce cost and waste. The timer is 50x47mm; for the external walls I’ll use 100mm wood fibre batts. I was considering making it deeper by adding battens to the front, but I’m also considering detaching the frames and moving them forward into the room, with or without something attached to the back. In any case, I will add more noggins to hopefully make them feel a bit more solid.
The next job, and the final bit of demolition, is to remove the floor.
Stay tuned for updates!
Insulating an old property has to be a much-needed improvement. Are you going to add new secondary glazing or upgrade the existing?
