- Joined
- 17 Dec 2015
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
Hello Forum,
We've recently renovated two rooms in our house, which included drylining the outside walls in each to deal with the cold bridging caused by concrete (finlock) gutters. These effectively form the top foot or so of the outside wall, sitting on top of the insulated cavity. This means they also act as the lintel for the windows.
We used basic 22mm polystyrene insulated plasterboard bonded with fixing foam (which is another 12mm deep in some spots), so there is no cavity between the old and new wall surface (plasterboard, polystyrene, fixing foam, old plaster, concrete).
I'm now wondering how I can fit curtains to these walls?
I'm reluctant to drill through the board to fix into the concrete gutter as it will reopen the cold bridge, and potentially provide a very easy route for vapour. I don't mind drilling through to the blockwork lower than the concrete, but this is obviously below the top of the window.
From what I can see on this and other forums, one option may be to cut a hole back to the concrete and bond in a block of wood smaller than the footprint of the pole holder. Let that set, then fix the curtains to the wood. Will this work? Does wood act as a decent enough insulator, or will I be reinstating the cold bridge?
Perhaps another option might be to find curtain poles that angle upwards, so I can drill into the blockwork below the concrete with the pole then held up above it. Do these even exist?
Are there any other solutions I'm not thinking of. Beggars can't be choosers, but I'm keen to avoid damaging my new decorating handiwork as much as possible. Similarly, I know I could fit blinds in the recess without having to drill up into the concrete, but this feels like a last option as it would restrict airflow around the window too much, potentially causing condensation issues.
Anybody encountered this issue before?
We've recently renovated two rooms in our house, which included drylining the outside walls in each to deal with the cold bridging caused by concrete (finlock) gutters. These effectively form the top foot or so of the outside wall, sitting on top of the insulated cavity. This means they also act as the lintel for the windows.
We used basic 22mm polystyrene insulated plasterboard bonded with fixing foam (which is another 12mm deep in some spots), so there is no cavity between the old and new wall surface (plasterboard, polystyrene, fixing foam, old plaster, concrete).
I'm now wondering how I can fit curtains to these walls?
I'm reluctant to drill through the board to fix into the concrete gutter as it will reopen the cold bridge, and potentially provide a very easy route for vapour. I don't mind drilling through to the blockwork lower than the concrete, but this is obviously below the top of the window.
From what I can see on this and other forums, one option may be to cut a hole back to the concrete and bond in a block of wood smaller than the footprint of the pole holder. Let that set, then fix the curtains to the wood. Will this work? Does wood act as a decent enough insulator, or will I be reinstating the cold bridge?
Perhaps another option might be to find curtain poles that angle upwards, so I can drill into the blockwork below the concrete with the pole then held up above it. Do these even exist?
Are there any other solutions I'm not thinking of. Beggars can't be choosers, but I'm keen to avoid damaging my new decorating handiwork as much as possible. Similarly, I know I could fit blinds in the recess without having to drill up into the concrete, but this feels like a last option as it would restrict airflow around the window too much, potentially causing condensation issues.
Anybody encountered this issue before?
