Insulating a 1930s open porch

[Keziah]

Hi folks, hoping for some advice please?

We have a 1930s bay-fronted semi. Unlike most, we have left our porch open (front door is set back about 50cm from the front archway.

The wall to the right of our front door, appears to be a single skin wall into the living room at the front. We had an issue with water pooling in the porch and this caused damp on the internal wall. I have remedied this by stripping the porch tiles and angling the floor toward the edge of the step, so water runs off.

We are acutely aware that with the energy costs rising, this wall is a source of heat loss for the house and want to take steps to insulate before it gets too cold.

To insulate internally would mean losing space along the entire wall of the room. Alternatively we can insulate the sliver in the porch.

Can anyone advise the best way to do this please? I had been thinking about battening the wall and using insulated plaster board, but am not entirely sure about the plasterboard being open to the elements whether it's been rendered over or not.

Help! (P.s. thanks for reading so far.... If you got this far!)

 

[Keziah]

Please excuse the dots in the middle - didn't think posting my children was appropriate.

The wall to the right of the door is the wall in question.

 

[Higgy28]

External wall insulation?

Thanks for highlighting this, my house is exactly the same and hadn't considered that it was single skin there!

 

[RonnyRaygun]

You also probably won’t have any insulation in the floor above.

 

[Keziah]

You also probably won’t have any insulation in the floor above.

Thank you for your reply.

When we were renovating the house 12 years ago, we did replace the ceiling and insulate above, but may be something that @Higgy28 may want to consider too.

 

[jacko555]

A 2nd door in the Archway? Keeping my enclosed porch door closed makes a noticeable difference in winter

 

[Keziah]

A 2nd door in the Archway? Keeping my enclosed porch door closed makes a noticeable difference in winter

We have considered this, but we don't want double doors (trying to push a buggy through half a double door isn't fun and would need to be done twice a day) and the porch isn't deep enough for a single door to open fully. We have been put off a door that opens outward purely because we have seen how our neighbour's doors get caught in the wind and bang against the wall. We live in a wind tunnel sadly.

Plus, we quite like the open porch

 

[Higgy28]

Thank you for your reply.

When we were renovating the house 12 years ago, we did replace the ceiling and insulate above, but may be something that @Higgy28 may want to consider too.

Yep, this probably explains why my office gets so cold in winter!

 

[Pat ex]

Don't use plaster board in an external location.

 

[Keziah]

Yep, this probably explains why my office gets so cold in winter!

Might be worth taking the ceiling down and putting some insulation up there.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

My own side door was originally similar, but with access to utility + a coal store and the downstairs toilet, to left and right, with lockable. An absolute nightmare layout and a waste of heat. The simple obvious solution was to fit a decent quality exterior door and frame in what originally was an arch. It made the world of difference to the warmth, brought those rooms inside and no doubt saved fuel, heating those rooms which had been essentially outside.

I had to demolish the arch and fit a lintel, you would not need to do that.