Victorian House - Removing Plaster below Cornice

[weegieavlover]

I hope this is the right section for such a question...

Right I think I am being mental asking this but if I don't I will never know.

I live in an old Victorian house and I am currently doing up the dining room. The room is at the back of the house, North facing and can be cold (or not very warm) when the heating is on.

I was thinking I could insulate the room better and I wanted to know if this is possible or not and if I am being absolutely mental.

I have cornice all round the room and thought I could take something like (but open to suggestions if this is the wrong tool) an angle grinder to below the cornice and cut along the wall.

then remove all the plaster from the wall.

Then put up a frame and fill with insulation before putting plasterboard over it all to bring it level with the Cornice.

Obviously the insulation will not be very thick - maybe 25mm but thought it would help insulate the room and retain the heat better.

I also planned to insulate under the floor as well as we plan to have wood floors.

Am I being mental?

 

[Jackrae]

Your wall is presumably lath and plaster so at best you'll have 1/4" of lath and 3/4" of plaster. Taking all that lot down will be one hell of a mess and may well cause serious damage to your cornice.

Assuming 10mm of plasterboard, you'll only end up with 15mm at best of insulation, fixed to the undulating vertical straps that the lath was nailed to.

You might be better to simply cover the walls with a "wallpaper insulation" something like Wallrock Thermal Liner.

 

[weegieavlover]

Thanks Jack.

My walls only have the lath on the external wall, the other 3 walls are just very thick, old plaster that is about 40mm thick, I know this because there are a couple of patches on the wall that have fallen off (due to the age) and I measured it.

My major concerns were:
1) removing the plaster would cause the cornice to become unstable - not sure if the wall is supporting and holding the cornice up?

2) Using the angle grinder introduces an element of potentially damaging the cornice.

also like you said it would generate a lot of waste and mess.

 

[richardrich79]

I've had the same situation. My solution was to wood panel the interior of the solid external wall by cutting into the lime plaster as required to attach a series of treated laths, (I used resin studs directly into the stone ). Then wallpaper the wall with thermal lining paper and apply the wall panels.
All this work stops just below the original cornice and I'm finishing the tops of the panelling with a moulding that when painted will blend in.
Whilst it may not be much in the way of insulation the immediate difference has been really noticable.