Insulate wall

[Richard Cole]

I want to add some insulation to a bare breeze block garage wall, that backs onto our living room (integral garage). The walls about 10' x 20' What's the cheapest and easiest way to do this? Would sticking expanded polystyrene panels (say like 2" thick loft insulation panels) straight to the BB work? If so any glue recommendations?

As no-one's going to see the end wall (apart from myself & SWBMO) I don't think I need insulated plaster board or anything fancy, so any other recommendations?

It needs to be something simple as I can mess up the simplest task.

Thanks

Richard Web pages:

- caravanning, - personal web site and I loves the domain name for email.

[Phil Anthropist]

One option is to stick Rockwool wall bats on with No More Nails.

[Richard Cole]

Are Rockwool wall bats solid or is it rolled insulation? Searched the web and on one site, it looked like a roll, while on another it looked like solid sheets.

Thanks

Richard Web pages:

- caravanning, - personal web site and I loves the domain name for email.

[Phil Anthropist]

Solid, some examples here:

[Ian Stirling]

For the cheapest option. loft insulation - hung vertically on the walls.

4mm or better mdf 'skin' attached to framework over this. How much better and how rugged the framework is is up to you. It could just be a tarpaulin hung from the ceiling.

[Chris Bacon]

Rockwool batts are a more solid material, but still bendy and friable. Using Gripfill would be OTT, like using a 6" nail to hold down a piece of cardboard.

You could use your expanded polystyrene, it might be better than rockwool batts, insulation-wise, I'm sure figures are "out there". Lots of people will say "use Kingspan" or the equivalent, which gives better insulation than EP, but is a lot more expensive thickness for thickness (of course!).

[Chris Bacon]

That's Kingspan, not flippin' Rockwool!

[Phil Anthropist]

It was the nearest image I could find to indicate slabs of insulation as opposed to rolls.

[Richard Cole]

Chris,

Thanks for the response. I saw Loft insulation in the B&Q I looked in and they were a size small enough to get loads into my car to get them home.

Richard Web pages:

- caravanning, - personal web site and I loves the domain name for email.

[Richard Cole]

On 30 May 2006 18:38:45 GMT, Ian Stirling wrote: For the cheapest option.

Ian

I think I may go for loft insulation, stuck to the wall, with 'No more nails' or somesuch (non-petroleum based) glue.

Thanks for the feedback.

Richard Web pages:

- caravanning, - personal web site and I loves the domain name for email.

[Chris Bacon]

OK I see... there's a sort of useful image at:

the things are not-very-rigid-but-a-bit-more-coherent- than-a-roll slabs of rockwool.

[Chris Bacon]

Then batten the wall and overboard with something, or you'll have a degree of trouble (and being inside the garage may well become physically rather unpleasant).

[Richard Cole]

Chris,

In what way unpleasant?

Richard Web pages:

- caravanning, - personal web site and I loves the domain name for email.

[Chris Bacon]

First, you are likely to find that the insulation falls off the wall, it's not very coherent stuff. Any draughts or things brushing against the insulation will result in myriads of little tiny slag/glass wool fibres instantly becoming airborne and doing what rockwool/glass fibre insulation does best (apart from insulating things), i.e. getting up your nose or into your chest, and getting onto your skin and making it *itch*.

[Phil L]

Gluing fibreglass is a waste of time and glue, and quite possibly fibreglass.

you need to consider 3 things:

1) Price - How much do you want to spend? V How much are you going to save? I estimate that your savings will be minimal and so your outlay should match this. 2) Bearing in mind that it's a garage, you need to think about fire safety....even more timber and / or polystyrene is never a good thing where petrol / oil / diesel / paint etc are around. 4) if the insulation gets wet, what measures are in place to stop the damp penetrating the internal walls?

With these in mind my reccomendation is for the following: Affix a sheet of polythene to the wall, up to a height of around 4ft along it's entire length. Over this and across the entire wall affix timber studding (3X2 laid flat), affix at centres which match the board sizes you are going to use (so that two plasterboards meet on a timber) Insert rockwool or fibreglass batts (they are the same as loft insulation but more compressed and have a higher U value) they are also easier for cutting and for fixing into place. Plasterboard over the entire wall, you can fill any large gaps with normal plaster or jointing compound, this is only to protect any timbers showing through from possible fire etc.

Any water penetrating upwards (from a spillage, leaky roof etc) can't transfer moisture to the wall because of the membrane...water won't rise above 3ft.

The wall is 'sealed' from any sources of fire (plasterboard is a good fire proofing) and the fibreglass/rockwool will never melt and give off toxic fumes if something does ever happen.

[Chris Bacon]

Is there some confusion here? Rockwool and fibreglass can actually be used for fire protection. The stuff's inert, and can't give off toxic fumes. Are you thinking of expanded polystyrene?

[Phil L]

No, if you read it again you will see that I've written 'it will never melt and give off toxic fumes' It was a 'warning' against using polystyrene.

HTH

[Richard Cole]

I'm not interested in getting any return apart from being a bit warmer when I sit at the dining table and here at the computer, both of which are within 4" of the joining wall.

It's not unbearable, but in the Winter the garage is 10C cooler than the house and this wall seems to conduct the cold into the house. The other adjoining wall is the downstairs loo (where we keep our wine, so no problem there).

Phil, although it's a garage, neither of our cars will fit in it, so it's more a 'built in shed', used for storing stuff like freezers, garden chairs (in the winter), tools.

Not much chance of this happening as it's the wall farthest from the up and over door and backs onto our living-room.

Phil Thanks for the instructions, this is much more complicated than I want (or more truthfully can manage). I was trying to avoid using any timber as no matter how many times I measure, it's still wrong when I cut. I'm the typical software developer, who's absolutely useless once you put a tool in my hand(Ooh Matron!)

Thanks

Richard Web pages:

- caravanning, - personal web site and I loves the domain name for email.

[Chris Bacon]

Then just stick up your polystyrene sheets with non-solvent glue. Squeeze some decoraters caulk into the cracks to seal it (use a cartridge in a frame gun), and when it's dry paint the lot with whatever colour takes your fancy emulsion.

[Richard Cole]

Chris

Thanks. That I can probably manage.

Richard Web pages:

- caravanning, - personal web site and I loves the domain name for email.