Draughtproofing and insulation advice required!

Hi,

I moved into a three storey Victorian semi six months ago. In the last few weeks of Summer sun the house was toasty. It got a bit cooler in Autumn but has been absolutely freezing since winter set in.

We have twenty, single-glazed sash windows. I have temporarily put secondary glazing film on the windows as they are very draughty. That has made an improvement, but not enough! The ground floor has a suspended timber floor with approximately 2' of space underneath except for a small area in the middle of the house where there is a cellar. It may be my imagination but the cellar seems to be one of the warmest parts of the house..... None of the reception or bedrooms have carpets - sanded floorboards throughout. It looks like previous attempts have been made with silicone to seal the gaps between the floorboards but this appears to have disintegrated, presumably due to the movement of the timber throughout the year. From peering between the gaps between the floorboards there appears to be no insulation between floorboards and the ceiling of the room below (or bare earth in the case of the ground floor). Both reception and bedrooms have fireplaces; most have a 'flap' on the fireplace to close the flue, those that don't I have temporarily blocked with a pillow in a bin bag with a bit of kitchen waste pipe at the side to provide ventilation.

I realise this house will never be as energy efficient as a modern house but I desperately need to improve its heat retention. Where am I likely to be losing the most heat and what can I do about it? I can't afford to replace the windows. Does anyone have experience of the relative merits of secondary glazing units versus the brush pile draughtproofing that you get from the likes of Reddiseals? What about the floors? What's the best thing to seal the gaps between the floorboards? Would insulation under the floorboards provide a significant difference compared to merely sealing between them? Anything else I should look at?

Many thanks!

Paul

Reply to
Paul
Loading thread data ...

xxxxxxx

this house is very similar.

insulating the loft is easy - so do it insulating the floor of the attic is easier than insulating the angles of the roof (and there's less area).

Next draughtproofing - carpets!

Upstairs floors dont need insulation cos theyre inside the house.

But what about the groundfloor floorboards over earth, and the air bricks under there... stage 1 is carpets.

I was thinking of putting plastic dampproof over the earth, or under the floorboards and then kingspan, but what if someone spills beer or there's another plumbing leak, wouldnt the water sit on the plastic and rot the floorboards?

I'm in one small bedroom with a fan heater on - ive blocked the chimney.

And yes the cellar is warmer!

thin black work gloves are great too, and a hat...

[g]
Reply to
george (dicegeorge)

Hi folks Watch out for plastic sheet as secondry glazing on windows. I put some

2mm stuff up for somone recently and after a couple of months it all started warping. I ended up having to fix extra clips at 6inch centers to solve the problem, but would only use toughened glass in the future. Acrilic NOT silicone sealent works well on floor board gaps 6mm and below, IMHO dark brown looks best, make sure floor has some external ventilation though.
Reply to
Housemartin

Another possible source of heat loss is the walls themselves. My 18th century stone cottage was refurbished in the 1920's with lathe and plaster lining added along with suspended wooden floors with extensive underfloor ventilation. This ventilation then passed up between the plaster and the stone wall and probably made the house colder than before the refurbishment !

I took off all the lathe and plaster, insulated and re-lined. Much warmer - and no mould either.

Rob

Reply to
robgraham

In message , Paul writes

We also have a Victorian house. We can mostly keep it warm - warm-ish, but it's not cheap

Loft, walls, doors and windows.

If the loft insulation isn't up to scratch (25 - 30 cm) top it up. Have a look at grants/deals from the LA or your energy supplier at the most it will cost is a few hundred.

Walls, almost certainly solid, realistically not much to do about that that isn't very disruptive.

Windows and doors.

We have secondary glazing (here when we moved in) in a lot of the rooms. It makes a noticeable comfort difference. The girls bedroom has none is on a corner with 2 windows and struggles to keep up to temp at times. Our bedroom has it, has 2 windows and 3 external walls and is more comfortable. We will add it to the girls room soon.

Curtains. Decent lined curtains make a difference. Don't forget the doors, esp if glazed. We put a curtain up over the french windows into the conservatory this year, it has made a noticeable difference in the sitting room. Ditto the glazed door to the garden from the hallway.

Obviously make sure the doors are draught proofed.

Sealing the gaps helps with draughts, carpet are warmer than bare floors. unconvinced of the benefit of insulating underneath given the disruption (though I do consider doing the cellar ceiling, which needs permanent ventilation as it is damp so it's pretty cool down there in winter.

Reply to
chris French

I had some a good few years ago, and used the magnetic strip attachment method. It worked very well, and was only scrapped when I had the windows replaced. What I did notice was that one batch of sheet was still in excellent condition, whilst the other had become very brittle.

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

Dear Paul I endorse most of what has been said to date In order of priority I suggest

1 draft proofing windows and doors in the external envelope This can be done with the likes of Reddiseals for sash windows or B & Q have similar products It is time consuming but well worth it and a summer job. If the window sashes are ok decoratively it can be done in about four hours per window but if you need to paint or otherwise repair it will take longer Make sure the sashes fit he frame as ofen one has to plane or add bits to get the angle right as the house has moved the window out of square Secondary glazing is helpful but more of a sound reducer

A further option is to renew the sashes with double glazed units and increase the weights but this is expensive and would not pay back for many years if ever depending on the capital outlay It is however much nicer as with the draft proofing you WILL get condenation and to that end some condensation drains would not go amiss

2) Roof insulation - 300 mm rockwook minimum properly installed with ventilated void above and all pipes and tanks protected 3) insulation of the Ground Floor

Difficult but if you are going to do the job right I suggest plastic dpm on the oversite (to reduce water vapour entry) good clear sub floor voids

4" Kingspan (TP10 or the like PU) cut to fit the 4" of void between the joists of the ground floor (your call as to whether to lift all the boards or crawl under!!!! - Its a no brainer to me to lift the boards and relay cramped together) 1" or 2" tacked over all the joists from underneath (no choice but to feed it under and crawl) All sealed at edges with foam using a proper foam gun Vapour check on the top of the floor boards with a urethane sealer or if you have to a polythene sheet under the floor boards over the joist on the WARM side of the insualtion (not essential as it is foil backed)

4) Walls either external or internal

Internal is favourite as Victorian semis are normally nice brick outside

Be prepared to lose 2.5" of every external wall if you do this I did it and it was brilliant I ignored the advice to put on battens as I wanted the space I took off all architraves, skirtings, picture rails etc and lifted floor boards at edges using plasterboard adhesive and a serated trowel prepared the wall and the 2" TP 10 PU foam sheet of 8 x 4 and fixed it to the wall direct using 5 No EXTERNAL insluation plastic and stainless steel fixings designed for the outside insulation one at four corners and one in centre together with the glue applied verically on one surface and horizontally on the other like a tile. Did the same but staggering the plastic washer s/s pins at other centres for 3/8" plasterboard (also staggerd joints) scrimmed and skimmed the lot with finish Put back all the joinery timbers with 5" long fixings or plaser board fixings depending on need for load put back floor boards

5) chimneys (this should really be Number 2) made a nice framed rectangle of 4" PU foam with wood around cut so half in inside the fireplace and half outside and all fitting nicely with ply surface shoved it in the chimney hole painted it nicely

keeps house warm if you want a fire just take it out and put to one side

Chris

Reply to
mail

A couple of points:

  1. if you have nice coving you will loose that

  1. You will need to replace or build out door casings, or around windows if they are sashes fitted flush with the internal walls as in our house.

Not that we'd be allowed to even if we wanted to being listed

Reply to
chris French

what are these plastic and stainless teel fixings? I cant find any online, cos i dont know what i'm looking for..

is the plastica wide washer to stop it digging into the insulation, or something to stop heat loss?

have you a weblink for them please?

[g]
Reply to
george (dicegeorge)

Housemartin posted

I have never been able to cut it properly. It always breaks.

It's so damned heavy though. And more awkward to store away in summer.

Reply to
Big Les Wade

Do you have any external walls that would be easy to insulate? Adding

60mm celotex on the inside reduces the U value from 2 to about 0.3 Watts/sqm.K . it's a dramatic change.

Robert

Reply to
RobertL

Lots of external walls but they all have 'features' so insulating over the top would be difficult.

Paul.

Reply to
Paul

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.