Before we had cavity walls we used to have solid walls mostly 230 solid brick. On the introduction of cavity walls I think that we made a huge retrograde step as for most people it meant in actuality living in a house with walls only 100mm thick. The cavity was ventilated to outside so the heat losses were horrendousans and wether this was intended or not there was always a cold draught in the cavity, under floors round openings etc. Now we fill cavities but they may still be draughty even after filling has been done. A small miss of the fill results in disproportional heat losses.
Had we stayed with solid walls we would our homes would be warmer less draughty and cheaper to heat. A win win senario?
Worse still is the trend to blob and dob walls so for the last thirty years instead of having 100mm of brick to keep us warm we had only half an inch of plasterboard! May be to live in a cardboard box would be the more sensible option?
Biff
posted on 06-12-06
>Had we stayed with solid walls...
I stuck with my solid walls. Hollowing out my 18th century walls seemed like too much trouble.
Katymac
posted on 06-12-06
So I have single skin breeze block - would it work to build a second skin right next to it?
Then insulate internally?
John11668
posted on 06-12-06
If your floor slab is thick enough (6 inches) you could build a lightweight block wall (thermalite insulating blocks) inside it.You could even add further insulation to the cavity. but you would lose a bit of space. Dry lining with insulated plasterboard also gives good results. British Gypsum used to accommodate punters along with members of the building trade at their "Drywall Academy"
Alex
posted on 06-12-06
This is an interesting topic for us as we're currently doing up an old grade 2 listed building with some newer additions.
The additions are solid wall constructed then battened out the gap filled with rockwool type insulation then about 1" thick tongued and groove boarding. The roof is also tongued and grooved with rockwool on top and then for its sins fibre cement sheets. We've moved in and the planning permission is taking forever due to the listed status. What is amazing though is how well this extension holds the heat for something thats classed as below standard, There are no carpets down and the floor is suspended yet it takes ages to cool down. We're still thinking of how best to insulate and renovate, options are remove the cladding from the walls and use a fleece type sheet then plasterboard over, or remove the battens as well and use polystyrene backed plasterboard thats worked well in another part of the house or just board straight over the cladding. The roof we're going to leave the cladding there and insulate over the top before slating it, so all up should retain the heat very well considering its a type of construction that out architect and builder can't stand
