We insulated all the internal faces of our external walls last spring. They're a 9" solid wall. The difference it has made this winter is unbelievable. For the first time in a decade the house feels dry and stays warm after the heating has been on..
Solid masonry walls? My house has a brick veneer over cinderblock, and plaster interior walls. No insulation. Were yours like this? I'm researching having interior framing and insulation installed to help our cold, damp house. Just wondering that's what you did?
@Sheena Rea the walls are clay bricks done in English bond, held together with Lime mortar. We took all the internal plaster off (this was a mixture of gypsum & and under coat of cement! We let the walls breathe for a month until they'd dried out some. Then we used celotex insulation floor to ceiling, fixing it on with foam and a high strength grab adhesive. No mechanical fixings, as we didn't want a cold bridge, taped all the joints with foiled tape. We Left that a couple of days to fully set. Hollowed out the insulation for the few wall sockets we have on the external walls. Then fixed plaster board on with high strength grab adhesive. Plastered, fitted new skirting and painted. So far so good🤞
@@llisntcoolj2375 Good on you for using foam as the bonding. I used mechanical fixings and haven't had any problems though. As for the contents of this video - nearly all polyurethane insulation includes a foil skin - as does celotex - so the warnings about intersitial condensation are unnecessary - especially as you taped the joints. Our gas usage, over three years ago, was 13,000 kwh annually. Under 8,000 now, and the house stays warmer and more comfortable. There are a lot of scare stories going around about internal insulation just now. As long as the insulated plasterboard isn't fixed to timber grounds, there shouldn't be a problem. Joist ends in external walls just possibly - but the wall won't be insulated in those locations anyway.
@@augnkn93043 60mm on the walls, but only 25mm in the window and door reveals, as 60mm +plasterboard would have come over the window frames onto the glazing.
If you have radiators on the same wall as the insulation is it better to bring the pipes forwards or chaste them into the insulation material (e.g. Siniat Thermal PIR Tapered Edge)? I sense it's better to have them on the outside so as not to disrupt the insulation or vapor layer.
I just watched a video about the risks of exterior insulation. The main problem as I understood it was that it is difficult to completely insulate the exterior and the places that aren't insulated cause cold areas on the interior walls that cause condensation and mold. Also thermal bridging on stud walls could cause similar problems.
I've worked with removing damp problems in old buildings for years and I've got the picture that external insulation is always better than internal. The worst I've heard is that in some cases south side exterior insulation can actually make the building colder!
@@emmaearnshaw3282 That's interesting. It might be possible to calculate whether it is true or not. Estimate the solar gain with and without the insulation. As a practical matter it seems like for most locations it wouldn't be true. In cold and moderate climates there isn't a lot of heat gain possible in the winter and the heat loss without insulation would overwhelm the lost solar gain. In warmer climates you would still need to balance about 8 hours a day of reduced solar gain with 16 hours a day of no solar gain. And of course for houses in the warmer climates blocking solar gain in the summer time is a good thing.
Great simple video. Im looking for an interior solutio for a historic 93 year old builing w/ limestone exterior building with a plaster interior and no insulation in the US. Removing the plaster on the inside is cost pronibitive. Any suggestions???
My house is an older cape cod (80 years old, cape, brick + cinder block, plaster walls). Pretty sure it's solid masonry, altho if there's an air cavity between the brick and cinder block, that will determine what steps to take. Matt Risinger has some great videos, one is on "Insulation of Masonry in Historic Buildings." At roughly the 5-minute mark Matt's guest has some ideas for solid masonry. Also, I highly recommend Belinda Carr, she has super informative videos, one on vapor barriers vs. vapor retarders. Since I'm in Zone 4, and *IF* my structure has an air cavity between the brick and cinder block, then I need a vapor retarder. But *IF* there is no air cavity in the walls, a vapor barrier might have to be constructed on the interior as mentioned in Matt's video. Depends on which Zone you're in.... I hope your solution will be easily determined. For me, it's finding out about the wall cavity, if I even have one. Good luck to you! 🙂
Excellent video. What insulation material is open for vapor diffusion though? I can only think of open cell spray foam but it is not a desired method to use IMO.
Insulation that is open to vapor diffusion is = to say Vapor permeable? Hi it would be awesome if you can confirm if Rockwool a mineral wool insulation sold in USA is or can be considered as an insulation that is open to vapor diffusion? if that's the case, this will be my go to insulation behind my 100 YO double brick walls. Thanks for takin the time to upload this very informative videos :)
Mineral wool is great for insulation & its claimed to be hydrofobic. But in reality it performs really, really badly in wet environments as it will become saturated with water & that is a massive problem. Your only solution (if you want your 100 year old walls to last another 100 years) is to insulate externally.
Hi. I am studying building surveying here in ireland. I am currently working on my dissertation. I am interested to know if you are aware of any cases of spawling walls due to over insulation. I would really appreciate any help you can give me with this subject. I would greatly appreciate your input or a possible 20 min skype or phone interview with somebody in your company. If this is possible or you can at least offer some help please reply as it will be extremely well appreciated. Thank you very much
This project is funded by the EU and no money has been allocated to do personal counselling with regards to insulation. You could try to write to ribuild@sbi.aau.dk - maybe one of the experts within the project would like to donate some personal time to your studies.
Great video! I am remodeling an apartment in Portugal and the wall gets so cold. Thinking of using ceramic cooating internally (via spray). I believe moisture doesn’t penetrate. Is it a common way for internal thermal insulation? How effective is it?
Coatings, dependent on their make-up, can lock in moisture, which is the last thing a wall needs. It either has to vapour permeable or not. If I was you, I would insulate the wall by strapping it with wood, infilling with insulation, installing a vapour barrier and then, applying insulated gyproc. Then, no warm air/moisture will reach your cold wall where it can condensate.
What about the use of cork as an internal insulation ? What is the best thickness/density to use for an internal wall which is set into a cutting in a hill ?
Rear concrete wall is built into the side of a sloping hill. Similar to the problems concerning a concrete basement wall. Bone dry concrete but for thermal insulation & to save on heating bills thought cork ideal ? What research have you on cork as insulation for interier walls ?
When you insulate the inside don't you lose the benefits of thermal mass, now requiring more cooling in the summer months. Seems like the energy efficiency gained in winter months is at least off set when now energy has to be used in the summer months for cooling when it was required before.
@@abescheele I guess it really depends on the environment of the homesite. I have a brick garage built in the early 1900's and it stays relatively cool in the summer. This is probably due to the location (MA) not very hot summers, and its in the shade all day so the brick never really absorbs heat from direct sun just ambient temps from outside
I thought about that but england doesnt have constant hot 6 month summers like the intense winter a of 7 months we have :p so actually its fine to swap it for some minor summer costs. Winter is a intense fuel burner when summer you can have a cold shower and cool down :p
Foil-faced PUR/PIR foams (actually foil-faced anything). foamglass (it's a closed-cell glass), XPS (Extruded polystyrene) is fairly vapour tight, but not totally (it's a scale, not a yes/no).
It can. If it gets damp or wet it's useless and it takes up a lot of space, it has half the insulation value of a solid PIR board type for the same thickness. It has to be treated otherwise insects and the like will eat it.
Thanks for the old video but there’s better products on the market now. Closed cell foam will resolve many problems external facade can be reproduced in foam and stucco spread over can be made to appear to be brick thermal bridges can be eliminated.
Hadrians wall in Scotland looks a bit shabby it’s only about 1600 year old and look at them tombs in Egypt still see the paint, technology we are catching up slowly
Condenses. Condensate is a noun (the liquid that collects when condensation happens). That was a strange/glaring mistake given the quality of English in the rest of the video.
That's really a great way of explanation. I need help from you guys. As im doing my thesis on how to do the heat insulation in an olden brick wall building in Germany. if I get some information regarding sustainable ways of heat insulations it will be helpful for me in my thesis. that building was built-in 1929-30. so the heat insulation was not that great in that building. it is under UNESCO heritage buildings.
Hi. I am also doing a small report about this problematic. May I ask you few questions about it? Let me know if you are willing to talk about this through email for example :)
@@jurajboda6738 I work in the insulation industry and I have attended courses on the insulation on solid stone walls. The insulation, plaster all has to be permeable to allow the wall to breathe and for moisture to wick back and forwards.
Thank god we have commie blocks that can have external insulation bolted on just like that without changing the looks more than making them a bit chonkier.
More crap Not one word about VENTILATION My house was built in 1911of bricks...NO insulation...inside or outside....and sign of damp...condensation... So ignore this crap
We insulated all the internal faces of our external walls last spring.
They're a 9" solid wall.
The difference it has made this winter is unbelievable.
For the first time in a decade the house feels dry and stays warm after the heating has been on..
Solid masonry walls? My house has a brick veneer over cinderblock, and plaster interior walls. No insulation. Were yours like this? I'm researching having interior framing and insulation installed to help our cold, damp house. Just wondering that's what you did?
@Sheena Rea the walls are clay bricks done in English bond, held together with Lime mortar.
We took all the internal plaster off (this was a mixture of gypsum & and under coat of cement!
We let the walls breathe for a month until they'd dried out some.
Then we used celotex insulation floor to ceiling, fixing it on with foam and a high strength grab adhesive. No mechanical fixings, as we didn't want a cold bridge, taped all the joints with foiled tape.
We Left that a couple of days to fully set. Hollowed out the insulation for the few wall sockets we have on the external walls.
Then fixed plaster board on with high strength grab adhesive.
Plastered, fitted new skirting and painted.
So far so good🤞
@@llisntcoolj2375 Good on you for using foam as the bonding. I used mechanical fixings and haven't had any problems though. As for the contents of this video - nearly all polyurethane insulation includes a foil skin - as does celotex - so the warnings about intersitial condensation are unnecessary - especially as you taped the joints. Our gas usage, over three years ago, was 13,000 kwh annually. Under 8,000 now, and the house stays warmer and more comfortable. There are a lot of scare stories going around about internal insulation just now. As long as the insulated plasterboard isn't fixed to timber grounds, there shouldn't be a problem. Joist ends in external walls just possibly - but the wall won't be insulated in those locations anyway.
@@llisntcoolj2375
How thick was the celotex insulation?
Thanks.
@@augnkn93043 60mm on the walls, but only 25mm in the window and door reveals, as 60mm +plasterboard would have come over the window frames onto the glazing.
Excellent! Short and to the point. Good graphics too.
Thank you. We did our best :-)
Great video, thank you guys!
Wood fibre insulation is key, then a breathable plaster like lime.
A breathable home is a happy home
Guys how do you find the highly performant diasen thermactive plaster to internally insulate a solid wall?
Great video
If you have radiators on the same wall as the insulation is it better to bring the pipes forwards or chaste them into the insulation material (e.g. Siniat Thermal PIR Tapered Edge)? I sense it's better to have them on the outside so as not to disrupt the insulation or vapor layer.
I just watched a video about the risks of exterior insulation. The main problem as I understood it was that it is difficult to completely insulate the exterior and the places that aren't insulated cause cold areas on the interior walls that cause condensation and mold. Also thermal bridging on stud walls could cause similar problems.
I've worked with removing damp problems in old buildings for years and I've got the picture that external insulation is always better than internal. The worst I've heard is that in some cases south side exterior insulation can actually make the building colder!
@@emmaearnshaw3282 That's interesting. It might be possible to calculate whether it is true or not. Estimate the solar gain with and without the insulation. As a practical matter it seems like for most locations it wouldn't be true. In cold and moderate climates there isn't a lot of heat gain possible in the winter and the heat loss without insulation would overwhelm the lost solar gain. In warmer climates you would still need to balance about 8 hours a day of reduced solar gain with 16 hours a day of no solar gain. And of course for houses in the warmer climates blocking solar gain in the summer time is a good thing.
Great simple video. Im looking for an interior solutio for a historic 93 year old builing w/ limestone exterior building with a plaster interior and no insulation in the US. Removing the plaster on the inside is cost pronibitive.
Any suggestions???
My house is an older cape cod (80 years old, cape, brick + cinder block, plaster walls). Pretty sure it's solid masonry, altho if there's an air cavity between the brick and cinder block, that will determine what steps to take. Matt Risinger has some great videos, one is on "Insulation of Masonry in Historic Buildings." At roughly the 5-minute mark Matt's guest has some ideas for solid masonry. Also, I highly recommend Belinda Carr, she has super informative videos, one on vapor barriers vs. vapor retarders. Since I'm in Zone 4, and *IF* my structure has an air cavity between the brick and cinder block, then I need a vapor retarder. But *IF* there is no air cavity in the walls, a vapor barrier might have to be constructed on the interior as mentioned in Matt's video. Depends on which Zone you're in.... I hope your solution will be easily determined. For me, it's finding out about the wall cavity, if I even have one. Good luck to you! 🙂
Excellent video. What insulation material is open for vapor diffusion though? I can only think of open cell spray foam but it is not a desired method to use IMO.
I've heard of a few: Diathonite lime, cork and clay based insulating plaster; or wood fibre, sheep wool and hemp with a lime plaster.
Udiin2cm
@@alexlees9223 Desirable for stone walls, yes. Use lime to allow vapour diffusion.
Lime, Cork, wood fibre, rockwool, wool, glass wool, hemp, hempcrete are examples of vapour open materials which can be used to insulate old buildings
Insulation that is open to vapor diffusion is = to say Vapor permeable?
Hi it would be awesome if you can confirm if Rockwool a mineral wool insulation sold in USA is or can be considered as an insulation that is open to vapor diffusion? if that's the case, this will be my go to insulation behind my 100 YO double brick walls.
Thanks for takin the time to upload this very informative videos :)
Do some more research, but rock wool was our first choice until we found out about sheep’s wool.
Mineral wool is great for insulation & its claimed to be hydrofobic. But in reality it performs really, really badly in wet environments as it will become saturated with water & that is a massive problem. Your only solution (if you want your 100 year old walls to last another 100 years) is to insulate externally.
Useful, thank you. Is there such a thing as an ecological vapor shield? I.e. non plastic? 👍👌
Google steico woodfibre board or cork insulation. It might give you another option.
How does moisture get past the acrylic paint on the sheetrock?
The coating system should be breathable. Trapped moisture is a big no-no.
Hi. I am studying building surveying here in ireland. I am currently working on my dissertation. I am interested to know if you are aware of any cases of spawling walls due to over insulation. I would really appreciate any help you can give me with this subject. I would greatly appreciate your input or a possible 20 min skype or phone interview with somebody in your company. If this is possible or you can at least offer some help please reply as it will be extremely well appreciated. Thank you very much
This project is funded by the EU and no money has been allocated to do personal counselling with regards to insulation. You could try to write to ribuild@sbi.aau.dk - maybe one of the experts within the project would like to donate some personal time to your studies.
Great video! I am remodeling an apartment in Portugal and the wall gets so cold. Thinking of using ceramic cooating internally (via spray). I believe moisture doesn’t penetrate. Is it a common way for internal thermal insulation? How effective is it?
Coatings, dependent on their make-up, can lock in moisture, which is the last thing a wall needs. It either has to vapour permeable or not. If I was you, I would insulate the wall by strapping it with wood, infilling with insulation, installing a vapour barrier and then, applying insulated gyproc. Then, no warm air/moisture will reach your cold wall where it can condensate.
What about the use of cork as an internal insulation ? What is the best thickness/density to use for an internal wall which is set into a cutting in a hill ?
Just to clarify - what do you mean by "an internal wall which is set into a cutting in a hill"? Could you expand on this a bit?
Rear concrete wall is built into the side of a sloping hill. Similar to the problems concerning a concrete basement wall. Bone dry concrete but for thermal insulation & to save on heating bills thought cork ideal ?
What research have you on cork as insulation for interier walls ?
@@ribuildproject1479 Please share infromation you have to date. Thank you.
@@personalexperience3637 There has not been done any research on the use of cork as insulation material in RIBuild, so we can't help you. Sorry.
@@personalexperience3637have you found a solution. I have a stone cottage built into the side of a hill and want to insulate internally! Thanks
When you insulate the inside don't you lose the benefits of thermal mass, now requiring more cooling in the summer months. Seems like the energy efficiency gained in winter months is at least off set when now energy has to be used in the summer months for cooling when it was required before.
No
Yes and no. Yes you lose thermal mass but also you insulate the external walls from outside. With lower mass walls this is beneficial in the summer.
@@abescheele I guess it really depends on the environment of the homesite. I have a brick garage built in the early 1900's and it stays relatively cool in the summer. This is probably due to the location (MA) not very hot summers, and its in the shade all day so the brick never really absorbs heat from direct sun just ambient temps from outside
I thought about that but england doesnt have constant hot 6 month summers like the intense winter a of 7 months we have :p so actually its fine to swap it for some minor summer costs. Winter is a intense fuel burner when summer you can have a cold shower and cool down :p
What insulation materials are vapour tight?
2:25
@@vikentijslauruts2153 foam board is the only one i can think of
Foil backed plasterboard
@@deanodog3667 plasterboard is not an insulation material.
Foil-faced PUR/PIR foams (actually foil-faced anything). foamglass (it's a closed-cell glass), XPS (Extruded polystyrene) is fairly vapour tight, but not totally (it's a scale, not a yes/no).
Another problem with internal insulation is that it shrinks the livable space of the building,
Just let them be
Why can’t wool insulation be used internally?
It can. If it gets damp or wet it's useless and it takes up a lot of space, it has half the insulation value of a solid PIR board type for the same thickness. It has to be treated otherwise insects and the like will eat it.
Thanks for the old video but there’s better products on the market now. Closed cell foam will resolve many problems external facade can be reproduced in foam and stucco spread over can be made to appear to be brick thermal bridges can be eliminated.
Hadrians wall in Scotland looks a bit shabby it’s only about 1600 year old and look at them tombs in Egypt still see the paint, technology we are catching up slowly
Yes becaus egypt is cold and wet just like scotland
@@lacka90 Heat wave pal haha god bless your Egyptian socks
Historic buildings are highly likely to be 'breathable' design and construction. There is an issue, but not as intense as the above video.
Condensates or condenses?
Condenses. Condensate is a noun (the liquid that collects when condensation happens). That was a strange/glaring mistake given the quality of English in the rest of the video.
That's really a great way of explanation.
I need help from you guys. As im doing my thesis on how to do the heat insulation in an olden brick wall building in Germany. if I get some information regarding sustainable ways of heat insulations it will be helpful for me in my thesis. that building was built-in 1929-30. so the heat insulation was not that great in that building. it is under UNESCO heritage buildings.
Hi. I am also doing a small report about this problematic. May I ask you few questions about it? Let me know if you are willing to talk about this through email for example :)
@@jurajboda6738 I work in the insulation industry and I have attended courses on the insulation on solid stone walls. The insulation, plaster all has to be permeable to allow the wall to breathe and for moisture to wick back and forwards.
Thank god we have commie blocks that can have external insulation bolted on just like that without changing the looks more than making them a bit chonkier.
So external is better
Maybe it's time to think about replacing historic buildings.
Co2 is great for us!
More crap
Not one word about VENTILATION
My house was built in 1911of bricks...NO insulation...inside or outside....and sign of damp...condensation...
So ignore this crap