Insulating an old cottage

[Mick Ball]

Hi,

I've just bought a 150 ish year old end of terrace cottage with a single story extension, (100 ish years old), on the north facing side.

This extension has solid walls that are two bricks thick & no cavity.

There is then battening that has plaster board fastened to it. The battening is of different thickness on different walls which leaves a 'cavity' between the brick and plaster board of different depths, from 2 to 8 inches.

The original house is built of stone with rubble filled walls.

The extension is noticeably colder than the rest of the house and this is where my living room is!

I'm thinking that I'd like to insulate the walls of my living room from the inside because it's empty at the moment and I'll be decorating it anyway.

I'd planned to remove the plaster board, make the battening deeper in places and fill between the cavity with some kind of insulation. I'd then re plaster board and skim over with a thin layer of plaster.

After doing some research, I've read that I need to be wary of condensation and that my house construction probably needs to be permeable so it can breathe.

Can anyone give me advise on what type of insulation I can use and if my method sounds sensible

Many thanks... Mick.

[Lexifir]

Bit tricky.

I can't think of a scenario that is perfect for you; one that insulates without potential trouble of having damp problems.

unless;

You go with a more expensive option.
If the inner section of the living room isn't supporting any weight, it could potentially be easy to take it down, re build a wall with a gap between for insulation. The plus side is that you will have a nice new neat wall to plaster, rather than mess around with battens.... and you won't have to worry about damp reaching the inner walls (if DPC is done well)
Downside, if there is any weight on the inner part of the wall it's gonna be problematic.

I have a similar, but thankfully small problem in a room, except that the wall is load bearing :(

Just my two cents....

[TheDoctor4]

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