its not about heating you home up,its about keeping the heat from escaping

We have thermal lined chenille curtains which have made a huge difference on our front doors and rear patio doors. The difference is truly amazing. Also, the silver foil behind radiators, a new very thick padded cover on the hot water tank. We pull the curtains as soon as it’s dusk. As soon as they’re all pulled it’s noticeably warmer. We do what we can.

Has anyone painted or rendered over pebbledash? Or removed pebbledash, in which case is it worth the risk if the bricks being poor quality or damaged??

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I'm just renewing the radiator foils this week and, boy, is there a difference. The older ones which were getting a bitt tatty were foil stuck on 1mm thick polystyrene. The new one is foil stuck on (very cheap looking) bubblewrap and cost £24 a roll of 8 metres length. I don't know how to make my lounge window better. The double glazing is about 25 years old and if we have very strong winds, it almost whistles. I've evern put up a secondary set of curtains behind the main ones.

We did it while living in the house as well. As we do each room (a lot need replastering) we will insulate at the same time. Having seen the difference it makes it’s worth it.

Katie59 I think it was more the house than the builder.

We only had the walls of three of the bedrooms insulated. We have no electrics on our outside walls, when the previous owner had the rewiring done, all electrical points were on inside walls. We did have radiators, but it was summer they were not being used and our builder moved them. We live in a very old house and the radiator pipes ran along the top of the skirting boards. so the insulation went as far as the pipes, then under them and then a new deeper skirting board was fitted that hid them, so no pipes to be rerouted.

All our rooms are large so we did the furniture moving, we just pushed the furniture into the middle of the room and against internal walls, so that did not require much effort, nor did pushing it back. Finally we do all our own decorating and that just got done as and when I had time, again, no furniture needed moving, only things like bedside tables and curtains.

It wasn't particularly messy because he was using insulation backed plasterboard and that only required a light skim of plaster over it, not a full plastering job.

Monica
Please send the address of your magician builder.

Clear room
Disconnect electrics and radiators
Fit new wall panels
Plaster
Refit radiators, electrics, radiators, skirting etc
2 coats of paint
Clear up and re furnish

All in 2 days amazing

Katie59 we did just part of the house and continued using the rooms while the work was going on.

The builder just put fixed sheets of insulated plaster to the wall with dabs of plaster and skimmed over it and replaced the skirting board. That can be done on a room by room basis as you redecorate. Each room took about 2 days to do.

The biggest problem was getting rid of the off cuts afterwards. We paid our builder, a neighbour day rates and the material costs and were left with the spare plasterboard.

Some we had a use for, small bits just went in the rubbish sack. It was the stuff we took to the tip that was the problem. Our tip doesn't accept plasterboard. The tip 15 miles away that did, didn't take plasterboard with foam on the back, but if we scraped it all off...... In the end we took it to France the next time we went. Our local tip there was quite happy to accept it!

M0nica

Nezumi65 we had internal wall insulation like that put in in parts of our house and it made much of the house so much warmer and more comfortable.

This is the answer to lower heating costs but it’s expensive and only really practical if you are refurbishing the house or at least a large part of it.

Nezumi65 we had internal wall insulation like that put in in parts of our house and it made much of the house so much warmer and more comfortable.

We don’t have cavity walls. When our kitchen was redone we had insulation (like large foam panels) added and then the plaster. That room is noticeably warmer.

watermeadow For window reason you list I use tubes of rice or grains, as shown.
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In older houses once you have got ceiling insulation, double glazed windows and stopped the draughts doing more becomes expensive.
Probably better to move to a modern properly insulated house and let someone else improve yours

I live in an old listed cottage with draughty sash windows and insulation only in the roof space. The moment the central heating goes off you can feel the temperature dropping. The difference from modern houses is huge, they stay warm and cost a fraction to heat.

Well, its not banned, it is cheap, it is used in commercial buildings and, even if not officially, it is sometimes sold as away of dealing with a roof that has a lot of slipping tiles as it consolidates them and is cheaper than re-roofing.

The only people encouraging its use are those who install it!

It is like so many things, properly used on suitable roofs, where there has been a thorough roof survey and assessment before hand, it is probably as effective and undamaging as any other method, but when products, initially developed for one use, are seen to have another use, without there being any proper technical assessment, problems arise.

At the end of the day, that is what lay behind the cladding scandal, a real and genuine need and desire to make buildings more energy efficient, followed by looking around for ways of doing this and seeing materials developed for another use that they thought would be ideal for the job and using them without them being properly assessed for the new use.

M0nica Thanks for this. But I don’t understand why home owners are being urged to have it installed? Doesn’t make sense.

LouisB12 It has been know for some years that foam inslation sprayed on the back of tiles is not a good thing.

This link may help www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2021/12/21/rpsa-warns-250000-homes-could-be-unmortgageable-due-to-spray-foam-insulation/

Personally, I wouldn't touch a house with spray foam insulation, unless I had factored in the cost of removing it, but then it could be hiding a failing roof.

Insulation isn't always a good idea it seems. I've had a surveyor's report on a house I was hoping to buy but I'm having second thoughts as spray foam cell insulation was installed in the loft when the house was built thirteen years ago. Apparently this means many mortgage lenders won't lend on such a property because such insulation can lead to rotting roof timbers. Yet the government has been providing grants for this type of insulation. I don't need a mortgage but am worried that when the house is eventually resold there will be problems, not least if the roof timbers have failed. Has anyone any experience or thoughts on this dilemma?

There was a startling post on MN recently - someone said that you could never warm up by putting a jumper or any other extra layers on, if the house was cold - you’d just stay cold.

A few posters did explain, gently and patiently enough! that layers would trap your own body heat, so you would eventually warm up.

Yes I agree dehumidifier is essential if all draughts closed off. Moisture has to go somewhere and will gravitate to colder rooms/walls and lead to health problems from mould. Keep bathroom window a bit open when shower in use, keeps lids on boiling saucepans.

The original nine inch brick construction of our 1938 house with large bay windows, high ceilings and single pane windows is like a fridge in winter unless the heating is running. The new extended part, fully insulated with double glazed windows is toasty.

But the house is lovely. We just adapt and live in the warm parts when it’s really cold with the odd burst of heat when we need or want it.

Older houses are beautiful.

You can buy ‘Insulating Wallpaper’ not sure of the cost though.

One thing that can help if there is the slightest hint of damp is a dehumidifier, a friend with a stone cottage on the top of a cold northern hill finds that if she uses it to draw the moisture out of the air it is warmer than without using it, and it is cheap to run. Damp makes the place chillier, if you ever dry clothes indoors then this helps them dry sooner and obviously cuts down on any damp from them

Ahhh bijou, congratulations on getting to 99. I do like your attitude

I remember the days when we just had a coal fire in the living room and a boiler in the breakfast room to heat the water. I’ce on the bedroom windows. We wore thicker clothes then mainly wool because not a lot of synthetics had been invented.
Today I had phone call a man trying trying to sell me new double glazing after I told him that mine was twenty years old. I let him carry on until I told him I was ninety nine years old.
My bungalow has wall insulation and about three thicknesses of insulation in attic but at my age I am not bothered about the electricity bill.b