We have a beautiful old 1920's house but it is so cold we are genuinely thinking about moving. We have put in underfloor insulation and the ceiling is insulated. The walls have paneling and so would be far to expensive to gut the house to put in insulation. I once saw something about drilling holes in the wall and pumping in some sort of insulation. Is there such a thing as an independent insulation specialist who could help us. We'd much prefer to stay but I have a serious health issues that my specialist said has been greatly affected by the cold this winter.
golfdiver,
Nov 6, 5:13am
That spray insulation through small holes in the walls proved to be just a little bit worse than useless. Do you have exposed floorboards in your villa? I've seen a lot of them start to open up as the floor dries and shrinks after underfloor insulation.
shanreagh,
Nov 6, 5:14am
What about double glazing on the windows. I have a 1905 villa in Wellington and have double glazed, in character the south facing windows and am gradually moving to do them around the whole house. Even though I have done this I still have got really good thick curtains. some with the padding called bumpf in them. you can add this yourself.
Are all the walls panelled? If there are any that have gib or plaster linings then you can retro fit wall insulation by taking out a square from the inside and then putting building paper, wall insulation and any new plugs in and then putting a new piece of gib in the gap and plastering the join. I did this in two bedrooms and it made a great difference. Not sure when you did the ceiling insulation but nowadays they put a blanket over the whole lot over the insulation. Mine just had the insulation between the joists/dwangs rafters. not sure what correct name is? When I had it upgraded they filled up the gaps, insulation sinks after a while, and then covered the whole lot with a blanket so it looks like a winter wonderland in my ceiling space now.
if you have access to the underfloor of your house could you investigate putting a system of underfloor heating through in every room so the whole house is kept at a uniform temperature and then boost the rooms you use by spot heating.
Make sure that your house has a 'skirt' around the bottom. So many houses are not properly finished around the bottom and do not have the gap between the weatherboards and the ground filled in and the wind just whistles under the house.
In Wellington we have access to the Sustainability Trust which is an independent heating/insulation adviser. Not sure if they work up to Kapiti where your profile shows you are but give them a ring and they will be able to help. The other idea is to ring KCDC and ask if they have access to an independent adviser. Some times councils have scheme to help their residents.
Then there are the usual tips of airing your house and drawing the curtains as soon as the sun has gone etc etc. These help retain the heat.
johotech,
Nov 6, 5:19am
What sort of heating do you have and how much did you spend on fuel (power, gas, wood etc) over the winter?
A lot of people say their house is cold, but they don't want to spend money to turn the heating on either. No amount of insulation or double glazing etc is going to help if that's the case.
torst,
Nov 6, 6:07am
Unfortunately every room has paneling of various types. Only the hall has exposed boards but we put a runner down the hall. We have a heat pump but moved into a smaller over winter but out power bill was $400 per month; water heating is gas. In the smaller room we use an energy efficient electric heater. I had so much trouble this year with my health that over winter I chose to sleep in the sitting room. The house has brick and stucco below the window line so no problem there. I think our only option is to either take out the paneling and insulate then or move.
carter19,
Nov 6, 6:17am
Moving house costs alot of money. Agents fees, moving costs, stress etc. could be cheaper to remove your paneling and pay a builder to put it right etc etc.
rotormotor7,
Nov 6, 6:19am
brick and stucco houses have a cavity gap full height from underfloor to ceiling space as in gap between bottom plate of wall and brick cladding to let it 'breathe'. or is that induce drafts.
builders, during renovation on exterior walls , run a membrane paper stapled in between the timber framework (studs and dwangs) boxing the frames to contain and enclose the insulation hokding away from brickwork.
doesnt answer you question but shows without removing inner linings. near impossible to insulate sadly
tweake,
Nov 6, 6:25am
its not that simple. you have to consider the water and moisture control setup. ie outside wall covering and any drainage layers behind it. if you just put insulation in, it can absorb water and you end up with mold/rot. most of those older homes use air flow up the inside of the wall to dry it out. insulation will remove that so you need to install moisture control. typically thats building paper. however fitting it in a way that it actually works can be tricky. ideally its best to remove the outside covering (weatherboard etc) and fit it. obviously thats a big expensive job.
no matter what you do, you will need consent. i would talk to a builder and see what can be done.
johotech,
Nov 6, 6:41am
Ok so your power bill isn't outrageously low, or high.
But from what you said, did you move out of the room with the heatpump and into a smaller room with a different type of heater? That could be one reason why you spent a reasonable amount on power, but were still cold.
I would be extremely dubious about anything claiming to be an "energy efficient electric heater". You can't always believe what you read on the box. ANY electric heater, other than a heatpump, is NOT energy efficient. This especially applies to anything similar to an "eco panel heater".
External wall insulation isn't a necessity. There are other simple things you can do to improve the heat retention in the house. Eliminating drafts from windows, doors, even old style power points can allow drafts. Replacing old downlights with modern sealed ones. Get thermal curtains (proper heavy lined ones that go all the way to the floor - not something cheap from the warehouse). Some old houses even have ceiling medallions (in the center where the light is), that is ventilated to the ceiling - even the small wood blocks where the center light is mounted in an old house, can allow warm air to escape.
Other that thing like that, the only other advice I can give you is that a heatpump is the MOST efficient form of heating. Modern ones give you at least 3.5 times the amount of heat, compared to the amount of power they use. A heatpump can easily save you $50-$100 per month on your heating cost compared to other forms of electric heating.
johotech,
Nov 6, 6:45am
Not true. A lot of renovations done with building consents have insulation installed from the inside.
OP Are you saying that you don't have carpet on the floors? I would put carpet on the floors before insulating walls. Keep the nice floorboards for the warmest room that is easy to heat and that you don't use very often and carpet/heat the rest. If not willing to do that get large rugs or several smaller rugs and cover all the floorboards in winter. you can easily move them in summer.
mrfxit,
Nov 6, 9:11am
Biggest single reason for cold older houses is ppl insisting on having bare floors. Those houses were NEVER designed for bare floorboards Yea looks pretty but it's not going to keep the house warm in the cold weather
silv414,
Nov 6, 9:29am
Exactly this, by forking out and insulating the house properly you should see a dramatic drop in your electricity bills this coupled with the costs in the above comment make it sensible for you to stay put if you like the house.
rotormotor7,
Nov 7, 9:40am
What? I know been plenty renos as per my membrane post. I read they DONT want to remove panelling inside to install, house is brick with stucco below window line ( no outside options) poster #9 weatherboards are not installed reading post # 6.
tweake,
Nov 7, 9:02pm
sorry i was referring it as example of outside cladding rather than what it actually is. ie get builder to inspect what cladding they have and see what they can actually do. if cladding is in poor shape it may be worth the cost to reclad and install insulation.
jonners2013,
Nov 8, 1:49am
lots of turn of the century houses were designed to have lovely big floorboards, there was no intention of covering them up.
brooksy1,
Nov 8, 2:26am
Okay let me see if I can clarify so questions. Below the window line is stucco & brick above that is weatherboard. The house is carpeted. The hall was plain floorboards but we laid a a carpet runner down it. The house is neither damp or draughty just bloody cold. Even today when it is sunny outside it is still cold. The living areas face south with the kitchen north facing, there is a chimney breast between the kitchen and living areas. The chimney isn't used and we did think that if we opened up the area it would allow the sun to reach and therefore warm the area. Have decided to find an insulation specialist and see what could be done.
vomo2,
Nov 8, 3:11am
We had Airfoam pumped into our damp cold house walls, 4 years ago. We love the difference it made. Highly recommend it!
tweake,
Nov 8, 3:27am
airfoam are long gone for good reason.
but your post highlights an issue, customers may think its great but you won't really know the damage until you open up the walls, or things start to fail/rot which may be sometime down the track. out of sight out of mind. feels warm it must be good.
russ18,
Nov 8, 7:41pm
If you have pipied gas then gas cooking, water heating and most importantly for you gas central heating on a $129 fixed monthly plan.
trad,
Nov 8, 7:48pm
Where can I read about this?
shanreagh,
Nov 9, 3:53am
Have you got any roof windows. I have a villa and have a couple and to see the sun inside is great. Also have you go the black polythene covering the dirt underneath your house? Still think an idea would be the gas central heating operated by a thermostat.
What ever you do to the place it will be expensive, seriously consider a new home if its in your budget - what ever you do to your old home it will never be as good as a new thoroughly insulated home with double glazing etc. what price do you put on your health?
pogram0,
Nov 17, 7:44am
I had a product called Insulpro pumped into the ceiling cavity and walls of my bungalow. I think there is also a similar product called Insultech. Check out their websites. I am quite pleased with the product although I do not have any data on difference in temperatures over the winter before and after and do not have any health issues.
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