Insulating an old house

[mistressploppy]

Our house is a late victorian semi and pretty damn cold. I'd rather waste money on heating than mess around with the original windows though, and I've heard that cavity wall insulation is a bit crap (can cause damp problems etc and doesn't save much heat - I could well be wrong though).

But there are few places that are noticeably cold and I wondered if there was anything I could do - the kitchen floor is freezing, and you get a cold blast of air when you open one cupboard in particular! which makes me think there's a draught coming up through the floor? (it's the ground floor but is a suspended floor as we have a partial basement towards the front of the house)

Is there such a thing as a draughty-insulation expert person who can come round and tell us what we can do?! I've made a start with heavy curtains over doors etc

Thanks!

Your house might not have cavity walls anyway as it's Victorian, slightly more likely if it's up north. You can get specialists that can insulate the internal walls. You will get draughts from under the floor as this age of property uses suspended timber floors and your air bricks around the house cause the draughts. Simple way around the draughts is to fit something simple like laminate/vinyl to the floor, if you go for the original floorboard finish all the gaps will bring the cold air in. There are companies that can insulate your floor but I think it can be quite expensive. Cheap one with the windows which my grandparents have in there old cottage and we had in my parents house with timber windows is to fit secondary glazing, you can just get a sheet of Perspex and get it cut to the size of the window and fit it to the internal frame with a seal over winter,works a treat on the draughts

Thanks Shabby. We have the kitchen boarded and lino'ed but it's still v cold - I think perhaps I just need to suck it up. Just as well I've got good slippers

Ive not heard that cavity wall insulation causes problems - assuming it doesnt, its so cheap to get done that I would. We paid £99 on some sort of scheme (not income tested).

Loft insulation is similarly cheap - check yourself for any holes in roof, gaps between tiles etc.

Do you have open chimneys? woodburners are better, or you can buy an inflatable 'cushion' to stop drafts.

Check your heating is efficient when its on - radiators working properly, thermostats etc.

We brought magnaglaze panels for our single glazed windows (listed so couldnt replace). They are amazing.

Heavy curtains on all windows and external doors, draft excluders.

Check all windows, doors, skirtings, are tight fitting and dont have gaps.

Theres loads you can do around the house quickly and cheaply with various fillers, you just need to spend time checking carefully.

Ooh tell me more about the magneglaze please! We have a new old and cold house and we've replaced a load of radiators, done secondary glazing and replaced windows where we can but we won't be able to afford replacing the single glazing in our kitchen and another couple of rooms for a while. How to they compare visually and how expensive are they?

I think we've used magna glaze - it is strips of magnetic tape that you use around the windows to attach a sheet of acrylic to as a form of cheap secondary glazing. It dies work and you can take it off in summer if you want to.

British gas are still offering free cavity wall and loft insulation under the government green scheme..It isn't means tested and you don't need to be a customer of British gas to qualify. We are having our house surveyed next month to see if anything can be done to our very cold house...! Worth a try. I haven't heard anything bad about cavity wall insulation - if you have damp problems obviously these should be cleared up first but apart from that it's supposedly very good. I'd give them a ring and see if they can give you some advice - with ours they had knowledge of what kind of walls etc we had from the previous energy results from the survey we had done when we purchased the house. Worth asking.

cavity wall insulation can cause huge problems in old houses
old houses were made to breathe usually with lime mortar etc so sealing tends to seal moisture in DH restores old buildings so he sees the problems and the difficulties undoing these mistakes

if part of house is harled or roughcast make sure you use breathable paint not sealant style paint

most victorian houses do not have cavity walls

loft insulation fine with natural materials like lambswool by products not so with fibreglass type stuff on a roll

secondary glazing can work very nicely

generally floorboards were designed to be covered with rugs often floorboards around edge of main rooms better quality than central ones for this reason

Yes Bibodog is correct about the Magnaglaze. A company called Storm Windows do the same system in glass, its so unobtrusive that it is used in National Trust properties. Unfortunately it costs about £1k per widow and glass is heavy to take on or off. So magnaglaze is perfect and much cheaper.