External wall insulation - whats the best material?

Lara

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Can anyone advise what is currently the best insulation material for external wall insulation? We are in a 1930's 3 bed end of terrace with raked ceilings and need to get insulation.
 
How are external walls constructed, eg, are they built with a cavity between 2 layers of blocks? That will have a big bearing on the answer.
 
Well that rules out cavity pumped insulation. Your next options are internal or external insulation. If your inside rooms are small I would advise you not to go with internal insulation as this would substantially lessen your space. You're then left with external wall insulation. There's a lot of stuff written about that topic elsewhere on here. Have you any damp in the house?
 
We definitely don't have the space to go internal. There is damp in the curved part of the ceiling (the ceilings are raked) as there is zero insulation between that point and the roof. There is none anywhere else.
 
By raked ceilings are you saying that they're the very high type giving a feeling of lots of light and open space? For a 1930 terraced house it seems the design known as "raked ceilings" wouldn't have been in vogue at that time, have renovations been carried out or is the house laid out as it was originally?
 
A lot of the 30's and 40's corpo stock houses had partially sloped ceilings along the front and back walls where the first couple of feet of ceiling followed the roof line. These are problematic in terms of insulation as there is very little space between this section of ceiling and roofing.
 
A lot of the 30's and 40's corpo stock houses had partially sloped ceilings along the front and back walls where the first couple of feet of ceiling followed the roof line. These are problematic in terms of insulation as there is very little space between this section of ceiling and roofing.
Would you combine some internal insulation on the sloped ceiling here to assist the external outside?
 
Would you combine some internal insulation on the sloped ceiling here to assist the external outside?

I'm not an expert, but I believe this is probably the best way to deal with it, but you will still have some cold bridging at the top of the wall.
 
Sorry, my mails went into spam. Yes, as leo said they are the curved ceilings. When the weather is cold it comes straight through the curved point where there's no insulation.
 
Tip indirectly related to insulating - lot of people are having terrible trouble getting new fibre broadband cabling in where it involves drilling through external wall insulation. Have a word with the installers to make sure you're left with entry point.
 
lot of people are having terrible trouble getting new fibre broadband cabling in where it involves drilling through external wall insulation.

Do the installers not carry long drill bits? I'd worry about a professional installed who couldn't splash out less than €15 on a 1m bit for an ever increasing use case.
 
Do the installers not carry long drill bits? I'd worry about a professional installed who couldn't splash out less than €15 on a 1m bit for an ever increasing use case.
They have the long drill bits. The problem is the installers are not allowed to drill through external insulation, as any damage can be expensive to repair.
I got fibre installed, and it was only possible because I was happy to climb the ladder and drill the hole myself. Then we worked ahead.
They've loads of rules - they're also not supposed to go into your attic unless it's floored. Sure it's nearly impossible to get it installed...
 
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