Insulation Advice

Solid Wall Insulation

Solid walls lose even more heat than cavity walls, the only way to reduce this heat loss is to insulate them internally or externally.
This will help create a more even temperature in your home, help prevent condensation on the walls and ceilings and can also reduce the amount of heat building up inside your home during the summer. It's a fairly expensive measure, but you will very quickly see the benefit, with a decrease to your heating bills and it's another way of reducing your carbon footprint. There are two types of solid wall insulation: external and internal.

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The above diagrams shown from left to right 1. Internal mineral wool insulation 2. Sempatap thermal, flexible internal insulation 3. Cross section of external wall cladding system.

How external wall insulation works
This involves adding a weather-proof insulating material to the outside of your walls. The thickness of the insulation needs to be between 50 and 100mm in thickness and is usually installed where there are severe heat loss and damp problems or the exterior of the building requires repair work providing the ideal opportunity to add the insulation.

The savings
External wall insulation is more expensive than cavity wall insulation but it could save you about £300 a year on your fuel bills and it could pay for itself in six years.
A three bedroom semi-detached house could save nearly 2.5 tonnes of CO2 a year.

How it is installed
The cost of external wall insulation is around £1,900 for a semi-detached house*. The External Wall Insulation Association (EWIA) maintains a register of trusted systems and installers. If a professional system is used the work must be carried out by a specialist contractor but, local architect designed and approved systems can be installed by a good local builder.
*The marginal cost includes the insulation and labour when other wall repairs are being done at the same time. The full cost of installation (ignoring any remediation costs is typically around £4,500 for a semi-detached house, with a payback of around 15 years).