Hi everyone, I am new here but am hoping for some friendly advice (be gentle with me, I am a dreaded female D.I.Yer) . I have undertaken my first renovation project and am hoping for some advice on insulating the walls of my 1800's cottage. This cottage was a repossession so although we can tell a few walls have apparently been dry lined we cannot see the exact methods used, but the kitchen area is a disaster zone! After tree cutting, rubbish removal, guttering repair etc our kitchen walls are finally drying out but we are thinking of insulating them as at the moment they are just bare brick with a very tough concrete render internally. The walls are a solid 9 inch single skin brick which are not in the best condition but sound. We have had so much conflicting advice....dry line, don't dry line, Kingspan then separate plaster board, thermal back plaster board, so on and so on...... We are so confused about which road to take! We are confident the wall is currently dry but because the exterior walls have historic painted brick (bad for walls we know) that cannot be removed, would dry lining the interior walls cause more problems? Any advice at all including suggested materials would be so helpful as we are going around in circles?!?!?
Hi, dry lining wont cause any probs. My method would be to frame the walls with 3 or 4" cls. Fit a solid insulation board like Kingspan between the studs and dwangs, leaving an air space between the back of the panels and the walls. Fit a vapour barrier then line with 12.5mm plasterboard. This can either be taped and filled or skim coated. This is probably the easiest method for a DIYer. Might be worth checking the damp course on a house this age with single skin construction.