OldVirgin

Thanks for your reply bud. Breathable insulation is 100% what I want. I've found some 40mm hemp insulation boards - what are your thoughts on beading some adhesive to one and sliding it in between the gap between the wall and wardrobe and sticking it to the wall?

Hi, I've got a built-in wardrobe up against a cold external wall which is susceptible to condensational mould issues (every external wall in the house suffers). The wall is currently clean and has been recently treated to remove the mould, however no measures have been put in place as of yet to reduce the condensation build up. The long term, cavity wall insulation is going to help however, in the mean time, I'm thinking with scenarios like this where it's a ballache to deconstruct and reconstruct that some insulating board (25mm celotex with 12.5mm plasterboard bonding) stuffed between the 40mm gap between the wall and wardrobe and bonded to the external wall may be a good solution to reducing the condensation. What are your thoughts on this method opposed to ripping it out, and repainting the wall with anti- condensation paint? Would this maintain a steady temperature on the wall enough to reduce the level of condensation or would it cause pockets of moisture and potentially hide the issue from inspection?

Thanks, this is exactly what I'm hoping to achieve. Would you suggest leaving a gap between the celotex and the roofing sheet OR between the celotex and the ceiling (plasterboard or plywood) to aid ventilation?

It's a 6m x 4m garage with block walls and a correlated azzy roof. Not a pre-fabbed garage if that's what you mean? Not particularly looking to make it "habitable" just usable for a bit of office space. Do you think replacing the roof is a MUST? Trying to limit how much I neccesarily need to do. I'm happy to replace the azzy corrugated for some bitumin corrugated to freshen it up but I want to avoid putting a completely new roof on it, if possible. My main concern is whether I can realistically create an insulated false roof internally (framed ceiling as in the above photo with some celotex in between the sections and boarded over), without introducing condensation and ventilation problems?

I have a digital temperature monitor permenantly measuring the ambient temperature upstairs and downstairs. And I have a handheld digital temperature sensor which gives me a temperature reading on the material I'm pointing it at; it references the first material you point it at, and then compares anything else you measure to it. I've used this to check draughts as it has a 0.1 degree resolution so I can pick up on cold spots. I do want to get a thermal imaging camera involved just as extra information, but I don't think it will tell me anything I don't already know. I already know where the cold spots are.

For a bit of context, this is an example of what I'm hoping to achieve. Corrugated roof, timber framed false ceiling, celotex insulation, then boarded over with ply/plasterboard.

Flat corrugated

For the sake of £50 and a bit of painting I'm happy to test the theory but definitely don't expect any miracles. Just something to stop the walls being so god damn cold and absorbing all the heat from the room so quickly is what I'm hoping for.

Aside the obvious aesthetics, what are the benefits to replacing the roof for a different style?

Not sure exactly. The house is 1970s-ish. It looks quite fibreous.

Ha. Somewhere in between would be ideal? I'm proposing the office and gym to be a self-contained pod-style design. A box within a box, if you will. I just wanted to put some thought into insulating the gap between the ceiling of the room, and the roof of the garage for extra comfort. I'm not looking to make the garage into a second house. A bit of office space for the day, a space for a gym and the remaining space as a small workshop with storage. If it's a bit chilly, it's not going to be a big problem.

Any photos of anything you guys have already done would be great 👍

Hi guys, I'm converting my empty garage into a home office/gym/garage and I'm currently in the preparational stage of working out the ins and out of what I'm going to do. There's a lot that needs doing but the main issue I have, is that the roof is a standard corrugated roof and I believe it to be asbestos (haven't had any samples yet). I am proposing to create a false ceiling so I can insulate the office/gym space and trap some of those azzy fibres dropping into those spaces if the roof ever becomes damaged - I'm just wondering whether creating a simple framed suspended ceiling just below the corrugated roof and sliding some celotex in-between the two would poise any condensational problems or what other people might suggest? Replacing the asbestos roof for a bitumen corrugated roof instead is an option, but I don't think it's going to help much with creating a false ceiling for insulation. Secondary to that, I am shying away from the traditional plasterboard as a ceiling option as I feel like the dampness of the garage might make it weak and liable to fall so would blue-aqua plasterboard or even ply be a better option to use? Thanks, Darren

I feel this is my best route too. I'm going to get round to re-insulating the loft (old rockwool out, new rockwool in) and board out the inner part of the loft space. I think this should help stop the heat from escaping through the ceiling and allow me to properly access and assess the eaves to do just as you've explained. I'm going to slide some insulating board into the gaps and hope that helps. Ceilings and Walls all read roughly what the ambient temperature is (sometimes even higher if the room has recently been heated). Not sure whether that suggests heat is escaping the room through the walls and eventually escaping beyond that or whether the walls and ceilings are maintaining the heat fairly well. Either way, the heat doesn't stay very long in the rooms and the walls and ceilings are usually proportional to what the ambient temperature is reading. I lost 3 degrees in 1 hour yesterday. Ambient was 15 degrees, heated for about 1 1/2 hours to reach 19 degrees, dropped back down to 16 degrees an hour after the heating had turned off. It's almost like there's a permenant window open but I've checked absolutely everywhere for draughts and sealed the ones I have found. It's almost pointless putting the heating on because it just doesn't retain anything at all.

You raise a few good points, thanks. My sole purpose is to prevent heat loss, so boarding it over was a solution to ensuring the heat stays within the ceiling void and doesn't dissipate into the drafty roof space - are you saying that 300mm of insulation is more than suitable to achieve this without the need to board it up? Cavity's are empty, already had them surveyed. However the company at the time of surveying would only insulate cavity and loft, not one or the other and they opted for spray foam insulation in the loft which I respectfully declined (it's a mess, and I read a few articles to suggest mortgage lenders don't like spray foam so err'd on the side of caution). I think I will look into EPS beads for the cavity's at some point though as it'll help a lot.

Definitely not vouching for thermal paint as a replacement for insulation. I completely agree that you'd need a layer of paint around 300mm to get anywhere near the insulating factors needed to fully insulate a room, and I don't expect any miracle cures. I am however happy to slap a bit on the sloping areas to see if I can minimise the heat loss fractionally, maybe enough to take a bit of the chill off the wall. My logic is that, if I can reduce the humidity by stopping moisture developing on cold walls, then it may help make the house feel warmer as there would be less moisture in the air. In terms of delicately insulating the eaves (I genuinely feel like this is where most of my heat is lost in each room upstairs), when I get round to jumping up in the loft. What products would you suggest? Rigid insulating boards just slotted into place?

Hi - new member here. Spark by day, draught finder by night. The Mrs things I'm having an episode when I'm touching up the walls 🙄 My house is bloody cold, and I mean bone chilling sometimes. It doesn't take long to heat, but it drops about 3 degrees in 2 hours and is noticeably cold again. I've never compared it before so is this a normal amount of heat loss? I know it's starting to get colder but I don't feel like it should be dropping that much, that quick. I've invested in a mid-range heat gun, and these are my statistics. When the ambient temperature drops to 15.5 upstairs (with a fairly constant 80% humidity), the walls and ceilings are at a temperature of 17.5-18.5 however where the eaves are situated the corners of the external walls slope internally where the wall meets the ceiling and at these areas the temperature is between 14.5-15.5 which makes me think a lot of the heat is being lost through this area. I've draught proofed as many areas as I can physically see, boxed in behind the toilet, replaced seals around doors, insulated loft hatch, even sealed around the edges of the floors where skirting board meets floor board. I know I can't jump up in the loft and block the eaves because I'll be making my situation worse and I really don't want to box out the "sloped ceiling" areas as it will look fugly, but at some point I will be reinsulating the loft space because at the moment it's been laid fairly roughly. My plan is to insulate up to 270mm minimum (maybe more if I can achieve the depth) and fully board the loft out ensuring there are gaps at the eaves for ventilation, hoping that will help maintain some heat but do you guys have any other suggestions of areas to look for? I'm going to spend £50 on some thermal paint, I've read some good reviews of the area adding 2 degrees to the temperature of the wall. I'm thinking if I paint the eave slopes at ceiling level, I may be able to reduce the amount of heat loss slightly. If it doesn't make a difference then some thermal wallpaper will probably be my next cost effective choice just along the eave slopes. *80% humidity is fairly high, I know. Really unsure why it's that high as I don't have any mould issues (the bathroom comes up with spots every now and again but it's treated immediately and that's due to the window not being left open as often as it should in the bathroom after a shower). I gave up stressing about that a while ago because I figured it's not really bothering me - whether it's a tell tale sign to some of you more experienced folk, I'm not sure.