Tigg

Hi all - this is my first post here, so be kind I have a very tiny barn in cornwall, where I'm from - it's over 150 years old, not listed, but it is in a conservation area, a traditional barn for these parts, made of granite, and in a mess - unused for probably 50 years or so, needs a change of use applied for, and in doing that we'll be asked how we're going to comply with insulation regs - sometimes it seems in these circumstances owners are expected to match new-build standards, but my argument would be that this has always been a breathable building, and to put 200mm of PIR everywhere will stop it breathing, leading to problems - it will also nab a large amount of the available space, as this barn is really tiny - so I'd be asking for the historic nature of this barn to be taken into account, including its breathability, and then asking that we use other insulation materials, probably aerogel in some form (I know, it's VERY expensive, but this is a tiny barn) - we can show calculations that would prove we were doing the best we could without damaging the fabric of the building, but has anyone out there actually DONE THIS????? in terms of speaking to building control, persuading them that you don't have to match new build regs, doing your best to get as close as possible to the regs etc - have you done this and how did you do it? I'd REALLY appreciate any experience anyone has of this tricky area - thanks very much - nick