vagrantly3893 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) Our new property has a bedroom that has been extended in to the barn: Wall 1: Half the wall is internal, half external. External: Solid brickwall, double glazed window. Wall 2: Solid external wall. This wall has a radiator and sloping roof which is insulated with mineral wool. The wall and sloping roof have thin styrofoam stuck against it. Wall 3: This wall connects with the barn. Previously it was covered with wood panels and styrofoam insulation was loosely placed between the wall and the wood. Not sure if this provided any insulation. Wall 4: The only square wall: Previously it was covered with wood panels and styrofoam insulation was loosely placed between the wall and the wood. Half the wall is in the barn, and the other half connects to an unheated storage room. Floor: concrete Ceiling: Wood. I'm not sure if this is insulated. Will need to have a look. Perhaps I could just roll out some mineral wool on the flat roof of the room? Because we haven't lived in this property we don't know how well this room heats and retains heat. The exposure to external walls is quite small because of the sloping roof and the wall with the window & door is only half external. The barn is cold (perhaps the same temperature as outside?). However there won't be any rain or wind inside the barn so we don't need to worry about moisure coming through the wall from the outside. I am thinking of insulating the walls internally, but not sure which will have the best impact. Only one wall is square. The other 3 have the sloping roof profile. The wall with the door frame and window seem to be the most difficult to insulate, and the wall with the sloping roof only has maybe 4ft height exposed to the external wall. The walls to the barn seem like the easiest to insulate as we don't need to worry about windows, door, sockets, pipes etc. Edited February 21, 2023 by vagrantly3893 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceverge Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Welcome @vagrantly3893. I've been studying the pics and not coming up much the wiser as to the layout. Can you provide a quick sketch as to what are internal and external walls etc? Also any abutting walls. The structure looks a little like my standard of blockwork...... Might it be worth just starting from scratch? You're on continental Europe also I'm guessing? ( Plug sockets + bricks) Are you familiar with the range of products available in your local builders merchants? No point in specifing materials that are not available. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vagrantly3893 Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 4 hours ago, Iceverge said: Welcome @vagrantly3893. I've been studying the pics and not coming up much the wiser as to the layout. Can you provide a quick sketch as to what are internal and external walls etc? Also any abutting walls. The structure looks a little like my standard of blockwork...... Might it be worth just starting from scratch? You're on continental Europe also I'm guessing? ( Plug sockets + bricks) Are you familiar with the range of products available in your local builders merchants? No point in specifing materials that are not available. Nice idea, here are a couple more pictures: There are no abutting walls. Yes it looks like a DIY job from previous owners, but ideally we don't want to build from scratch. Yes, we are based in Germany. I only ask on here because my German is still not so great. I haven't looked at products yet. I was hoping to get an idea of possibilities before browsing for products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceverge Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 2 hours ago, vagrantly3893 said: There are no abutting walls Maybe my terminology is wrong. I meant the ones outlined here. It rules out the idea of making a good job of external insulation as there'll be too many thermal bridges. 2 hours ago, vagrantly3893 said: Yes it looks like a DIY job from previous owners, but ideally we don't want to build from scratch With internal insulation you'll end up with a much smaller room or with external insulation you'll end up with a minimal improvement due to the aforementioned thermal bridges. A knock and rebuild, even of 3 walls and the roof might be worth considering. A small timber frame wouldn't break the bank. Otherwise some PIR inboard and foam tape all joints and 22mm battens for a service cavity. And then plasterboard. Some PIR on the floor and float 2 layers of OSB crossed glued and screwed over it. Get some dedicated ventilation in there too. Otherwise it'll be musty. Germany has more or less everything for sale s far as I can remember. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vagrantly3893 Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 A rebuild might be the best option then. Do it right. A friend of ours recently had a room built out in to her barn and she was very happy with it. We could even dig the floor down and have it insulated. It's only the bedroom so insulation isn't so important as we're only there over night, tucked up warm in the bed. We haven't actually moved in yet so we don't know how the property feels over winter. Perhaps best to wait and see before making major changes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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