Cold house to a warm home

Insulating between the rafters! Photo credit: Hugh King

The residential project enquiries we receive are increasingly indicating a trend toward clients deciding to ‘stay put’ and focus instead on making the house they currently have into their dream home. A common issue we’re asked to address is the issue of warmth and insulation. After last year's shocking hike in energy costs, does a house really feel homely if wariness of turning the heating on is leaving you cold? With the clocks going back recently, the longer, colder evenings are once again on our minds. This, of course, isn’t the stuff of dreams - so what can we do to help?

To address the warmth of a home together with our clients, the main focuses are air-tightness, ventilation and insulation. Even before the thought of extending, renovating or retrofitting, you can start improving your home - even in the smallest ways - to make noticeable changes. 

This could include reducing drafts by fitting draft excluders. Or to name a few other solutions, I think of my grandmother who throughout her life swore by the practice of putting tinfoil behind her radiators, the use of carpets, rugs and curtains.

The next step up is the loft. We all know how much warmer you feel by simply putting on a hat when walking outdoors - the same is true of your home. With nearly a quarter of the average home's heat escaping through the roof, loft insulation is a quick, cheap and effective way of preventing heat loss. (And make sure that the loft hatch isn't letting the heat out too!) 

Further along the scale of heat retention, we have full house solid wall insulation, essentially wrapping the house in a warm blanket. When doing this it’s important to take a holistic approach, as the home is also a humid place (cooking, showering, drying clothes and simply breathing all put moisture into the air). If you have ‘sealed up’ you home, logic dictates that the building is going to get sweaty, and with no where for the moisture to go it can start causing issues both for the fabric of the building and the health of inhabitants. We advise clients to remember that when retrofitting your house it's also important to tackle ventilation, but it’s also important to know that this can be quite expensive. 

As you can see, when planning an extension it's good practice to also consider the rest of your home - if you make a well insulated and well ventilated extension but the rest of your house isn't, then it can quite easily undermine all the effort you have gone to.

What do you want from your home? Warm, peaceful, safe? The benefits of a warmer home are much more than financial. A warm (and well ventilated) home is one that benefits you not just financially, but also your and your family’s mental and physical wellbeing. 

Written by Adam Grover

Resources:

https://sdfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/2015_bristolsolidwallinsulationguidance.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a82135fe5274a2e87dc1041/Retrofit_for_the_future_-_A_guide_to_making_retrofit_work_-_2014.pdf