Bungalow advice

silversilverstone

Hi all, Long story. I bought a two bedroom bungalow of ‘mass concrete construction’. It was uninhabited for around six years and the electricity was disconnected with the meter removed. The property in County Mayo has seven rooms including hallway. Both bedrooms have wood flooring, the remainder all concrete. The bungalow lacked care and maintenance from the previous habitant, an elderly gent, to which I have updated, fixed and repaired on a diy basis. The attic has been professionally upgraded with around 300mm wool insulation. In the absence of cavity walling I have had Cork-Sol spray insulation (as featured on Grand Designs) applied to the exterior. The bungalow is all electric (mistake) and heated using smart radiators. Naturally my energy bills are high and I simply can not afford to heat the whole house constantly and currently have programmed just one radiator to perform for just two hours in the early morning. I have a working glass fronted stove that does not provide hot water heating. The problem I have is that the house is freezing and does not provide any natural heat retention. It is always warmer outside and in the open. Double sweaters and a blanket around my legs whilst watching tv is my normal evening. I live alone and my hands and feet are permanently cold and numb. I expected the Cork-Sol to be the answer to my problem but to be brutally honest consider the process an absolute waste of money (€7200). A long story but I am desperate for yours or any advice. I have never been so constantly cold. Help!

Shoog

We just moved out of such a house.

You will have a few issues.

Ventilation in the attic space may be inadequate so condensation can potentially destroy your roof, and any improvements you make in the body of the house will make this worse. It was not easy to address this in our house because of the roof arrangement and would have required redoing the roof.

The suspended wooden floors will be a constant source of drafts. Replacing them with insulated concrete insulated floors is the best. Failing that laying a continuous vapour barrier taped to the walls will make a big difference. Float insulated floors over the existing boards or take up the boards and insulate between the joists. Lay your vapour barrier down before relaying your floorboards.

If the ceilings are anything like ours then theare to high. Drop them and insulate the voids, incorporate a vapour barrier. Doing this and the floors will make a huge difference.

Finally dry line with at least 100mm of foil backed urethane plasterboard. Ensure all seams are airtight with airtightness tap otherwise you will get black mould behind the lining. This will probably require remodelling all the internal door openings.

When you can afford it replace all windows and doors with modern double or triple glazing.

Furze99

We rented such a house one - mass concrete walls and it was like a fridge as you say. I'm curious about the Cork-Sol as I thought that was an interior coating. How thick is it applied to the exterior and is it weatherproof etc?

I read that more conventional exterior insulation might be best for this type of construction. Big slabs of insulation fixed to the walls and covered with a thin screed. But it changes the exterior look. You then heat inside using stoves or underfloor etc and the insulated walls then hold the heat. Alternate insulate inside as described above.

Electric heating has always been expensive and in old houses particularly.

Rows Grower

Just curious did you get a BER report before you purchased?

What type of windows and doors are in the house, upgrading these can make a big difference. Might be worth your while getting a bigger stove with a back boiler and new radiators installed. If you have the space to spare you could fix insulated slabs on the interior walls. You'll buy hot water bottles for peanuts and they work, also an electric blanket for the bed will provide warmth.

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930052#Comment_121930052

I've said this before - detailing on external insulation in an old massed concrete house can be a real nightmare. It all depends on the way it is constructed but there is a very real risk of generating condensation issues at critical junctions.

silversilverstone

Thanks for your prompt reply. Cork-Sol is sprayed onto the exterior of a property of thickness between 6-8mm and contains crushed bark off the cork tree. A Spanish concept I think. It received hype in the Uk for being featured on Kevin McLoud’s Grand Design tv program. I do not have a good thing to say about the product that I have received and could not recommend it. Poor preparation, application, finish and performance coupled with a pricey alternative to conventional insulation has left me disillusioned. I simply cannot ‘gold plate’ everything and I am trying not to end up with a house worth €130000 that has cost over €150000. Insulation boards were my first consideration but the initial financial outlay was out of my reach even though there was provision for a government grant upon completion. The roof is slate and not considered ‘immaculate’ but is just about weather proof. Once again thank you for your advise.

silversilverstone

Thanks for your reply. Property is double glazed but with hardwood front and rear doors. The front benefits from being enclosed in a fully double glazed entrance porch. There are next to no draughts coming through the front door. The property did not have Ber although it is my intention to apply now that many modifications have been completed.

silversilverstone

Forgot to mention that I have invested in both a hot water bottle and a heated blanket for the bed. Can not live without them, an absolute necessity!

silversilverstone

With the bungalow I battle black mould and condensation on a daily basis with dehumidifiers, electric and giant tablet type operating every day. F***ing mould everywhere

Shoog

Unless you can draw down one of the whole house grants which covers everything then you need to break the job down into parts and approach it systematically. Choose one room at a time and redo it completely before moving on to the next. It should take less than a month to redo each room which means in theory you could have the house upgraded in about a year.

Don't cut corners spend as much as you can afford on each room before moving on to the next. If you are practical you can do a lot of the jobs yourself. The credit union is a great source of loans for this sort of thing - far more cost effective than bank loans.

We found that condensation was the primary source of mould in our house and the only way to address it is to improve ventilation and raise the surface temps of the surfaces.

We took 20years of constant projects to get a reasonably comfortable house - but by the time we left with the advances in materials and understanding it needed a complete makeover to the specifications I described above. Massed concrete is a bitch and I have my doubts you can ever make it past BER D rating in one of those, expect that a BER will be around G as it is.

silversilverstone

Problem. As a diyer I have spent the last two years ‘doing up’ the house and have repaired crumbly concrete, replaced skirting, doors, architrave, lights, sockets, etc etc throughout. I realise now that there is a difference between a hobbyist and a professional. All sort of done but reluctant to start all over again and ruin the decor. I am now at retirement age and have been used to outdoors when I was working but I have never been so constantly cold than I am now. Permanent runny nose syndrome. Too cold to function at times with plenty of radiator hugging. Laughable when I consider my predicament.

howsshenow

It's likely there is no insulation under the floor either so there is no real Thermal mass to store a reserve of heat.

Looks like you need to install a High output stove and a simple radiator circuit for the rooms you use fed off a back boiler and hot press.

Consider a wood chip stove setup if you can afford it.

who what when

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930198#Comment_121930198

6-8mm of any insulation is an absolute waste of time. Mass concrete does not require a breathable product like cork insulation. 150mm min. external pir insulation would have been much better but external insulation can leave a lot of cold bridges.

If it was my house i would probably insulate internally and retrofit mvhr and a proper heating system. I appreciate your budget may not have extended this far though.

Mould is extremely bad for you, I hope you don't have children expossed to it.

who what when

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930285#Comment_121930285

Its not really laughable, youre going to take years off your life living like this. There's massive grants available for retrofitting old houses, have you looked into any of these?

Chalkman

Hi. Who done the cork sol for you? Was it a Dublin guy based in UK?

_H80_GHT

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930380#Comment_121930380

Think he's referring to how he brought it all on himself. No choice but to laugh or he'll cry kinda thing.

Shoog

If the house in in the countryside then now is a good time to sell as you will recoup your investment - not a terrible option to consider if you can't face the huge amount of work needed to bring it up to a comfortable standard. Country houses are selling at silly prices at the moment.

10-10-20

The best and only realistic advice that we can offer here is to get a BER assessment done including a blower-door/leakage test. Then come back to us here.

The second-best advice would be to ventilate daily. Those rock-salt dehumidifiers aren't actually worth their weight in salt.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930198#Comment_121930198

Interesting as I was looking into it a few weeks ago but in an internal context. To slow the heat loss to old stone walls. As an alternative to the lime insulating plasters which are put on thicker.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930178#Comment_121930178

What's the issue with external insulation on mass concrete? Where does the condensation form?

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121931199#Comment_121931199

On ours it would form on the wall plate and rafters which are set into the top of the concrete with no gap at the eves between the roof and the wall. Very difficult to make airtight and very difficult to ventilate.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121931190#Comment_121931190

How does this Cork-Sol hold up when used externally, and how would it fare in Mayo where there aren't many drying cycles in an average season?

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121931728#Comment_121931728

I've no idea. I was looking into it as an internal application. The OP has used it externally.

https://www.corksol.ie/ seems to be the stuff.