Hello
We have a small stone cottage build into a hillside where we have tried to do all the right things - sheeps wool insulation in the roof, upstairs carefully scraping a thick layer of grey plasticy paint off the walls to reveal beautiful lime plaster underneath which we limewashed, downstairs installing a wood burning stove etc etc. Damp downstairs has been reduced by lowering the ground level at the rear although we still have an issue with the drainage we need to sort out and need to properly landscape it as well. The rear wall of the cottage was so damp the lime plaster was literally falling off so we have left it as bare stone for now (although not particularly warm in winter) until we are more sorted out.
Attached to cottage is a barn which is in a very poor state. We now have planning permission to convert this into an extension of the house. I know that opinions vary on merit of barn conversions but in our defence the design which we agonised over is very sensitive (minimal new openings), and also when we bought this place we were up against buyers who were going to tear the whole lot down including the cottage.
The barn is also built into the hillside at the rear. Lowering ground levels really isn't going to work. The ground levels are high (4ft or more), and there are various reasons why lowering them won't work here, including the fact that this is the route for vehicle/tractor access to the back via a pinch point between the back of the barn and outbuildings. Even if we did try to do a huge amount of digging and construction of a new retaining wall to try put in a ventilated channel solution with a grille on top we would still need to do some form drylining inside the barn. And I am not convinced that much digging and messing around wouldn't cause more trouble of some sort, sometimes if it ain't broke leave it alone. So it looks like we will deal with the high ground levels by installing a cavity membrane system (Delta or Newton etc) inside the barn, which seems to be the the sort of thing you would use in the basement of historic/listed building. I am trying to get my head around how this ties in with the whole breathability thing. When we put insulation in to meet building regs should it go behind the membrane or in front of it. If the insulation goes in front of the membrane then should the insulation be of the breathable type (Ty-Mawr has all sorts of interesting stuff - wool based insulation, calsitherm climate board etc), or is that all irrelevant. Does anyone on PPUK have any experience of this sort of thing please?
We have a small stone cottage build into a hillside where we have tried to do all the right things - sheeps wool insulation in the roof, upstairs carefully scraping a thick layer of grey plasticy paint off the walls to reveal beautiful lime plaster underneath which we limewashed, downstairs installing a wood burning stove etc etc. Damp downstairs has been reduced by lowering the ground level at the rear although we still have an issue with the drainage we need to sort out and need to properly landscape it as well. The rear wall of the cottage was so damp the lime plaster was literally falling off so we have left it as bare stone for now (although not particularly warm in winter) until we are more sorted out.
Attached to cottage is a barn which is in a very poor state. We now have planning permission to convert this into an extension of the house. I know that opinions vary on merit of barn conversions but in our defence the design which we agonised over is very sensitive (minimal new openings), and also when we bought this place we were up against buyers who were going to tear the whole lot down including the cottage.
The barn is also built into the hillside at the rear. Lowering ground levels really isn't going to work. The ground levels are high (4ft or more), and there are various reasons why lowering them won't work here, including the fact that this is the route for vehicle/tractor access to the back via a pinch point between the back of the barn and outbuildings. Even if we did try to do a huge amount of digging and construction of a new retaining wall to try put in a ventilated channel solution with a grille on top we would still need to do some form drylining inside the barn. And I am not convinced that much digging and messing around wouldn't cause more trouble of some sort, sometimes if it ain't broke leave it alone. So it looks like we will deal with the high ground levels by installing a cavity membrane system (Delta or Newton etc) inside the barn, which seems to be the the sort of thing you would use in the basement of historic/listed building. I am trying to get my head around how this ties in with the whole breathability thing. When we put insulation in to meet building regs should it go behind the membrane or in front of it. If the insulation goes in front of the membrane then should the insulation be of the breathable type (Ty-Mawr has all sorts of interesting stuff - wool based insulation, calsitherm climate board etc), or is that all irrelevant. Does anyone on PPUK have any experience of this sort of thing please?
