Can I insulate from the inside if the walls of my house are freezing?
I have a brick house. The wall facing north in winter often freezes and gets moldy. I want to insulate the inside with EPS. Is it a good idea? How sustainable is it?
What are the alternatives? Preferably cost-effective.
Answers
Internal insulation won't help.
Sealant, insulation, putty, EPS will not work. It helps very rarely when the corner freezes just a little bit.
The vast majority of experts recommend insulating the house or apartment from the outside, not inside. Then you can solve the problem definitively, eliminate its causes. Internal thermal insulation and other works will give only a temporary effect.
First, a diagnosis should be carried out. Its main steps: Check the outer part of the wall of the house. It is she who is the source of the problem, you should not look for the cause inside the dwelling. Attention should be paid to the presence of cracks, voids, the quality of bricks and masonry itself.
If cracks are found, it is important to determine the front of work to fix them. For this purpose, the following solutions are suitable:
The use of iron ties (conductors). They are especially relevant for large longitudinal cracks.
If the house is private, and not multi-storey, it may be necessary to re-lay the wall. The method is rarely used because of the difficulties in the process.
Strengthening the inner or outer wall (additional masonry.)
If the bottom corner of a private house on the first floor freezes, the problem may lie in the foundation. It will need to be strengthened: along the entire wall or part of it. This is time-consuming and expensive work.
Sometimes the cracks are small, but they can also form along the wall, horizontally, cobwebs. Then a nearly complete exterior repair will be needed. If the brick house is worn out or emergency, you can't do without metal ties. When there are no cracks, it is necessary to examine the masonry itself and the brick. In the corner, it is laid in a completely different way. It should be determined – whether the piercing technology is observed. It is important to pay attention to the gaps between the bricks. Perhaps there is not enough mortar between them. The construction material itself, if it is of poor quality, may have many gaps, pores or cracks. Such bricks cause the corner to freeze.
It is necessary to insulate the facade, not the inside of the wall. If the house has many defects in the form of cracks, gaps, then you can not do without thermal insulation plaster. The brickwork is expanded and filled with mortar. As a rule, such plaster contains granules of polystyrene foam. It expands and fills the empty pores. Next, you can proceed to cladding the facade with cladding material. It is also often thermal insulation.
