October seemed to come in with a bit of a vegeance in the UK, a bit of a foretaste of a predicted cold winter.
My house is what we call here a semi-detached (you might too in the US, I don't know) meaning I share one wall with my neighbour. Unfortunately she, (a Liv Tyler look-a-like ), has all the 'south side' having walls facing west, south and east and I have walls facing west, north and east. This means that my house is a little colder.
It was also built in 1910, when cavity walls were something a builder put in if he employed a drunk brick layer. A thrid of the wall area in the north facing bits is taken up by chimney breasts, from when there was a coal fire in every room even in the bedrooms which must have been very cosy, and this leaves two alcoves around 4 feet wide. The surfaces of these can be cold enough to attract condesation!
So I thought insulation was the way to go. I bought some battons and crewed these onto the wall, and these form supports for a sheet of 12mm plywood. I could have used plaster board but to get a sheet of it that size is difficult and hard to handle, plus I can easily put shelves on the ply. I put some bubble wrap in as insulation on the first one I did, but I think I will upgrade this on subsequent ones.
The result after a coat of paint, decorative textured paper and then more paint is very pleasing, in that you can't tell it's been done, and that is what I aimed for. It's also a lot warmer to the touch. As it seems a workable solution, I'm going to carry it on through the house, using wood or plaster board as the need dictates.
I also insulated the one window in the house that wasn't double glazed using some of that twin-wall polycarbonate sheeting. There was a raised portion of the inner frame around 1" from the original glass, so I cut a sheet of the twin-wall to fit onto this and sealed it there. The result is instant triple glazing and this has made a huge difference to the area near that window. The original glass was the obscure patterned stuff anyway, so cosmetically it's not a lot different. I've read of others using bubble wrap and I have tried that in the past myself, but Mrs Slog likes things looking bit more neat and permanant, and tghis fitted the bill nicely.
