Do the walls of your lounge feel cold when you touch them? Or perhaps the bedroom walls are frigid at night when the rest of the room is toasty and warm in winter?
If you’ve got cold walls, then you’ve got an insulation problem. If you notice cold walls in your home, don’t ignore them, because cold walls lead to heat and energy loss; they can even become a source of damp.
Read on as our experts explain why your walls are so cold, and what can be done to warm them up.
What Is Causing My Cold Walls?
Simply put, cold walls are caused by poor insulation. If your home is poorly insulated, it means that heat from inside the home is easily escaping to the outside. Warm air moves from inside the rooms, passing through the walls to be lost outside.
Without insulation, there’s no barrier to keep the heat in. Because the walls aren’t acting as insulators and trapping heat, the walls feel cold when you touch them.
There can be several underlying causes of poor insulation in your home. In older houses, there’s often no cavity wall in place, so hot air is readily lost through solid walls. Even in modern homes, insulation can simply be lacking or damp issues could be causing wider insulation problems and cold walls.
Should I Be Worried About Cold Walls?
Cold walls are a problem. If cold patches are forming, it means that you’re losing heat through the walls. In fact, homeowners don’t often realise that buildings lose as much as 50 per cent of their heat through walls. With cold walls, this percentage goes up dramatically.
This means that you’ll be paying out huge sums on unnecessarily high energy bills, which isn’t great for your wallet or for the environment.
Cold walls also lead to damp problems. This occurs when hot air collides with the cold patches on the wall. Condensation will start to build up and, if left unchecked, this could lead to structural damage.
How Can I Warm Up and Insulate My Walls?
The most effective fix for cold walls is to install insulation. The best way to go about insulating your home varies from property to property, so it’s important to have an energy-saving survey carried out by a professional.
If you have existing cavity walls, this is a simple fix, as you’ll be able to fill the cavity with extra insulating materials. If you have solid walls, then insulation becomes trickier, as a second layer of material will need to be built adjacent to the wall, before being filled with insulation.
Because cold walls are often associated with damp, any sources of moisture or damp will also need to be removed from a home. Waterproof damp proofing membranes can help with insulation, too.
Contact Danford, Brewer & Ives for More Information on Insulating Cold Walls and Energy Efficiency
For more information and advice on insulating cold walls, then please contact our friendly team on 01765 804050 or fill in our online contact form. Our experienced specialists will be on hand and ready to offer expert advice tailored to resolve your problem.