Stone house insulation

[Nikki]

Hi all,

We'll be having a stone house built from scratch. Fortunately, this means we can have a cavity wall built (I think that's what you call it). Basically, a frame with insulation and then the stone. Rather than just stone and lime plaster.

So, does anyone have advice as to eco-friendly insulation? I'm not sure what they use around here (Montenegro) yet, but I don't think it's eco-fiendly (some sort of polythyrene-ish thingy I think.)

:)

[camillitech]

do they have sheep there? cos sheep fleece is terrific, though with any stone building you'll have to be careful of damp getting into it

[Muddypause]

Don't know anything about these guys, but I just found them on Google, and they may give you a few ideas.

Conventionally, in UK newbuild, the cavity would be filled with rockwool or glassfibre batts. I guess this would be fairly inert stuff environmentally, though it is made by a heat process, so won't be completely benign.

[Nikki]

do they have sheep there? cos sheep fleece is terrific, though with any stone building you'll have to be careful of damp getting into it

Not sheep, lots of goats.

Doesn't the cavity wall help with the damp? The stone houses around here seem pretty dry. It's the concrete newbuilds I noticed get damp - horrible.

Thanks for the link muddypause. I especially am interested in the hemp product. It seems to come from Germany, so we might have a chance to get a hold of it. Just depends on cost.

[caithnesscrofter]

opti rok?

[camillitech]

do they have sheep there? cos sheep fleece is terrific, though with any stone building you'll have to be careful of damp getting into it

Not sheep, lots of goats.

Doesn't the cavity wall help with the damp? The stone houses around here seem pretty dry. It's the concrete newbuilds I noticed get damp - horrible.

Thanks for the link muddypause. I especially am interested in the hemp product. It seems to come from Germany, so we might have a chance to get a hold of it. Just depends on cost.

hi nikki, i'm not a builder but do live in an old stone house, when i considered doing some insulation on the walls a builder told me to concentrate on the roof and floor as he said. 'these old stone houses rely on the internal heat to push out the dampness from the walls' now he could have been talking cobblers but it did make sense to me. if it's a new build i'm sure there are ways you can overcome it though. my house has no cavity and i suppose as long as the insulation doesn't touch the stone you should be ok, like i said i'm no expert

good luck, paul

[mybarnconversion]

when i considered doing some insulation on the walls a builder told me to concentrate on the roof and floor as he said. 'these old stone houses rely on the internal heat to push out the dampness from the walls' now he could have been talking cobblers but it did make sense to me.

Depends to some degree on the building materials, a building built with lime-base mortars and renders will certainly act in that way whereas cement based will breathe less and be more 'sealed'.

[Nikki]

That makes sense. There is quite a damp problem over here, and I believe it has to do with the dominance (and reliance) of cement as a building material.
I've just been told that here they tend to mix lime mortar with cement for stone houses. ??

We were discussing a cavity wall build with our builder. As we needed to bring down the cost of the build, he suggested to do it the way they do it here. They build an inner 'skin' of hollowed air bricks, cover it in a bitumen type thingy, then cement, then the stone outer skin.

Does this sound just as good as a cavity wall, with foam insulation or simply an air gap?

They use this bitumen stuff when they build against soil/mountain rock, which is very common here. And it seems to work fine. *shrug* I just don't want to save money like this in the short term just to have inferior insulation for the long term.

[CORDWOODGUY]

NIKKI......I`D GO WITH ICYNENE INSULATION IF ITS AVAILABLE.I JUST READ ABOUT ANOTHER INSULATION CALLED AIR-KRETE WHICH SEEMS QUITE GOOD.

THE ICYNENE IS RECOMMENDED BY THE LUNG ASSOCIATION, SO YOU PROBABLY WILL NOT FIND ANYTHING GREENER.

CORDWOODGUY

[CORDWOODGUY]

do they have sheep there? cos sheep fleece is terrific, though with any stone building you'll have to be careful of damp getting into it

CAMILLITECH.............SHEEPS FLEECE/WOOL RETAINS ITS R-VALUE WHEN WET.[MOST INSULATIONS DON`T].BUT BUGS SEM TO BED DOWN IN THE FLEECE,SO I`D PRE-WASH IT WITH A BORAX SOLUTION.RING IT OUT AND LET IT DRY BEFORE INSTALLING.

CORDWOODGUY

[CORDWOODGUY]

Don't know anything about these guys, but I just found them on Google, and they may give you a few ideas.

Conventionally, in UK newbuild, the cavity would be filled with rockwool or glassfibre batts. I guess this would be fairly inert stuff environmentally, though it is made by a heat process, so won't be completely benign.

MUDDYPAUSE.....IF BY ROCKWOOL OR GLASSFIRBRE BATTS YOU ARE REFEREING TO FIBREGLASS INSULATION.ONCE IT GETS WET YOU LOOSE YOUR R-VALUE.PLUS IT CAN SUPPORT THE GROWTH OF MOLDS.
ITS ALMOST DECLARED TOXIC.

CORDWOODGUY

[CORDWOODGUY]

THE COMMENTS ABOUT THE LIME MORTAR ARE TRUE...IT BREATHS BETTER THAN A TOTAL CEMENT MORTAR.

CORDWOODGUY