Bedroom wall cold - what to do with it

[Alison556]

I'm looking for advice about what could be done with one of my bedrooms.

It's absolutely freezing all the time even with the heating on.

There are two outside walls in it - one faces north and the other west.

The north facing wall feels really cold and damp although there are no obvious signs of damp - no mould or anything.

The head of the bed used to be on that wall but I had to move it because the end of the bed was showing mildew and felt really wet. Even the carpet feels damp along this wall.

I thought about batonning it out, insulating it and then lining it with plasterboard but wasn't sure if this would just trap the damp in it.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[Deluks]

Insulated plasterboard straight to the wall. Is there an insulated loft above?
Any moisture internally could be condensation, you need to heat and ventilate the room in order to eliminate this.

 

[Alison556]

I don't need to build it out then? That would be much easier.

There is a house above us (we're in a maisonette I guess you'd call it) but we've got a MASSIVE drop below us. I've never been under the floor, but apparently the foundations are about 12 feet deep. I got under the floor insulated to see if that would help because we used to get horrendous draughts. It hasn't made a huge difference.

I don't know if the construction makes much difference but as far as I can make out, it's single skin brick (which is rendered and harled) then just lathe and plaster - I could see that much when an air brick was getting replaced - when the air brick was removed, you could see the internal wall behind it. It's an old house - c.1919 and I've a feeling that they were built in a hurry after WWI. Internal walls are all brick.

 

[tommyl18]

I would personally baton the wall out with some 2x2 timber and then fix insulated plasterboards to leave an air gap this will prevent the boards from sweating

 

[Deluks]

Can batten out if you like, no major difference. If the floorspace between floors is uninsulated then I imagine that upstairs is nice and toasty....at your expense!

I must reiterate the need to ventilate, open the windows for an hour after you get up.

 

[tommyl18]

lol to true!!

 

[Alison556]

There's no insulation between our ceiling and upstairs floor - this is plainly evident by the noise!! Also, when I had to knock a hole in the ceiling after upstairs flooded us, there was nothing there apart from her floorboards - there might be a thin smattering of a sort of ash type substance which I was told was an old way of supposed insulation but there really isn't anything. Is it possible to insulate between two flats without huge major disruptions?

The windows do get opened every day but that wall remains cold and damp feeling - if you lean on it, you feel as if your back's damp when you move.

 

[Deluks]

Completely filling the void with rockwool insulation will improve heat, sound and fire insulation. Recommended.
Finish with a double layer of plasterboard, or use thicker 15 or 19mm PB.

Cold can feel 'wet', like when bringing washing in from the outside it feels wet, but once reaches room temp inside it's clearly not so.