Insulating a single skin cupboard.

[Grenage]

Hi there,

My home had a couple of small extensions added at some point in its life; the first was for a downstairs toilet and porch, the second was to turn an external cupboard into an internal cupboard - moving the back door out a few feet.

Both of these are single skinned, both of them are the coldest areas of the house. The sloped roofs above are undoubtedly hollow and uninsulated.

Short of pulling it all down and putting up a cavity wall (which would render the areas ridiculously small, and be costly), all I can really do insulate. The voids above the areas I plan to open up and fill with rockwool, and the kitchen cupboard I plan to insulate the walls.

Reading up, it seems that the common method is using 25mm treated battens against the brick, fixing a layer of polystyrene/kingspan/whatever to battens, then plaster boarding over that. I know that you can get plasterboard/polystyrene sheets. The downside is that I'm obviously not going to be able to put shelves in the cupboard - If I do, the other half will undoubtedly store 50KG of stuff.

Is there a right was to insulate the cupboard and have shelving, or is this one of those cases where you can't have your cake and eat it?

 

[Ian H]

What about external wall insulation?

 

[Grenage]

That hadn't even occurred to me, to be honest. Do you think that's a better way to go?

 

[Ian H]

To be honest I have no idea. It's something I've been thinking of myself to go on before I render my garage.

I don't want to loose any space on the inside but want to keep my car cozy,

 

[Grenage]

I'll have to have a read, I guess I'd be worried about how it would look in contrast to the rest of the house, as it's all matching brickwork. Still, something to think about!

 

[Ian H]

Ah, probably it wouldn't be right for you with bricks on the outside.