How to properly insulate the walls with your own hands

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

How to warm walls properly

How to insulate the walls from the outside of the house and from the inside? This question is often of interest to the owners of their homes. At the same time, you should not be a qualified builder to do everything yourself. The main thing is that you need a big desire, a little money to purchase material for insulation, and the article will tell you how to do it right.

What materials are used for wall insulation

Before you properly insulate the walls of the apartment, you need to get acquainted with the characteristics of insulation materials (see Let's consider in detail which insulation is better for walls), and select exactly the one you need for a particular room. The main property of a heat insulator is its thermal conductivity, which shows how much heat can go through this material.

Thermal insulation is of two types:

• Reflective typedesigned to reduce heat consumption by reducing infrared radiation. Ideal for warming saunas and baths.
• Thermal insulation preventive type, It is used most often, while heaters with a low value of thermal conductivity are used. Such materials can be: inorganic, organic, mixed.

Inorganic heat insulators include:

• Mineral wool. It can be slag and stone (see How is insulation of walls outside with mineral wool).
• Glass wool.
• Ceramic wool.

Organic heat insulators include such heaters as:

• Arbolite.
• Polyvinyl chloride foam.
• From chipboard (particle board).
• From fiberboard (wood fiber).
• Polyurethane foam.
• Mipora or penoizol.
• Styrofoam.
• From the made foam polyethylene.
• Fiberboard.
• Sotoplastovy.
• Ecowool.

For the manufacture of mixed-type heat insulators, asbestos mixtures are used with the addition of:

• Mica
• Dolomite.
• Perlite.
• Diatomite

To bind the base, mineral components are introduced.

Features of insulation of the house outside and inside

Tip: It is necessary to insulate the walls of the building from the outside, and use the thermal insulation of the walls from the inside only in extreme cases.

The diagram shows three states of a wall of a building that has insulation: outside, inside and without insulation:

Wall insulation schemes

The dew point is the place where water vapors turn into water, creating condensate.

The diagram shows:

• To the left of the dew point is the plus temperature.
• To the right is minus.

Features of wall insulation from the inside are:

• The wall remains unprotected from domestic heat. In this case, the heat barrier from the insulation does not pass it into the wall, which will lead to a significant impact of frost and constant moisture on it in winter (see The walls get wet: what could be the reason), which will not have time to dry out.
• At the dew point, condensation will collect. This point is as close as possible to the room, which will lead to maximum moisture formation in this place.
• Permanent condensate, without natural drying, will cause the appearance of fungi and mold on the wall.
• The diagram shows that without insulation, from the inside on the wall the moisture will be less than after insulation from the inside.

Features of wall insulation from the outside:

• From the street from the cold, the wall is protected by a heater, and taking into account the technology of insulation, the wall warms up from the inside with home heat, and even with the appearance of condensation and moisture absorption, the wall will soon begin to dry.
• The dew point is diverted from the room closer to the street, which means that condensation will be further from the room.
• External insulation will significantly save heat in the house.

If there is a need: it is necessary to insulate the walls of wood concrete, first of all, it must be borne in mind that this should be done outside the house.

For its insulation are used:

• Mineral wool.
• Styrofoam.
• Polyurethane foam.

How to use polystyrene foam for outdoor insulation at home

To determine whether it is possible to insulate the walls with expanded polystyrene, it is necessary to find out its properties.

These include:

• Poor heat conductivity.
• Very low vapor permeability and moisture absorption.
• Easily resists quite large loads.
• Does not respond to strong compression and large tensile loads.
• It has a small weight.
• It is simply processed and mounted, easily cut with a knife with your own hands.

Tip: When using foamed or extruded polystyrene foam, you can reliably insulate the entire structure. In this case, it is enough to take a material of small thickness without laying a vapor barrier layer.

The installation manual recommends:

• Isolate “cold bridges” or joints between plates and their adjacency to the walls. For this, polyurethane foam is applied, applied to the entire plane of the sheet.
• To obtain smooth and tight butt joints, it is better to purchase foam plates, which have a special edge with stepped edges.
• When using the material indoors, plate-type dowels are used or the plates are simply glued, as can be seen in the photo.

Each owner of his home chooses which side to insulate the walls, the main thing is to achieve the desired result.

Gluing polystyrene boards

The disadvantages of the material include:

• Poor noise protection.
• It can be destroyed at temperatures exceeding (+ 80 ° C), but this is not very important, as is the fact that EPS plates dissolve in organic solvents.

How to insulate walls step by step with polystyrene foam:

• The wall is cleaned of dirt and leveled.
• When using glue - it is primed.

Tip: It is forbidden to allow pits of considerable size on the wall that are not aligned with glue; if they are present after installing the insulation, voids remain between the wall and polystyrene boards: even from a slight impact or push, the pit can cause material deformation and even breakage. The plate will not lie densely on the wall to the tubercle.

• Expanded polystyrene is glued to the wall with a special adhesive for expanded polystyrene plates, or is attached with special “fungi”.
• When using extruded polystyrene foam, the surface for applying glue is made rough.
• To strengthen the structure, polystyrene foam is fixed simultaneously with “fungi” and glue. This is a more reliable and correct solution.
• After installing the insulation, the external walls are plastered (see Styrofoam plaster: material features and application technique), they can be overlaid with facing bricks.

Correct plate mounting

Expanded polystyrene boards can be mounted on a frame made of battens or other materials. Wherein:

• The rails are attached to the wall with a thickness not less than the thickness of the insulation, and better - more. This will create a ventilated space between the polystyrene foam and the facing material.
• The step between the rails should be such that the plates between them are inserted tightly enough and do not fall out.
• This type of installation is selected when wall cladding siding. Reiki, in this case, will be the basis for fixing the cladding materials.

How are mineral wool walls insulated

An equally popular way of warming the walls of a house is the use of mineral wool.

Mineral wool on the wall of the house

Unlike polystyrene foam, mineral wool is not too hard material, so its installation is best done using the frame method, but when using a cotton insulation of sufficient density, you can stick and stick.

With the wireframe method:

• Reiki or small bars are purchased.
• A frame structure is being constructed on the wall.
• Between the elements is laid or rolled insulation.
• On a concrete or brick wall, the bars are fastened with dowels, nails, and on a wooden wall - with self-tapping screws.
• Mineral wool can additionally be fixed with “fungi”, which will prevent it from rolling down.
• Such materials absorb moisture too much, this requires waterproofing over the insulation.
• It is advisable to build reliable protection against various rodents. To do this, metal strips are installed at the edges of the wall.

Tip: When facing exterior walls with bricks, the insulation should be laid between the main and facing walls, and these two structures should be connected with special bundles piercing the mineral wool and holding it inside the wall, preventing it from rolling down.

How walls are insulated with polyurethane foam

Wall insulation with polyurethane foam

This is the most modern type of insulation, but its price is the highest.

The advantages of the material include:

• After application, the polyurethane foam expands, which allows it to fill all the cracks and cavities.
• Low vapor permeability, which does not require additional vapor barrier.
• Good adhesion or adhesion to the wall.
• High mechanical strength after hardening.
• The increased properties of heat and noise insulation.

The disadvantages of the material are:

• With a low density, polyurethane foam passes steam well, which must be considered when warming a house.
• Not high fire resistance.
• High price.
• Spraying is recommended by professionals, which increases the cost of insulation.
• When aging polyurethane foam, its heat-insulating properties deteriorate.
• Spraying is accompanied by the release of dangerous toxic substances, which requires the use of protective clothing.

Features of wall insulation from the inside

Why do many experts argue that you can not insulate the walls from the inside of the room? In their opinion, this can lead to some unpleasant consequences.

These include:

• A significant reduction in the usable area of ​​the room is from 0.5 m² to 2 m².
• Thermal insulation is possible only in the room from which all things are taken out, in extreme cases, moved away from the walls, which is not always convenient.
• When laying the insulation, it is necessary to provide additional ventilation, to protect the heat insulator from the appearance of condensation on it, which leads to the formation of mold and fungus on the walls.
• The cost of such work, in compliance with all the rules, will be quite high.

To avoid such unpleasant consequences during internal insulation:

• Choose a film for vapor barrier of the highest quality. The butt seams on it must be carefully sealed.
• Thermal insulation material should be with low vapor permeability. The ideal option is that the vapor permeability index of the load-bearing wall is greater than that of the heat insulator. Then the steam will go out.
• The insulation from the wall should lag at a minimum distance. Do not use the “beacons” method when gluing it, but apply glue with a comb, which will avoid gaps between the wall and the insulation.

Putting glue on the wall with a comb

• To reduce humidity in the room, use forced mechanical ventilation, and install valves on the windows.
• The thickness of the insulating layer should be carefully calculated taking into account the characteristics of the climatic zone.
• Before warming the walls, their surfaces must be treated with a special composition to prevent the formation of fungus and mold. Warming is carried out after the walls have dried.

Tip: First of all, it is necessary to eliminate the “cold bridges”. To do this, a heat insulator is applied to problem areas using a vapor barrier. After that, the sites are masked with false columns or baskets.

If the house has monolithic walls, how to insulate them, how to properly insulate walls with ursa, and many other issues are covered in the video in this article. Correctly warming your home - this means saving money on its heating and maintaining a good microclimate in the house.