If your home was built before 1920 your walls are likely to be solid meaning you won’t be able to have cavity wall insulation. Cavity walls are made of two layers with a small gap or ‘cavity’ between them. Solid walls don’t have this gap, and as a result it means more heat can pass through them and escape from your home. It’s claimed that twice as much heat is lost from an un-insulated solid wall than an un-insulated cavity wall but, like cavity walls, solid walls can be insulated, too.

If you do have solid walls then your home should be suitable for internal or external solid wall insulation. The next decision you have to make is between internal or external insulation as the two methods are very different and have a different effect on your home.

Internal Wall Insulation

Internal wall insulation is generally cheaper than external wall insulation. It won’t change the appearance of the outside of your home, however it will reduce the floor space of the rooms the insulation is installed in as the thickness is around 100mm thick. It is however recommended that you have the installation done at the same time you’re having renovation work or re-plastering to reduce the cost of the installation and removal of furnishings from the walls. Skirting boards, door frames and external fitting swill need to be removed from the original walls and then re-applied to the inside of the new wall surface. But heavy objects and furnishings may not be able to be re-applied unless you use special fixings. And any damp issues won’t be solved by internal wall insulation, so this issue needs to be resolved before installation.

External Wall Insulation

External wall insulation benefits as it means no disruption to your household and doesn’t reduce the floor space of walls it is applied to. It was also freshen up dated outer walls and fill in any crack and gaps that may have been vulnerable to draft, but you must find out if your home is listed and you need planning permission before going ahead with installation. External insulation will increase the lifetime of a home’s wall because it protects the brick work and also reduces condensation on internal walls and reduce any damp issues you may be having, although it will not stop them all together.