The Old Manse, Aberdeenshire
A client of Annie Kenyon Architects have a large Old Manse which was proving practically impossible to heat and maintain at a comfortable temperature. We surveyed the building and found various areas where heat loss was occurring, the main, area, as usual, was the roof. We found ill fitting slumped glass wool in some areas. The Walls were thick solid masonry 2-3 feet thick and, as expected, completely uninsulated. The ground floor is split level, half over a cellar, the other suspended over a crawl space of varying depth. The windows were sash and case, with shutters built into the window reveal boxes, and just to complicate it further half of the house has room in the roof with Dormer windows, this part of the roof had been insulated with glass wool in the past but the insulations was not working. Following discussions with the client we discovered that the house was so uncomfortably cold that family members were reluctant to visit, and that if nothing could be done they were considering moving.
Kishorn Insulations were contracted to fully insulate the whole building, under the ground floor, all external walls, and all sloping roof areas. The existing insulation that had been fitted was removed and perfect fitting air tight Icynene was installed, this eliminated all draughts, and retained the heat, the boiler was turned down and many radiators switched off. The ground floor held a bit of a surprise when we found that the depth where we checked it was 600 mm, but this rapidly diminished to only 150 mm, this is too tight to get to from the crawl space, so lifted sections of the floor and installed a sub floor, and the Icynene was installed from above.
Again, using Icynene, we transformed an old, very interesting, building into to a greatly improved energy efficient home, which can now be enjoyed for many years to come, without costing the earth (literally) This is one of the more challenging buildings that we have treated, and with all the academic research the RGU have carried out with us on insulating this type of building, we know we are insulating in a way which is in no way detrimental to the fabric, no one else can make this claim. Icynene has supported more academic research than any other insulation on the market.
