How to insulate walls
How to insulate walls
For high-quality insulation of walls, it is important to choose the right thermal insulation material. The laying of mineral wool and polystyrene has its own peculiarities and rules.
The most effective external insulation of walls, but you can not neglect the internal. The choice of insulation is an important task, from the correct solution of which depends the comfort of living in the house.
Which insulation is better?
The most popular thermal insulation materials -mineral wool (stone, basalt, glass wool, ecowool) and polystyrene. All of them have decent characteristics. But mineral wool has one drawback - high hygroscopicity. This means that this material is able to absorb moisture from the air. Therefore, the walls, insulated with such a heat insulator, need high-quality protection: installation of both waterproofing materials and vapor permeable membranes is required. When using foam, such problems do not arise. The statements about its flammability and the ability to allocate harmful substances are fiction. This material withstands exposure to temperatures up to 110 ° C and is safe for human health, as confirmed by the conclusion of Hygiene Research Institute. F.F. Erisman №03 / ПМ8. Stages of work on the insulation of walls
Both internal and external insulation begin withInstallation of a wooden or metal crate. But if mineral wool is used, the waterproofing material is first laid on the outside of the house. After that, proceed to install the battens. To install it you will need either a metal profile or wooden bars. The distance between the vertical slats should be 2-3 cm less than the width of the roll or mineral wool slab. This will ensure a tight fit of the heat insulator. If foam is used, the step height should be equal to the width of the sheet. The thickness of the thermal insulation layer depends on many factors: the climatic conditions of the region, the material from which the walls are built, the way of heating the house. On average, 5-10 cm of insulation layer is sufficient for southern latitudes, 15-25 cm is required for the northern regions. In order to fulfill these conditions it is not necessary to search for the material of the required thickness, it is possible to lay already available in several rows. This method is advantageous not only for simplicity of laying, but also for the fact that an air layer forms between the slabs of mineral wool or foam plastic, which is an excellent heat accumulator. The most effective way of warming the walls: every next layer of thermal insulation material must overlap the joints in the previous one. Thus, the possibility of "cold bridges" is minimized. At the end of this work, a vapor barrier (for mineral wool) and a windproof membrane are attached over the insulation.
