Cold Kitchen

Robdav

Robdav

Robdav

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,759
Location
Southern England
Hi all,

OK so we moved in to our new house 2 weeks ago. One of the very first things we noticed was that the Kitchen was colder than the rest of the house. In the morning it was freezing in there!

So after some investigation it looks like the lower parts of the wall, behind the lower cabinets, are simply bare walls that have had a lick of paint applied and little else. The top half of the wall is plastered but when you look at the bottom you can see the outline of some of the bricks!

For reference the house was built in 1955.

We are intending on extending the house next year but until then is there anything that can be done to improve the insulation?

btw, I'm a complete noob when it comes to this kind of thing.
 
To be fair, if the upper parts of the wall only have a plaster finish on them then you won't be able to improve the insulation over the whole wall not just the lower part. If the external wall is brick cavity then you could get some cavity insulation blown into it. Other than that you'd have to rip your Kitchen apart and frame out the inside and put some insulation in there to reduce the drafts.

Is the Kitchen part of the main house or housed in a previous extension? For the age of the original house I would doubt there's any insulation in it unless a previous owner got the cavities done.
 
I had a similar problem (cold kitchen not exposed brickwork), I had a radiator installed and it's worked a treat :) The kitchen doesn't get hot as such but it takes the chill off the room.
 
thanks chaps.

OK so the house is supposed to have had cavity wall insulation done by the previous owner so perhaps there is no more milage going down that route then.

as for the radiator, well the previous owner had the bright idea to put in a bathroom heater towel rail installed instread of a propper rad. I'll look to get that changed out as soon as possible.

don't suppose it's possible to use loft insulation stuff behind the cabinets to reduce the cold until we get the extension done?
 
So the pipe work is already there and feeding a towel radiator? If so, then just swap it with a panel rad (higher BTU). Easy, quick and cheap = problem solved, or atleast minimised.
 
Is the rad electric or water?

If you've got the power in for the towel radiator how about some underfloor heating, something like ProWarm? Not sure what the water types are like.
 
thanks all, going to go down the replacement rad route and go from there :)

turns out the towel rad is pushing out 1000 btu whereby the btu requirement for the room is just over 1500!
 
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Good! Change the rad.

As for putting insulation behind the cabinets, dont!!! You will get moisture build up. When insulation is used on an external wall etc you need to have a vapour barrier there too,to stop the warm air hitting the insulation. If you dont the insulation will get mouldy and cause you loads of problems!!
 
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