Retrofitting a terraced home in Crookes

Dave and Kathy are refurbishing their mid-terrace home and using it as an opportunity to make their home more comfortable and decarbonise their environmental footprint. They love their home: they have lived there for 30 years and have no plans to leave.

Like other houses built between 1900 and 1929 it is a stone front brick house with solid walls. They had previously added some insulation and ventilation and double-glazed the windows, but the back of their house is particularly cold in winter, their attic room is too hot in summer and too cold in winter, they have a draughty front door and living room and issues with condensation. 

SY Ecofit’s Whole House Plan assessment recommended room-in-roof insulation plus front and rear internal wall insulation. Because the house doesn’t have cavity walls, we have to be sensitive about retaining wall breathability when recommending insulation type. We also recommended new windows and insulated doors. Although their existing windows were double-glazed the window frames were worn and cracked. Their house was a leaky envelope, but this can be fixed. Importantly when addressing heat ‘leaks’ it is still key to ventilate the house.