Warm housing is one of the important human needs. Heat creates cozy atmosphere at home, because it’s always nice to return to such a house after a cold street. As you know, not all house designs can boast of heat; old houses have poor thermal insulation and, despite working properly heating system, it can be very cold there.

Residents so old panel houses forced to cope with the problem of poor thermal insulation on their own. Resorting to in various ways insulation of their apartments. During such measures, many questions arise: how to insulate an apartment, what materials are most suitable for insulation, which company is best to contact. In this article we will try to answer these questions and tell you which option for insulating an apartment is the most profitable.

Before you begin the labor-intensive work of insulating your apartment, first determine the source of the cold in it. Such sources could be windows that can be replaced or repaired, perhaps door cracks that need to be sealed. But, if the whole problem is in the walls, this is a more complex and difficult insulation method. There are two ways to insulate walls in an apartment: insulation from the outside and insulation from the inside.

Internal insulation has many disadvantages, because by insulating walls with expanded polystyrene or mineral wool, the thickness of which is about 10 cm, for example, you noticeably lose the area of ​​​​the apartment. Large additional expenses With this method of insulation, problems arise due to the need to dismantle the walls, which is a long and tedious process. Therefore, if you decide to insulate the walls from the inside, you should temporarily move from the apartment, because repair work is impossible without relocating the residents.

A more profitable and less burdensome method is insulating walls from the outside. This method is insulation of the building facade. Work on insulating walls from the outside begins with cleaning and preparing the walls of the building, then polystyrene foam is mounted on the wall, reinforcement is attached and covered with plaster. After the insulation has been completed, the walls are painted to match the color of the entire building.

There are many advantages of the method of insulating apartments from the outside. Firstly, you do not lose the usable area of ​​the apartment, and secondly, your interior and design will not suffer from repair work, thirdly, your usual mode of residence and life should not change, and moving for apartment residents is not at all necessary. In addition, external insulation prevents the walls from freezing and protects against other influences of natural phenomena.

If we talk about the disadvantages of external insulation, we can only highlight the cost necessary materials, which will cost you about 20% more than with insulation from the inside. The increased price is quite justified, because more materials are needed for external insulation, and the complexity of this type of insulation work is much higher. But you shouldn’t skimp on your comfort; all expenses will be offset by the sufficient warmth and comfort of your apartment.

The method of external insulation is also suitable for end apartments, because these apartments are exposed to great cold due to the windy blowing through the building.

As you can see, if you want to make your apartment warmer, then when choosing an insulation method, it is better to choose a slightly more expensive, but high-quality and reliable method of insulating walls from the outside. Today almost everything construction companies Servants are willing to provide this type of insulation, offering qualified workers and acceptable deadlines for completing work with a guarantee of quality.

The problem of many apartments in multi-storey buildings Soviet and early Russian construction - freezing of enclosing structures. Walls do not protect from harsh winter frosts and hot summer. More energy is required to heat or cool rooms. Therefore, insulating an apartment is an important task for every homeowner.

There are a number of shortcomings or shortcomings in the design of houses that lead to deterioration thermal insulation properties enclosing structures:

• In the cavity brick walls there must be insulation. Due to oversight or negligence, it is not installed everywhere. As a result, hollow areas appear in the wall through which heat escapes.
• IN panel houses the problem is in the seams. They must be sealed with insulation and then sealed cement-sand mortar. In practice, insulating the seams of apartments often ends with caulking with a solution. Through these cracks thermal energy goes outside.
• Old wooden window structures or poorly installed plastic double-glazed windows.
• On upper floors, heat can escape through a “cold” attic.
• Old or poorly installed entrance doors.

Only A complex approach to insulate the apartment will give a 100% result. Individual measures will improve the situation, but will not solve the entire problem.

Window

Up to 30% of the heat escapes through them. The most correct solution- this is a replacement for wooden window designs for plastic double-glazed windows. To do this, it is recommended to contact a specialized organization. Specialists will visit the site and accurately measure the size of the window. Then the team will deliver it and install it.

You need to know a few subtleties about window installation in order to check the work of the installers:

• Herself window frame and the glass unit must comply with the characteristics stated in the order. This is the thickness of the profile and the number of glasses.

Double-glazed windows with three or four glasses are suitable for an apartment.

• The problem area in windows is the joint between the frame and the wall. It is necessary to ensure that the installers thoroughly foam all the cracks. They must cover the seams with waterproofing tape on the outside and inside.

Entrance door

Not such a problem area as windows or walls, but insulation is also required. The best solution is to replace the old one door leaf with a jamb on a new, insulated door structure. It is better to contact a specialized organization.

A company employee will come to the site, determine the strength of the partition where the door is planned to be installed, and take measurements doorway. Then a team of installers will deliver and install a new door.

You need to know all the intricacies of installation door design to check the operation:

• If the wall is thin, then it needs to be insulated. Otherwise the effect of new door will be reduced.
• It is necessary to ensure that all joints between the door and the wall are carefully sealed polyurethane foam.
• It is necessary to check the position of the door in two planes. If the canvas is skewed, then gaps will appear between the canvas and the jamb.

Attic space

Its insulation concerns residents of the upper floors in apartment buildings. The attic floor can be covered with expanded clay or lined with sheets of polystyrene foam. It's better if thermal insulation will be located on the ceiling inside the apartment. It is more effective and much cheaper than insulation attic space or roofing “pie”.

Walls

This is a problem area. Most of the heat escapes through the walls, and moisture penetrates into the room. Fungus and mold appear. That's why insulation of apartment walls from outside– a very important and responsible event.

Why outside and not inside?

For two reasons:

• The thickness of the insulation is at least 100 mm. If you install it from inside the apartment, you will lose part of the living space.
• Some defects on outer surface street walls, even after insulation from the inside, will allow cold, moisture and wind to penetrate into the living space.

Material selection

Before insulating the apartment from the outside, you need to decide on the material. Regardless of whether it is necessary to insulate the walls of one apartment or the entire facade of a multi-storey building, the same technologies and materials are used. This is expanded polystyrene, basalt mineral wool or penoizol (liquid foam).

Expanded polystyrene

The most popular material used on external insulation. Expanded polystyrene is a modified polystyrene foam with a closed porous structure. It has higher strength and lower thermal conductivity. Expanded polystyrene does not absorb moisture and does not allow steam to pass through. To install it you need Smooth surface. When heated, polystyrene foam begins to release dangerous phenolic compounds. WITH outside protected by plaster or various panels.

Mineral wool

Insulation with a low thermal conductivity coefficient. For mounting sheets mineral wool no flat surface required. It is highly hydrophobic, so it requires protective layer made of plaster or panels. Mineral wool dampens external noise well. During operation, no chemical compounds harmful to the body are released.

Penoizol

Polystyrene foam, which is applied to the wall in liquid form using a special spray unit. Penoizol has physical and Chemical properties. It is not used for spot insulation external walls apartments in multi-storey buildings.

Methods of wall insulation

There are several options for covering walls with thermal insulation materials. The choice of method and material is determined by the type of residential building (panel, brick, monolithic or wooden house):

• sealing seams between slabs in panel houses;
• insulation with expanded polystyrene;
• insulation with mineral wool;
• thermal insulation plaster.

Only owners of apartments on the first floors can do the work themselves. The rest should seek help from industrial climbers or facade finishing specialists. They have the appropriate equipment, skills and permission to carry out work at heights.

Sealing joints between slabs in panel houses

Simple and cheap way get rid of freezing walls, drafts and fungus. The entire surface of the wall is not insulated; only its weakest areas are sealed - the seams between the outer panels.

• First of all, all seams within the boundaries of the apartment are unstitched. Old cement-sand mortar, tow or other insulation is removed from them. The depth of jointing can reach 150 mm.
• The inner surface of the joints is dust-free and treated with concrete primer.
• After cleaning, the joint cavities are filled with mounting foam to 2/3 of the volume. The remaining space will be filled after the foam expands. The drying time for liquid insulation is 3-4 hours.
• Then the seams are sealed bitumen mastic and sealed with cement-sand mortar.

Insulation with polystyrene foam

Used for cladding panel, brick and wooden houses, both in winter and in summer time. To insulate apartments, a method is used frameless fastening sheets of expanded polystyrene followed by plastering:

• At the first stage, the surface is prepared for installation of insulation sheets. For panel houses, it consists of cleaning the façade area from mortar deposits, old paint and other pollutants. For brick walls, preparation consists of plastering the walls with cement-sand mortar or basic facade plaster. Thus, all the irregularities of the brick wall are hidden.
• After the plaster layer has dried, sheets of expanded polystyrene are installed. Fastening the sheets starts from the bottom. For middle latitudes, a sufficient insulation thickness is 80-100 mm. Expanded polystyrene is attached to the wall using facade mounting adhesive for concrete and brick surfaces. Its setting time is 3-4 hours.

Regardless of the material, the walls are lined with a “reserve”. The insulation is not attached strictly along the boundaries of the apartment, but extends into neighboring ones. Thus, the cold bridges from the floor slabs are blocked.

• Plastic facade dowels are used as additional fastening elements at a rate of 4-5 pcs. per 1 m 2 walls.
• The seams between the sheets are sealed with polyurethane foam. Then the excess foam is cut off and masking tape is applied. It prevents cracks from forming.
• The top surface is plastered. To do this, attach it to polystyrene foam plaster mesh made of fiberglass. Then a layer is applied facade plaster up to 10 mm thick.
• The second layer is applied relief plaster. Layer thickness 2-3 mm.
• At the final stage, the external insulation of apartment walls is painted facade paint for 2 times.

Insulation with mineral wool

A more expensive method compared to foam plastic:

• First of all, the surface of the wall is prepared. To do this, mortar deposits are removed, old plaster and paint. You can treat the wall with primer deep penetration for concrete and brick surfaces. The drying time for the soil is 3-4 hours.

When insulating brick walls with mineral wool pre-plaster no surface required.

• After completing the preparatory work, the base profile is mounted on the wall. Sheets of mineral wool will rest on it. The width of the profile must correspond to the thickness of the insulation. Usually it is 100 mm.
• Sheets of basalt mineral wool are mounted on the wall. Special glue is used for marking. It is applied with a notched trowel over the entire surface of the sheet. Glue drying time is 24 hours.
• Then the insulation is additionally secured using façade dowels.
• Mineral wool scraps are driven into the seams between the sheets.
• Reinforcing material is attached to the insulation façade mesh made of fiberglass or plastic. It is secured with glue or pins.
• Apply to the reinforced wall surface base layer facade plaster up to 10 mm thick.
• After it has dried, a thin 3-4 mm layer of finishing plaster is applied to the wall. Then the surface is painted.

Thermal insulation plaster

A new method of protecting walls from freezing. Such plaster collected positive properties facade plaster and insulation. In addition to standard cement and polymers, its composition includes mineral fillers, which increase thermal protection characteristics plaster mixture.
The article describes in detail how to insulate an apartment for winter. After completing the entire range of thermal protection work, the result will not be long in coming. The microclimate in the apartment will improve, heating costs will decrease.

Do you know that it should always be outside and you can’t insulate the walls from the inside? What will this lead to? insulation method, read below. We will try to explain everything in simple language.

If you want to do it as quickly as possible and you are too lazy to read useful information, then here is a simple explanation. When you are cold, you put a fur coat on your body, rather than placing it inside you.

The main thing about insulation!

Almost all insulation materials emit harmful substances such as:

Phenol- the harmful thing penetrates the skin and destroys the kidneys, liver and everything else, of course, the insulation doesn’t emit much of this nasty stuff, but still...

Styrene– it’s still disgusting, it’s a poison with mutagenic properties; if you smell it too much, the central nervous system can be affected.

Therefore, if you see something resembling styrene or phenol in the insulation, you cannot insert it inside the apartment. The insulation should be on the outside, but if a solution cannot be found other than installation inside the apartment, look for an environmentally friendly option. It will be insulation with PVA-based binders, or use foam glass, perhaps something made of expanded clay.

Secondary but no less important!

The standard method of insulation is when the insulation is located outside, that is, it protects the walls from the outside air. This scheme has been tested for years; if you go into the depths of heating technology, this solution allows the walls to remain dry, shifts the “dew point” into the insulation itself, which subsequently prevents the appearance of mold and increases the service life of the walls.

What is "Dew Point"?

« Dew point“is an area or place in which, under the influence of temperature, at which the air with the water vapor contained in it is cooled to the point of condensation into dew (moisture, water).

Remember that walls are insulated not only to retain heat. One of the main functions of insulation is to extend the service life of enclosing structures. Let us explain in more detail.

Insulation protects structures from destruction.

When the walls become wet under the influence of precipitation, in the event of a sudden low temperatures, they collapse as the water inside the structure expands. Naturally, in some cases (when the walls are without insulation at all), such as fencing balconies or the walls of the attic or basement, they have time to dry, but if we hang insulation from the inside, the structures will be in a damp state on all sides, without the opportunity to dry out.

The only solution where it is allowed to place insulation from the inside is when insulating the floor. This is due to the fact that warm air always tends upward.

Now draw your conclusions.

For example, if you decide to expand the area of ​​​​the apartment due to your balcony, then try to insulate from the outside, if this is not possible, then use expensive insulation that does not allow moisture to pass through, or it is important to at least provide a vapor barrier, which needs to protect the insulation and the wall from the penetration of warm air.

Insulation on the walls inside– inevitable destruction of external walls.

Before you spend a lot of money on insulating your home from the inside, let's look at the main disadvantages of this measure.

• That effective area your monastery will become noticeably smaller, you can still come to terms with it.
• But, when, over time, especially in the cold season, the humidity in the room increases sharply, fungus and mold with accompanying odors begin to appear, you will understand that insulating the walls from the inside was a futile undertaking. But it will be too late. Reason high humidity there will be a sharp temperature drop between inside walls and insulation. Condensation will begin to accumulate in this space, the consequences of which you have already become familiar with.
• As an example, I can cite the complaint of one of my friends. She complained that after insulating the inside of her apartment in a five-story brick building, she had to go to bed in a damp bed, since the bed linen began to become saturated with water from the air.
• All clothes have to be dried on the radiator, or additionally iron before dressing.
• In addition, her six-year-old My son started getting sick more often. Therefore, I advise everyone to learn from the mistakes of others rather than look for their own rake to gain valuable experience.

Building codes require that wall insulation in a heated house be done from the outside. This rule is justified by the physical processes that occur during vibrations temperature regime.

We insulate from the outside - dew point

1. According to the rules, all layers of a wall structure must be positioned so that in the direction from the inside to the outside their vapor barrier properties decrease and their thermal insulation properties increase. Why is that?
2. If only the walls are insulated from the inside, steam with convective air currents passes through the porous material to the vapor barrier layer. When cooled down sub-zero temperature the dew point is set in the brick. The steam condenses on the vapor barrier and returns to the insulation board in the form of cold water.
3. Insulating the walls from the outside does not let the cold in wall material. The moisture stopped by the vapor barrier film remains indoors. Its excess is removed during normal ventilation of the premises.

Energy saving when insulating walls outside

• Brick and concrete tend to accumulate temperature and return it gradually. When the walls of a house are insulated from the outside, the cold does not reach them, but they warm up from the inside. After 10 minutes of airing the rooms, the temperature in them hardly drops a couple of degrees.
• Porous thermal insulation material It only impedes the movement of air. But it is not able to accumulate heat. When the insulation is located in a house whose walls are frozen through, open window Cools down the room in 5 minutes. It will take a long time to restore a stable temperature regime.
• In addition, the internal placement of insulation does not cover the cold bridges formed by the floor slabs. Enormous heat losses are inevitable. External insulation of walls removes them from the influence zone external factors, which significantly extends the service life.

Advantages of insulating walls outside

By insulating the room from the outside, we acquire a number of useful qualities of our home.

1. You will constantly be in a fairly dry and moderately humid climate, in addition, the rooms will retain the necessary, temperature that is comfortable for you.
2. Improved sound insulation the properties of your building will never become unnecessary for your comfort.
3. The outer part of the wall will not give in corrosion- the house will become durable and will retain its good aura for your children and grandchildren.
4. From within we get rid of fungal growths and an unpleasant odor.
5. Next reason, and the most significant is that external wall insulation, depending on the thickness of the layer and the quality of the insulation, allows you to save up to 70% of your hard-earned money in heating costs.
6. One more useful quality what will happen the walls of your house will not freeze.“Wall freezing” is an eternal problem for all builders that must be constantly taken into account. There is such a thing as the “dew point” (in simple terms, this is the temperature difference at which condensation forms), and due to freezing of the walls, the “dew point” shifts to the center of the building. As a result of this, a slight, but catastrophically unnecessary temperature difference occurs inside the room. Warm air from the center of the room moves to cooler walls and corners, causing condensation to accumulate on them, destroying your drywall and peeling off your new wallpaper. We don’t need this, so we draw the right conclusions and insulate the walls from the outside.
7. Besides everything else, insulate the wall with foam plastic from the outside- a less labor-intensive task than doing it from inside the room.

How and how to insulate a house from the outside? Video

And after insulation, I would advise the reader to decorate the walls natural stone, which will give the building extraordinary beauty and individuality. But more on this in the next article. Good luck! Warmth and comfort to you and your family.