How to attach insulation to the wall: adhesive installation, fixation with dowels. Laying mineral wool - advantages, materials and stages of work How to attach insulation to a wooden wall

Wall insulation is a mandatory stage in the construction of any house. Whether the home will be warm and comfortable enough depends on what kind of thermal insulation material is used and how correctly the technology for its installation is followed.

It is best to insulate the walls of residential and public buildings from the outside. Mineral wool is often used for external thermal insulation. This is an affordable and easy-to-install insulation. Therefore, if you know the technology, it is possible to insulate the walls outside with mineral wool yourself.

Advantages of external wall insulation

There are several reasons for insulating the external walls of a house:

complete protection of load-bearing structures from negative atmospheric influences;
maintaining the dimensions of the internal area of the building;
maintaining high-quality ventilation of premises;
reduction in heating costs.

Insulation properties

Mineral wool is a material made from natural basalt and silica, treated with compounds with water-repellent properties. It is produced in the form of mats, slabs, and rolls. Depending on the location of the fibers, mineral wool and lamella slabs are distinguished.

To insulate walls, mineral wool is used, the density of which is in the range of 75-150 kg/m. cube The first layer (possible without preliminary preparation of the surface) is a material whose density is 75 kg/m. cube The slabs completely fill the unevenness of brick, concrete and wooden walls. Using mineral wool with a higher density, laid in a second layer, a more even surface is formed, which greatly facilitates subsequent finishing work (so-called wet facades). The thickness of the material ranges from 20 to 200 mm.

Advantages

The undoubted advantages of this insulation include the following:

excellent heat and sound insulation;
high-quality filling of voids;
fire resistance, ability to withstand high temperatures;
possibility of use in different temperature conditions;
ease of installation.

Mineral wool is suitable for insulating both external and internal walls of frame, wooden, and brick houses.

Flaws

There are also disadvantages to using mineral wool insulation. They emit formaldehyde, which is hazardous to human health. But according to many experts, the amount of these substances is insignificant and does not cause any harm to humans.

All installation work on insulating the house outside can be carried out at a relative air humidity of no more than 85%. You cannot work with mineral wool in rainy or foggy weather. At temperatures above +30°C, external insulation is also stopped, and the treated area is covered with dark-colored heat-insulating fabric. Otherwise, the mineral wool will crack later.

Thermal insulation process

Insulating walls with mineral wool is a job that you can do yourself, even without experience in construction.

The design of an ideal warm wall is insulation, fixed on a load-bearing wall and covered with facing brickwork.

It is better to insulate a building during its construction. To do this you need to do the following:

cover the facade along the entire perimeter with mineral wool slabs of the required thickness, fix them with fastening anchors; for example, for the Central region of Russia, slabs with a thickness of 140-150 mm are sufficient;
form brickwork on top of the insulation layer;
rub the seams with a solution of cement or plaster.

If the house has already been built and you need to insulate it, the technology for this process will be slightly different. First prepare the surface. To do this you need:

free the facade from unnecessary objects, the surface should become clean and smooth;
do not leave metal objects, they will begin to rust;
remove old coating (plaster, paint), dust, dirt.

A clean base and installation done correctly are the key to high-quality insulation.

Thermal protection device for a wooden house

Insulating walls with mineral wool slabs is a whole complex of works. Several main stages can be distinguished.

Preparing the base

At this stage, wooden surfaces are treated with special emulsions and primers that will protect the house from mold and rot.

The antiseptic must dry completely.

Creating a vapor barrier layer

Its purpose is to provide the entire structure with ventilation. To do this you will need polyethylene, roofing felt or aluminum foil.

narrow slats are placed vertically on the walls in increments of 1 m;
the vapor barrier is secured with staples or nails; the fastening points are sealed with tape;
holes with a diameter of 20 mm are drilled at the bottom and top of the slats; this will provide the necessary ventilation.

Frame making

To do this, boards are vertically stuffed (40-50 mm cross-section, 100 mm wide) or metal profiles are attached.

They are installed at intervals slightly smaller than the width of the mineral wool.

Installation of thermal insulation

Mineral wool is laid in two layers, shifting the slab slightly so that the joints do not coincide. This type of insulation does not require additional fastening, since it is very elastic.

Often this material is fixed using a special glue (choose in the store the one that says “for mineral wool”).

Laying waterproofing

To protect the insulation from getting wet, waterproofing material is attached to the sheathing with staples or nails. Thanks to this, mineral wool will retain its properties longer and the service life of the thermal insulation layer will increase.

The final stage

On top of the waterproofing, slats with a cross section of 30 mm are stuffed. This creates a ventilation gap that will facilitate the evaporation of moisture. Then the house cladding is installed on the sheathing.

It must be taken into account that the total thickness of the insulation must be at least 100 mm. Also, do not forget to treat all wooden elements with an antiseptic and fire retardants.

Installation of insulation for a frame structure

The technology for insulating a frame house is generally similar to the process of insulating wooden houses described above.

On the interior walls, chipboard is attached to the frame. They are joined along the beams and beams of the strapping. Then the vapor barrier is fixed and drywall or lining is installed.

Installation of mineral wool

Mineral wool slabs are laid on external wall surfaces. The number of layers depends on the region in which the house is located. The joints of the previous layer are covered with the next row of insulation. First, at the bottom of the wall, it is necessary to fix the galvanized cornice using dowels: it will help the insulation boards lie flat and protect the building from rodents and insects.

After the heat insulator is laid, it is covered with a membrane to protect it from the wind and secured with a stapler.

You can fix the mineral wool on the wall using a special adhesive solution. It is applied to the back side of the mat, slab or roll, which is then applied from bottom to top, easily pressing it against the wall.

You can attach the heat insulator with dowel-nails “umbrellas”. It is necessary to control that the material does not move apart when punched. Its surface is smoothed with sanding brushes. A primer mixture is applied to the mineral wool mats or slabs.

Creating an air gap and finishing

The sheathing will help retain the heat insulation layer. It will also create a ventilation gap between the windproof membrane and the outer skin. Chipboard is installed on the sheathing. Then the cladding (for example, siding or lining) is installed.

Thus, mineral wool slabs placed between the frame posts will be sewn between the chipboard slabs from the outside and inside.

Production of thermal insulation for a brick building

The process of insulating a brick house with mineral wool is similar to that described above. The creation of a ventilated facade begins with the manufacture of sheathing on the load-bearing wall. The insulation is fixed on it. A windproof membrane is laid on top and secured. You also need to install ventilation ducts measuring 4-6 mm. All this is covered from above with the selected finishing material.

Insulating walls with mineral wool in frame, wooden, and brick houses is a simple process. If you purchase the simplest tools and necessary building materials, then 2-3 people can properly insulate a medium-sized house in one day.

Thin walls cause 30-35% of the heat to simply escape through them. Thus, almost a third of the money that is paid for heating is wasted, and if you collect it in a year or two, you get a pretty decent amount, which, if saved, can be spent on anything: a vacation by the sea, a trip to your favorite country, a purchase new furniture - there are many options.

But how to save? Why not sit in a cold house? To start saving, you must first spend - insulate the facade with mineral wool. The technology of this process is quite simple; you can do all the work yourself. The only thing you need for this is to know how to choose the material, how to handle it and what is the sequence of work. Below we will talk about this and much more in more detail.

Selection Basics

But in order for the material to really perform all functions and keep the house warm, it must only be of high quality. Not all types of insulation materials that are on sale on the construction market today can be said to be of high quality. However, there are companies that produce mineral wool that meets all requirements and has all the necessary properties. These are Beltep, IZOVOL, Paroc and others.

The Rockwool company tops the list of best manufacturers. This is a branch of a Danish company. And he is not alone: there are factories of this brand throughout the country that offer high-quality products without price markups.

Insulation characteristics

Rockwool mineral wool is one of the best materials, which has many enhanced characteristics. The most important of them are:

Excellent sound insulation. Due to this, fibers are chosen to improve room acoustics and make noise barriers.
Low thermal conductivity.
Environmentally friendly, confirmed by the EcoMaterial Green certificate.
Vapor permeability.
Fire resistance - mineral wool can withstand temperatures up to 1000 degrees C, while other manufacturers have this figure - 600 degrees. During a fire, the fibers do not shrink, so voids, which are very dangerous at high temperatures, do not form inside.
Easy to install.
Possibility to choose external insulation in rolls or slabs.
Durability. Moreover, during operation, the fibers do not break down, do not deform, and maintain their dimensions well.

In addition, which is very important, Rockwool insulation does not rot, it is not affected by rodents and various microorganisms.

Product Overview

The Rockwool company produces several brands of mineral wool. The most popular among them are:

Wentirock Max. This is mineral wool in the form of mats, intended for use in insulating enclosing walls, high partitions and with subsequent cladding in the form of glass, stone, or corrugated board. The cost of Wentirock Max mineral wool is from 600 rubles. for 1 sq. m with overall dimensions 100 x 60 x 10 cm.
"Conlit." This is the name given to the slabs and are available in two versions - with and without aluminum cladding. Some products are finished with a layer of fiberglass. This type of product is intended for installation at facilities that have increased fire safety requirements. To fix the Conlit slabs to the surface to be tiled, you will need to additionally purchase glue specially designed for this purpose.
"Light Butts". These are lightweight water-repellent thermal insulation boards that do not shrink and are easy to install. The cost of “Light Butts” brand mineral wool depends on its thickness (5 or 10 cm) and the size of the slabs and varies from 450 to 565 rubles.

In total, the manufacturer produces 24 types of insulation, which allows you to choose the most suitable option for a specific purpose.

Material selection

Before purchasing the one you like, you should definitely pay attention to where it will be installed and whether it is intended for this. So, if the installation of mineral wool will be carried out outside the building, then the material should be façade, since it has higher hydrophobicity, repels moisture and has good density. Insulation intended for indoor installation has lower properties and will not cope with its purpose if installed outside the building.

Unfortunately, mineral wool, like any building material, has more than just advantages. It also has disadvantages - the need to strictly adhere to the technological process. If the manufacturer's installation recommendations are violated, the insulation will lose its thermal insulation properties. One of the options for violating technology is abandoning the reinforcing layer. Such a solution will lead to cracks appearing on the facade and, over time, expanding.

Insulation technology

Experts advise taking the recommendations for installing insulation very carefully and seriously and properly preparing the walls - only this guarantees the quality of the result, and the process itself will not take much time. How should the facade be insulated with mineral wool? The installation technology consists of several stages. This:

Making markup.
Setting up a profile.
Installation of insulation.
Fixation of insulation material.
Reinforcement.
Waterproofing provision.
Finishing surfaces.

After marking, you need to remove cement stains, protrusions, protruding metal pins from the walls, and then remove wires, drainpipes and other objects so that over time rust from them does not appear on the surface of the facade. Next, all cracks should be sealed with mortar. After this, it is necessary to apply a substance that protects against fungus to the entire insulated surface. Moreover, this must be done even if no fungus is noticed on the wall surfaces. If the walls are wooden, they need to be impregnated with an antiseptic.

Facade preparation

Insulation of walls with mineral wool is carried out in the following sequence:

Primer of walls. Moreover, it is necessary to use a material that penetrates deep into the surface of the walls.
Installation of guides. These can be wooden beams or a metal profile. The horizontal guides must be the same thickness as the insulating material. Considering that you can compress it a little during installation, the profile can be used 1-2 cm thinner, this is quite acceptable. The distance between the guides depends on the size of the slabs.
In order for the slabs to be laid tightly, without gaps and cracks, it is necessary to make the distance between the guides somewhat smaller. But this figure should not exceed 2 cm.
Secure the guides using self-tapping screws or dowels.
Place Rockwool insulation between the rails. Laying begins at the bottom and ends at the top. The insulation can be installed with glue or reinforced with disc-shaped dowels. If there are still gaps between the guides and guides, they need to be filled using the remaining insulation.
To reinforce an insulated wall, you need to apply glue to its surface and carefully press the reinforcing mesh. Then you need to apply the adhesive on top again. This will prevent surface deformation and will additionally protect the insulation from moisture.

Installation under siding

If siding is used as the final finishing, it is best to arrange the insulation of the facade with mineral wool. The technology for this action is as follows:

Secure the vertical profile. All elements are installed at a distance of 40-50 cm from one another.
Rockwool mineral wool is placed in the gap between the vertical posts and secured with disc-shaped dowels.
The insulation is covered with a waterproofing membrane. The joints are taped with butyl tape. This must be done to protect the insulation from moisture. Depending on the wall material, staples or liquid nails are used to fix the vapor barrier film.
Installation of counter-lattice.
Siding installation.

Insulation under plaster

Insulating the facade with mineral wool under plaster eliminates the use of steam and wind insulation and sheathing. The work is carried out according to the following plan:

Attach mineral wool to the surface of the facade using glue or disc-shaped dowels. In this case, you need to make sure that there are no gaps left anywhere, and the joints of the slabs of the next row are located approximately in the middle of the previous row.
Installation of reinforcing mesh. The canvases are laid with an “overlap” of 10-15 cm - this will prevent the plaster from cracking.
When the reinforcing layer becomes dry, the external finishing is performed.
Using a spatula, remove any glue drips.
If it turns out that the reinforcement has not leveled the wall surfaces, you can first use rough plastering
Perform final cladding. To improve the aesthetics of a building, it is advisable to use decorative plaster.

Those who are engaged in construction professionally claim that it is possible to insulate the facade with mineral wool yourself. The technology is not complicated, but there are some nuances, without knowledge of which it will not be possible to perform work at a high level:

For external installation, Rockwool mineral wool in slabs is best suited - this material has a high density, so it will not sag over time.
It is best to take insulating material of such thickness that it can be installed in one layer. If installation is carried out in two layers, the seams should not match.
During installation, you need to make sure that there are no voids left - they will be cold bridges that provoke the appearance of condensation.

The wall of any building must meet several requirements; in addition to being sufficiently strong, it must also retain heat well in the room. Otherwise, heating bills will increase several times.

Traditional building materials such as concrete and brick have good thermal conductivity. Things are somewhat better with wood, but the thickness of wooden walls, as a rule, is not sufficient to effectively retain heat.

Types of thermal insulation materials

To give the walls the required thermal insulation characteristics, various types of heat insulators are used. Most often, either polystyrene foam (expanded polystyrene) or mineral wool is used. Although quite often ordinary warm plaster is used as a heat-insulating material, its thermal conductivity is almost twice as high as that of foam plastic, and the installation of warm plaster requires much more time and effort.

Foam plastic is popular due to its low thermal conductivity and ease of installation. Not the least role when choosing this material is played by its low weight. The thermal conductivity of polystyrene foam is 0.39 W/m2. Depending on the type of wall, the insulation is attached either using an adhesive mixture or using dowels.

Mineral wool. To insulate walls, hard mineral wool is usually used, which is available in the form of mats. Its disadvantages include the need to construct a sheathing made of wooden bars or metal profiles. But the additional installation effort is compensated by excellent heat and sound insulation.

Mineral wool is also available in roll form.

Penoplex differs from polystyrene foam by being completely airtight; it is extruded polystyrene foam (foamed). The method of attaching this insulation to the wall is no different from foam plastic.

Traditional plaster should also be noted as one of the ways to reduce the thermal conductivity of a wall. Warm plaster is performed in 3 layers. The main disadvantage of plaster is its increased thermal conductivity compared to other thermal insulation materials. In addition, drying the plaster will take a long time.

Among the new thermal insulation materials, polyurethane can be noted. After installing the sheathing, it is applied to the wall and adheres to it. After hardening, the excess is trimmed off. Apart from the high cost, it is practically free of disadvantages.

Methods for attaching insulation to the wall

The technology for attaching insulation strongly depends on the type of base. Also, the choice of fastening depends on the type of thermal insulation material.

Expanded polystyrene (foam plastic). If the wall of the house is concrete or brick, then the slabs can simply be glued. To do this, at the preparatory stage it is enough to just clean the wall from dust and dirt; possible wall defects should be corrected using a plaster mixture.

There are several methods for applying adhesive to foam board. The mixture can be spread using a notched trowel over the entire surface of the slab.

It is allowed to coat the perimeter of the slab with glue and apply the mixture pointwise to the surface of the insulation. In order to attach the insulation to the wall, you just need to press the slab tightly.

Attaching foam boards to the base using dowels is considered a little more difficult. The mount for the insulation has the shape of an umbrella - with a wide cap (it prevents damage to the insulating material). Also, due to the wide cap, the foam plates are tightly pressed to the wall.

As for the placement of dowels, you will need at least 5 of them per slab (4 are placed in the corners and one more in the center). To be on the safe side, many builders place the dowels at a distance of 25 cm from each other. Insulation is attached to wooden walls exclusively using dowels.

When attaching foam boards, you need to pay special attention to the joints. The slabs must fit tightly against one another without gaps or cracks.

To prevent aging of polystyrene foam, a metal mesh is placed on top of it and a layer of plaster is applied, which, in addition to its protective function, also performs a decorative function.

Mineral wool. The main inconveniences when thermally insulating a wall using mineral wool are related to the installation of the sheathing. Wooden blocks are often used for it. The distance between the bars should be slightly smaller than the size of the mineral wool slab itself, in which case the fastening of the insulation will be more reliable. When using hard mineral wool (in the form of slabs), wooden sheathing bars are packed in horizontal and vertical directions, and insulation is inserted into the resulting cells.

Rigid mineral wool boards can be glued to the wall or used as a fastening for insulation with dowels. But it is not recommended to attach them to the wall without lathing; the rigidity of mineral wool is much less than that of foam plastic.

If roll insulation is used, the sheathing bars are placed in a horizontal or vertical direction.

The main problem associated with attaching mineral wool is that the mats can fall out of the sheathing cells. This can happen if the distance between the bars exceeds the dimensions of the insulation board. In this case, you can either redo the sheathing or secure the insulation with threads. To do this, nails are driven from bottom to top into the bars so that the head protrudes 3-5 mm. Then, after placing the insulation, thin wire or strong thread is wound around the protruding nails. This provides a fairly reliable fastening of the insulation.

After this, all that remains is to complete the final finishing of the wall.

Sometimes timber is specially used for lathing, the width of which exceeds the thickness of the insulation. Due to this, an air gap is formed between the mineral wool and, for example, siding. This increases the thermal insulation of the wall.

Plaster, despite the labor-intensive nature of the work, remains a popular thermal insulation material. Performed in 3 layers:

First, a spray is applied to the prepared, cleaned base (thickness 5 - 7 mm). Its purpose is to hide visible defects in the base;

then the main layer of plaster is applied up to 15 cm thick. It is applied in layers of 2 - 2.5 cm. Before applying the next layer, you must wait until the previous one dries;

The finishing layer is a mixture of sand and cement, it creates a smooth plaster surface.

In order not to make a mistake with the composition of the mixture, you can use ready-made “insulating” plaster.

Before plastering, it is necessary to wet the wall so that the concrete or brick does not “suck” the moisture from the plaster mixture. It is possible to make small notches on an excessively smooth wall to ensure additional adhesion of the mixture to the base; for this you can also use a regular metal mesh.

Before plastering a wooden wall, it is necessary to fill it with shingles or cover the wall with shingles.

It is possible to create a metal frame from wire. To do this, nails are driven into the wall ½ thickness in a checkerboard pattern. Then their protruding parts are wrapped with wire.

The effectiveness of thermal insulation of the room depends on the correct fastening of the insulation to the wall. Even with a small gap between individual slabs of thermal insulation material, the resulting “cold bridges” will significantly reduce the effectiveness of thermal insulation. Compliance with the technology guarantees the preservation of heat in the room and ensures a long service life of the heat insulator.

In the process of building a house, it is important to pay attention not only to the construction of the main structures, but also to other smaller points that are also important. We are talking about work related to insulation, waterproofing, finishing, etc.

Let's take a closer look at the first work and talk about how to attach insulation to the wall, because this process is not as simple as it might seem, and detailed instructions are not included with every material.

You should not waste time on issues related to the choice of special insulating material, since this material is aimed at solving the issue of its fastening.

Let us immediately mention that there is no ideal method, since everything depends on the chosen material, as well as on the surface (some of them do not allow the possibility of fixing the material in one way or another). Here are the main methods that experts most often resort to:

using glue;
on dowels;
using a self-adhesive coating.

Let's look at the 3 most popular materials, as well as installation methods suitable specifically for them.

Expanded polystyrene

When it comes to expanded polystyrene (another name is polystyrene foam), the question of how to attach insulation to the walls of the facade is incredibly relevant. The fact is that, unlike mineral wool, it is not attached to wooden walls, it is simply laid in the lathing.

Thermal insulation of brick or concrete walls with this insulation can be carried out simply using glue. We must not forget about the preparatory stage, which greatly affects the final result.

In fact, it is not difficult, because you just need to thoroughly clean the walls: there should be no dust or any dirt left on them. It is worth mentioning the need to correct wall defects, which are quite possible; for this, use plaster.

As for applying the glue, which is necessary for attaching such insulation, it should be applied directly to the polystyrene foam board; use a special notched trowel for this.

It is important that the glue is applied evenly to the surface, otherwise attaching the insulation to the wall may simply not give the desired effect, that is, with such fastening it will not be possible to ensure normal thermal insulation. But this rule only applies if it was decided to apply the mixture to the entire surface. An effective method is also fastening with glue, applied pointwise to the inner area and completely around the perimeter.

As for the wooden covering of the walls, it significantly complicates the work, because attaching the material in this case will be quite problematic, since you will have to use dowels. This type of fastening to the wall can only be done by specialists, so you should entrust the work to them. What you should know about purchasing fasteners is that you will need at least five dowels for each slab.

Note! The difficulty in this process is the process of aligning the joints, since it is imperative to align the slabs until they fit tightly (until cracks are completely prevented)!

Mineral wool

Mineral wool is a rather specific material; when using it, craftsmen need additional protection for the skin and respiratory tract. It can be attached either with glue or with the help of a specially created lathing, with which many may have problems.

The entire wall should be covered with such lathing, and the wooden blocks or metal profiles that are most often used in this process must be installed at a smaller distance than the width of the mineral wool slabs.

Lathing is mainly used for a ventilated facade system, and installation of mineral wool with glue is used for a wet facade under plaster.

Separately, it is worth considering the issue regarding slab mineral wool. The fact is that such material is attached to the walls not only with the help of lathing, it is also attached without any problems using glue with additional fixation with a metal dowel.

Not everyone can guess or know how to attach insulation to a wooden wall without using lathing. This also applies to mineral wool and polystyrene foam. In fact, there is nothing simpler, the same glue is used, and the plastic dowel is bitten off so that only the cap remains, where you then insert a self-tapping screw and in this way, the heat insulator is additionally fixed to the wall.

Warm plaster

As you might have guessed, you cannot apply warm plaster to a wooden base (house), because the material can only be applied to a concrete surface (a brick wall is also suitable for this).

Let us immediately note that the work associated with the use of plaster is incredibly difficult, but it is still popular, despite the significant lag in thermal insulation characteristics from the previously considered materials.

Here are 3 layers that must be included in attaching the insulation to a brick wall:

The 1st layer involves applying plaster to the prepared coating, which has been completely cleaned. This layer is needed to ensure that all remaining defects are completely eliminated.
The 2nd layer is the main one, and its thickness can reach 150 mm, but it is impossible to apply all this plaster at once, so builders apply about 20 mm, after which they wait for it to dry.
The 3rd layer is considered the final layer; its purpose is to create the most even and smooth surface possible.

You can’t just say “install”, “fix, fasten” about plaster, since this material involves performing a huge amount of complex work over a long period of time. It is important to thoroughly wet the entire surface of the wall before starting work, this is necessary to prevent moisture from being sucked out by the surface.

Not every person will be able to correctly install insulating material, because not even all builders attach it correctly. It is important to observe a huge number of subtleties in order to avoid critical mistakes!

When building a private house, both the developer and the future owner of the cottage must pay great attention to the issue of thermal insulation and ensuring comfortable living conditions even in the most extreme cold. This fully applies to buildings made of logs or beams. But at the same time, such cottages have their own specifics, determined by the material from which they are built. It cannot be ignored - otherwise it will negatively affect the durability of the walls and finishing of buildings made of logs and timber. Therefore, deciding how to insulate a wooden house from the outside and with what is not so easy and you need to approach this matter in detail.

How to insulate a wooden house from the outside and with what

Installation of sheathing on a log house for laying insulation

Specifics of insulating a wooden house

When carrying out measures for installing thermal insulation in a house made of timber or logs, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of wood as a material. There are many of them, but the main ones are two - high vapor permeability and susceptibility to fungus and other microorganisms.

The walls of a wooden house are characterized by high vapor permeability

The first means that wood absorbs and transmits moisture well, both from the inside and outside. Accordingly, insulation for a house built from timber or logs must have comparable vapor permeability indicators - otherwise the walls will gradually become damp, rot and become unusable. In addition, there is a need for a ventilation gap between the external finish and the insulation - without it, the latter will absorb too much water and lose its thermal insulation qualities.

The table shows vapor permeability indicators for basic building materials and insulation materials. As you can see, wood along the grain has the highest value of this parameter and is comparable only to mineral wool or autoclaved aerated concrete

On the left you can see the negative effect that occurs if the vapor permeability of thermal insulation and external finishing is lower than that of the wall - dampness and condensation appear.

And the second feature of wood, associated with the susceptibility of the material to fungus and microorganisms, requires mandatory treatment of all walls and parts of the thermal insulation system with antiseptic compounds, and in several layers.

Insulation of a private house can be divided into two types.

Internal, when a layer of heat-insulating material is located on the side of the living quarters and is covered with plasterboard, clapboard or any other finishing material.
External when thermal insulation is located on the walls on the street side. From above it is covered with a windproof film and external finishing, which can be boards, siding, corrugated sheets, artificial stone, etc.

Internal insulation of the walls of a wooden house

Internal insulation in wooden houses is usually used when there is a need to preserve the “wood” appearance of the building. This usually applies to log houses.

But at the same time, such a thermal insulation system has a number of disadvantages:

reduction of useful area of residential premises;
suboptimal dew point position, leading to dampness and condensation;
gradual destruction of walls from the outside, caused by temperature changes.

Insulation of a wooden house

Therefore, external insulation appears to be a more preferable option. Such a solution has the following advantages.

Saving living space– the insulation layer and the frame under it are located outside, which means you save several square meters inside the house.
Dew point shift outside the walls of the house– with good external thermal insulation along the entire thickness of the wall made of timber or logs, the temperature will be above zero. Consequently, condensation will not fall on the wall from the inside, there will be less dampness, and the service life of the structures will be longer.
By shifting the dew point and using ventilated façade technology The risk of mold and rot is significantly reduced.
Walls made of timber or logs can serve as interior decoration, the original “texture” of a country cottage is preserved.

Due to these advantages, the article will focus on how to insulate a wooden house from the outside and what materials are suitable for this.

Difference in dew point position for walls with internal and external insulation

General arrangement of external insulation of a wooden house

Two-story wooden house

From the point of view of ensuring high-quality thermal insulation and preventing the appearance of dampness/condensation on the wall and in the insulation, the most preferable way to protect a house from the cold is to install a ventilated facade. Regardless of the material used, the design is a “layer cake” consisting of the following elements:

load-bearing wall of a house made of timber or logs;
frame for insulation, created from timber or metal profiles;
a layer of thermal insulation material and fasteners for it;
windproof membrane film;
lathing for external finishing;
exterior decoration of the house.

At the same time, a ventilation gap is formed between the insulation and the external finishing of the wooden house due to the sheathing, which ensures effective drainage and reduces the risk of condensation and dampness.

Insulation of a wall made of wooden beams. In the figure you can see all the elements of the ventilated facade - insulation, frame for it, windproof membrane, lathing for finishing and the cladding itself, represented by clapboard

Important! Separately, it is worth paying attention to such an issue as the presence of a vapor barrier film between the wooden wall and the insulation. This film has been the subject of controversy for quite some time. Some craftsmen argue that a vapor barrier between the wall and the insulation is necessary, otherwise the thermal insulation material will quickly become damp due to moisture coming from the house. Others are of the opposite opinion and say that the vapor barrier will disrupt the removal of moisture from the walls of the house, condensation will appear between it and the insulation, and then mold. Taking into account both of these opinions, we can say that it is possible to install a film to protect thermal insulation material from dampness, but only if there is good ventilation in the house and a gap between the vapor barrier and the wooden wall.

Scheme for insulating a wooden house using a vapor barrier film. You may notice that there is a small gap between it and the wall.

Various methods of attaching insulation to a log wall: a) – roll insulation, fixed using slats; b) – single-layer thermal insulation, fixed to a frame made of timber; c) two-layer thermal insulation fixed on a double sheathing; d) two-layer thermal insulation, fixed to the frame with brackets

Fastening thermal insulation to metal brackets and disc dowels

You can familiarize yourself with the materials used to insulate a wooden house from the outside from the table below and in subsequent sections of the article.

Table. Insulation of a wooden house from the outside - basic materials.

What material to choose for external insulation of a wooden house

Before you start insulating a wooden house, you need to decide what exactly to do it with, i.e. what material. You can see the options available to most in the table from the previous section. These are mineral wool, polystyrene foam, extruded polystyrene foam and ecowool. Let's look at them in a little more detail.

Do-it-yourself insulation of a wooden house

Mineral wool is a combination of many fibers obtained from melts of various rocks. As in cellulose wool, a large amount of air is located between the fibers, due to which the material acquires its heat-insulating qualities.

The following advantages speak in favor of mineral wool as insulation for a wooden house:

ease of installation;
availability;
non-flammable - mineral wool melts only at very high temperatures;
vapor permeability at the level of wood;
excellent heat and sound insulation qualities.

But it is worth considering that mineral wool absorbs moisture well and at the same time greatly loses its thermal insulation properties. Therefore, the outside of the insulation must be protected with a membrane windproof film.

Other insulation options for a wooden house are polystyrene foam and extruded polystyrene foam. Both are polymers consisting of cells glued together with many pores and voids. The latter, filled with air, provide the material with high thermal insulation qualities. Extruded polystyrene foam is made using a slightly different technology than regular polystyrene foam, due to which the material is denser and its cells are smaller. The material itself becomes stronger, but also retains its thermal insulation qualities.

Foam insulation is not the best option for a wooden house, but many resort to this solution due to the low cost of the insulating material

However, both polystyrene foam and extruded polystyrene foam have a serious drawback, which makes their use as insulation for a wooden house questionable - low vapor permeability. Moisture and water vapor penetrate these materials very poorly. Therefore, if a wooden house is insulated with polystyrene foam, a humid environment will certainly arise between the wall and the thermal insulation layer, favorable for the development of fungi and other microorganisms and, as a result, for rotting and damage to the wood.

Which polystyrene foam is better for insulating the outside of a house?

According to environmentalists, up to 40% of heat and electricity generated in the northern hemisphere is spent on heating residential, industrial and other facilities. For this reason, high-quality insulation of buildings brings tangible benefits in terms of financial savings and living comfort. One of the most popular heat insulators is polystyrene foam (expanded polystyrene, EPS).

Another insulation option is ecowool. This material is obtained from paper and textile waste that is turned into cellulose. But at the same time, it is supplemented with additives that protect the material from caking, rotting, burning and make it unattractive to insects and rodents. It has excellent thermal insulation properties. But at the same time, the method of laying it differs from mineral wool and polystyrene foam - ecowool in liquid form is sprayed onto the surface of wooden walls between the sheathing elements using special equipment. The material then sets, dries and becomes a very durable layer of thermal insulation. However, you need to understand that without the help of a specialist, ecowool insulation will be impossible.

Spraying ecowool on the surface of a wooden house

Now that you know more about the materials used for thermal insulation of cottages made of timber or logs, let's begin to describe how the insulation process should be carried out.

Video - Insulating the walls of a house from the outside

Insulation of a wooden house from the outside with mineral wool

Let's look at how to perform one of the most popular ways to insulate a wooden house from the outside - using mineral wool slabs.

Insulation of the facade with mineral wool

Calculation of the amount of insulation

Work begins with calculating the required amount of insulation. To do this, calculate how many square meters of the house there are surfaces to be covered with mineral wool. This problem is solved using the following algorithm.

We start the work with calculations

Step 1. Calculate the height of the walls from the base to the beginning of the pediment. If one part of the house is one-story, and the second is two-story, perform calculations for them separately.

Step 2. Determine the perimeter of the walls by calculating their length.

Step 3. Multiply the perimeter of the walls by the height and subtract the area of the openings from the resulting figure - this will give you the approximate surface area to be insulated. But the calculations do not end there.

Step 4. Using formulas for determining the area of a triangle, calculate how many square meters there are in your gables (if you are going to insulate them too), and sum the resulting figure with the result of the calculations from the previous step.

Determining the area of a wall, a simple pediment in the form of an isosceles triangle and a complex pediment (which is the sum of a trapezoid and a triangle)

Step 5. Determine what brand and size of mineral wool you choose. Divide the total insulation area by the area of each individual insulation board. Then increase the result by 10-15% for reserve. The figure you receive is the number of mineral wool slabs that will be needed for one layer of external insulation of a wooden house. Please keep in mind that several insulation panels are sold in one package and, as a rule, it is written on them how many square meters this pack is designed for.

Mineral wool ROCKWOOL Light Butts. One such pack contains six slabs with a thickness of 50 mm and dimensions of 600x800 mm. Their total area is 2.88 square meters.

Step 6. Determine how thick the insulation should be. As a rule, in the southern regions it is 50 mm, in the middle zone - 100 mm, in Siberia and northern latitudes - 150 mm. If it is impossible to perform insulation in one layer in your case, double the number of mineral wool slabs from the previous operation.

List of tools

First of all, you will need something that can be used to cut and saw the sheathing materials. If the frame for the insulation is made of wood, it will cope with this task perfectly electric jigsaw with matching blade. But in the case when the sheathing is made of a metal profile, it is better to give preference metal scissors.

Electric jigsaw

Metal scissors. Well suited for cutting frame profiles

Important! Using a grinder to cut a profile into a frame for insulation is acceptable, but undesirable - in the process of such sawing, the external anti-corrosion coating is damaged, which significantly reduces the service life of the future structure.

Next, you will need a tool for screwing self-tapping screws into wood or metal. Considering that the insulation work is carried out with a house made of timber or logs, to complete this task it will be quite enough only screwdriver and set of attachments. Choose a tool with a battery - the wire will not dangle under your feet and get in the way.

Screwdriver with battery. Separately, it is worth noting the convenient mount for various attachments on the tool handle

Advice! Experienced craftsmen use a screwdriver with two batteries. While one is working, the second is charging. Then they change places, and the person gets the opportunity to install the sheathing for insulation without stopping and wasting time.

To fit some wood sheathing pieces or to work with disc dowels, you will need hammer or rubber mallet.

Rubber mallet

One of the indispensable tools for construction work is a knife for cutting mineral wool. You will need it to open packages of mineral wool and to cut slabs of this material. As an option, you can use a construction knife with a retractable blade.

Knife for cutting insulating materials

Attaching a windproof membrane film to the insulation sheathing requires construction stapler and staple set.

Construction stapler and staple set

The sheathing for insulation should be as straight as possible horizontally and vertically. This is almost impossible to achieve by eye, so be sure to use building level and plumb.

Plumb and building level

The wall of the house itself, made of timber or logs, and all wooden elements of the sheathing require the mandatory application of several layers of antiseptic, which protects the materials from rotting. For this you will need container and roller. But if you want to do everything quickly, use spray paint.

Spray gun (also known as a spray gun) with compressor

Both before and during work on insulating a wooden house, a craftsman may need to apply various marks, measure distances and create records. These tasks are successfully completed using a pencil, several sheets of paper (or one notebook), a tape measure and a carpenter's square.

Laying mineral wool on a wooden frame

Let's first consider the most common option, when mineral wool is laid between the elements of the sheathing made of wooden beams.

Step 1. Prepare the walls - remove all protruding elements from their surface, if any. These could be shutters, ebbs, decorative details, etc. Then treat the wall with an antiseptic and fire retardant, preferably 2-3 times. Apply a new layer only after the previous one has completely dried.

Important! When working with a log house, pay special attention to processing the corners and end parts of the logs - they are the ones most susceptible to fungi and other microorganisms.

Step 2. Make the sheathing. For it, take the highest quality timber; in this case, products with a cross section of 30x30 mm are used. The wood should not show signs of fungus or rot. First, install the upper and lower bars, secure them with galvanized self-tapping screws (it is not advisable to use others due to corrosion). Then install horizontal sheathing elements, between which the first layer of mineral wool will be laid. The interval between the beams should be approximately 5 mm less than the height of the insulation slab - this is necessary to secure the material more tightly and eliminate gaps.

Fastening the bottom element of the sheathing

Layout of sheathing for two-layer insulation. As a material, in addition to timber, you can use a plasterboard profile

Step 3. On top of the first “layer” of the sheathing, secure the second one, where the elements are located perpendicularly. In this case they are mounted vertically. Also, do not forget to secure the bars around the perimeter of window and door openings.

In this image you can see two layers of insulation and, accordingly, two sheathings, one superimposed on the other

Bars from two layers of sheathing, laid and secured around the perimeter of the window opening

Step 4. Unpack and prepare the mineral wool slabs. If necessary, cut them into pieces for installation around openings and other places where full-size insulation elements will not fit. Install the slabs between the sheathing elements of the first layer, making sure that they fit tightly there. Secure them with disc-shaped dowels. Then, using the same principle, lay the slabs of the second layer of insulation. It is desirable that they overlap the horizontal seams between the mineral wool sheets of the previous layer.

Laying mineral wool

The wall of a wooden house is insulated

Step 5. Place and secure a windproof membrane on top of the insulation. Join its individual sections together with an overlap of about 10 cm (as a rule, there is a special marking on the film for this purpose). Attach the membrane to the sheathing with a construction stapler, and cover the joints with special adhesive tape. When working with windproof film, pay special attention to openings that also need to be covered.

Attaching the windproof membrane

Step 6. Fix thick slats on top of the windproof film onto the wooden elements of the insulation sheathing, which will hold the exterior trim of the house.

Slats for external facade finishing

Step 7 Lay the exterior trim on the mounted slats. In this case, boards are used for this. Then install other exposed features such as window and rain caps, shutters, trim, trim and more.

An example of a sheathed wall of a wooden house

Laying mineral wool on brackets

Now let's look at another option for external insulation of a house. Here the mineral wool is attached not to the sheathing, but to metal brackets.

Step 1. Prepare the walls - treat them with antiseptic and fire retardant. Next, unpack the mounting brackets and calculate how many you need.

Bracket for fixing mineral wool

Step 2. Attach the metal brackets to the wall using two long roofing screws with press washers. Since the house will subsequently be finished with siding, the fastening elements are located in increments corresponding to the interval between the sheathing elements for the vinyl panels.

Fastening the bracket, the arrow indicates the paronite lining

Important! To ensure better sound and heat insulation, place small pieces of paronite under the part of the brackets that touches the wood.

Step 3. Unpack the mineral wool, check the quality of the insulation and prepare it for installation.

Unpacking mineral wool

Step 4. Install mineral wool slabs on the walls. To do this, place them on the brackets mounted in the previous stages of work. The holes for this can either be pressed through with the fasteners themselves, or cut with a knife.

Laying mineral wool

The insulation board is mounted on brackets

Step 5. For better fixation, screw the disc dowels evenly over the area of each individual slab.

Using a disc dowel

Step 6. Repeat the previous two operations for all walls and gables of the house.

The wall is insulated

Step 7 Lay a windproof film over the insulation layer. Secure it with overlapping disc dowels.

Fastening windproof film

Windproof film installation process

Step 8 Using a knife or scissors, cut slots in the windproof film through which the ends of the brackets should pass.

The ends of the bracket passed through pre-made slots

Step 9 Prepare, cut and secure the vertical and horizontal elements of the metal profile sheathing to the brackets using self-tapping screws. In this case, it is very important to achieve the evenness of each individual rack or beam using a plumb line and a building level.

An example of arranging a metal sheathing

Step 10 On the sheathing installed in the previous operation, install the exterior trim. In this case, these are vinyl siding panels.

Wooden house covered with vinyl siding

With a competent approach to the matter, external insulation of a wooden house will provide you with coziness and comfort of living in a new place.

Many owners of wooden houses consider it necessary to insulate the walls immediately after construction. However, I would like to note that quite often a mistake is made - it is not always worthwhile to cover new houses made of solid wood with insulation material, since wood itself has low thermal conductivity, and, in addition, it can create a favorable microclimate inside the rooms .

It is advisable to insulate a wooden house from the outside with mineral wool under siding if the building has already stood for many years, and after going through numerous cycles of temperature changes, the wood has lost its original qualities. This is due to the fact that numerous deep cracks appear on the logs or beams from which the house is built, under the influence of atmospheric influences.

Insulation of a wooden house from the outside with mineral wool under siding

Insulation measures are also used if the wall thickness is small and the house is located in a region with cold winters. Thermal insulation helps create a lower total thermal conductivity of enclosing structures and significantly reduce fuel costs.

To insulate the outside of a wooden house, mineral wool is increasingly being chosen, and for decorative exterior finishing, vinyl siding is being chosen, which is affordable and has a fairly long service life. In addition, the finishing material is easy to install, and if one of the panels is damaged, it can be easily replaced with a new one.

In order for the optimal microclimate to be maintained in the house after insulation of wooden walls, and the structure itself not to be damaged, it is necessary to know the specifics of the thermal insulation process, as well as the operation of the house.

What does high wood moisture cause?

You need to know the answer to this question in order to take insulation measures more seriously and, without relying on various advice, but by reasoning logically, make the right decisions.

Consequences of wood fungus damage

Everyone knows that wood not treated with special compounds, being constantly in a damp state, is affected by microflora (flexible, mold), rotting processes begin in it, and the material loses its strength. After a couple of years, the log in which mold has settled completely loses its thermal insulation qualities, and then completely turns into dust. Therefore, when insulating wooden walls, it is very important to choose the right materials and install them in such a way as to protect the structure from waterlogging.

The humidity of the logs before installing them in the log house should be 23 ÷ 35%. After standing for about a year under normal conditions, the walls dry out and the moisture content in the wood drops to 10 ÷ 18%, depending on the season of measurement. It should be noted that if the tree remains in a damp state for a long time, the level of which will be 20 ÷ 22%, then the formation of fungus in its structure is inevitable. In addition, such an environment is favorable for the appearance of wood-boring beetles.

There is no need to think that wood begins to become damp only because of increased air humidity, rain, snow or fog. In fact, in winter, when temperatures outside and inside the house differ, and indoor humidity is many times higher than outside, wood absorbs it into its structure. Absorbing moisture from the inside, the tree, passing through the joints between the logs and micropores, releases it outside. The lower the temperature outside and the higher the temperature in the house, the more moisture the wood passes through its structure. This process is said to mean that the material “breathes.”

Under no circumstances should such a natural balance be disturbed. It is unacceptable to carry out insulation in such a way that water vapor is blocked from escaping from the wood into the atmosphere. In addition, insulation also plays a role in shifting the “dew point” - it will be moved outside the wooden wall and will fall on the thickness of the thermal insulation material. This will also significantly reduce the likelihood of wooden walls becoming waterlogged.

Materials for insulating wooden walls

So, in order not to disturb the normal temperature balance and prevent moisture from stagnating inside the logs, it is very important to follow the correct insulation technology and select suitable materials.

The most important condition is a vapor-permeable membrane

The most important element of the insulation system of a wooden house is a windproof diffuse membrane.

In order not to disturb the natural balance of humidity during insulation, it is necessary to create normal conditions for the operation of the structure, avoiding obstacles to the escape of water vapor to the outside.

Many builders, doing work “not for themselves,” do not really think about the durability of the insulated house, and cover the wooden wall with a vapor barrier film, which is absolutely unacceptable. Experts who study the construction physics of wooden housing construction and building materials advise completely abandoning vapor barrier material when insulating wooden buildings in which it is planned to live all year round. Instead, a windproof diffuse membrane should be used, which is fixed to the outside of the insulation. This coating is hydrophobic - water that gets on it simply rolls off, but is never absorbed into the fibers. That is, even if water seeps under the siding layer, it will not be able to get into the mineral wool layer, and even more so into the wooden walls.

External structure of the diffuse membrane

At the same time, the unique structure of such a membrane does not at all prevent the free escape of water vapor outside, from the walls and insulation layer into the atmosphere. Thus, the walls of the house continue to “breathe”, spontaneously leveling the moisture balance.

The insulation itself needs wind protection - and this membrane fully copes with this task, preventing the material fibers from weathering and cold air flows from penetrating into its thickness.

Schematically - the structure of an insulating “pie” on a wooden wall

The ventilation gap left between the windproof, vapor-permeable film and the finishing material will allow air to circulate freely, which will constantly dry the condensate drops that appear on the surface of the membrane.

The optimal insulation is mineral wool

When externally insulating wooden houses, synthetic thermal insulation materials - polystyrene foam, polyethylene foam, etc. - are completely excluded. It is also necessary to immediately get away from any foil-coated materials. All of the listed insulation materials have vapor barrier properties, which, as already mentioned, is completely unacceptable.

You should not choose artificial sprayed materials, such as polyurethane foam, for insulating a wooden house, since it also completely seals the surface and does not allow the wood to “breathe.” Such insulation will lead to rot and mold inside the house, which is very dangerous not only for the entire structure, but also for the health of the residents.

The most acceptable option for such work is mineral wool, but not just any one. It can be made from different materials: blast furnace slag (slag wool), molten glass waste and sand (glass wool), and from volcanic gabbro-basalt rocks (stone or basalt wool).

For insulating a wooden house, the most suitable option is stone wool, which has low hygroscopicity, excellent thermal insulation properties, suitable density and sufficiently high compressive strength.

Basalt mineral wool blocks

Main technical and operational characteristics of this material:

Thermal conductivity coefficient – from 0.032 to 0.048 W/m×°K.
Moisture absorption - no more than 2% of the volume (for some species - significantly less)
The density of basalt mats can vary from 30 to 400 kg/m³, as semi-rigid and rigid slabs, as well as mineral felt mats, are produced.
The compressive strength ranges from 5 to 80 kPa, depending on the type of material and its density.
Basalt insulation is a breathable material, and this is one of the main conditions for insulating wooden structures.
The most important quality, especially for use in wooden construction, is the non-flammability of the material.

For external insulation of a house, it is recommended to choose semi-rigid heat insulation mats, the density of which varies from 80 to 150 kg/m³. They are usually sized 600×1200 or 500×1000 mm and are available in a certain range of thicknesses. Rolled material is easier to install, but its density and strength are lower; it can sag over time, even if it is properly secured to the wall.

For thermal insulation of external work on the walls of a wooden house, you can also use glass wool, but the efficiency and durability of such insulation will be significantly lower.

But slag wool should be immediately, categorically excluded. Don’t be fooled by its low price - this one has a higher thermal conductivity coefficient and absorbs moisture well. Increased moisture absorption during operation leads to an increase in thermal conductivity, that is, the material sharply loses its thermal insulation qualities. In addition, the increased acidity of slag wool is absolutely not beneficial for natural wood.

Experts recommend using environmentally friendly hemp or linen mats for internal and external insulation, which have low thermal conductivity, good vapor permeability and sufficiently high resistance to moisture. But the biggest disadvantage of these materials is their high cost.

Required thickness of insulation for a wooden house

The thickness of the insulation is selected depending on the thickness of the walls and the average winter temperatures of the region where the house is built. Most often, the heat insulator is mounted in two layers, the first of which is 100 and the second is 50 mm. If necessary, the thickness can be increased, but for this you will have to secure another row of sheathing.

However, it would be a good idea to accurately calculate the thickness of the insulating layer - in order to prevent low insulation efficiency or, conversely, not to spend extra money on excessive thermal insulation that is unnecessary in specific conditions. Performing the calculation is not that difficult.

The principle boils down to the fact that the total thermal resistance of a multilayer wall structure should not be lower than R(m²×°C/W), calculated by experts for this region.

To simplify perception, the values of this indicator are indicated on the proposed map of Russia. You should select the upper value for walls (indicated by purple numbers).

Diagram map with the values of the required heat transfer resistance

Since the wall structure is multilayer, its total thermal resistance will be equal to the sum of the resistance of each layer, which affects the insulating qualities of the house.

R = R+ R+ R …

Well, the thermal resistance of each layer is expressed by the formula:

Rn = Hn / λn

Hn- layer thickness.

λn- coefficient of thermal conductivity of the material.

When insulating a wooden building, these layers can be:

Which layers affect the thermal insulation qualities of a wall?

1 – the wooden frame itself. Please note that the thickness of a log house made of round timber is assumed to be slightly smaller than when using rectangular timber. This should be taken into account when taking measurements.

2 – interior decoration, if there is one, of course. In wooden houses, the walls can remain unfinished inside, covered with natural lining, MDF lining, plywood, OSB, sometimes they use plasterboard for painting and wallpapering.

3 - The layer of external insulation is the value that needs to be found.

There may be more complex “pies”, and each layer has its own calculation. But usually they try not to “spoil” natural wooden walls from the inside with synthetic materials in order to preserve the natural advantages of wood.

The diagram also shows:

4 - vapor-permeable hydrophobic windproof membrane.

5 – frame details (sheathing).

6 – siding. The siding cladding is separated from the insulation by a ventilated air gap (7). Thus, no matter what material the panels are made of, they do not participate in the overall thermal insulation of the wall and are not taken into account.

Thus, in order to calculate the required insulation layer, you need to know the thickness of each layer and its thermal conductivity coefficient.

As a result, the calculation formula will look like this:

Well = (R– H1/ λ1 – H2/ λ2 – H3/ λ3…) × λу

The value of thermal conductivity coefficients of materials is easy to find in reference books, and this parameter for the selected type of mineral wool ( λу) must be indicated on the packaging or in the accompanying documentation.

For ease of calculation, we recommend using the built-in calculator, specially programmed for natural wooden walls. It provides the opportunity to specify, in addition to the wall itself, two more layers of finishing made from natural materials.

Insulation thickness calculator

The obtained value should be “reduced” to the existing thicknesses of the selected insulation boards (mats). Naturally, in this case the calculated thickness will be considered minimal.

Frame details

To install the frame, you will need timber or galvanized metal profiles. It should be noted that the metal elements of the sheathing freeze well, and when temperatures change, condensation forms on them, which will not benefit wooden walls and insulation. In addition, metal profiles made from thin metal have lower rigidity than timber.

The section of timber for frame sheathing is sometimes selected according to the thickness of the insulation mats (slabs). Although this is not a dogma, since you can position the guides at the desired distance from the wall using wooden posts - this way, much less material is consumed.

It is also necessary to take into account the distance for the ventilation gap, which is usually 40 ÷ 50 mm. Therefore, to install the counter-lattice, which is placed between the windproof film and the finishing material, it is necessary to prepare a beam with a cross-section of 40 × 50 or 50 × 50 mm.

You may need special metal holders on which the sheathing will be attached and the insulation will also be fixed. Usually, direct hangers are used for this - the same as for working with drywall.

Preparatory work

Preparatory work is a very important activity, since not only the duration of operation of the insulation, but also its quality will depend on it.

The preparatory work includes several simple activities, but they should be carried out with special care:

Inspection of wall surfaces and determination of the scope of work.
Detected cracks and gaps must be thoroughly cleaned of dust and dirt.
After this, it is recommended to prime them with antiseptic agents intended for wood processing. The primer should be completely absorbed and dry well.
Next, cracks and cracks need to be sealed, as they make it easier for cold air to penetrate into the house - creating cold bridges.

Sealing cracks with a special sealant

After the sealing material in the gaps has hardened, it is recommended to cover the entire surface of the walls with an antiseptic composition, which will protect the wood from fungus and insect nests.

A few words about materials for sealing cracks in logs or beams and gaps between crowns. The easiest way to get rid of these imperfections is to fill them with a latex-based sealant designed for exterior woodwork.

Such materials are designed to maintain a balance of temperature and humidity inside residential premises, as they well restrain wind flows and prevent drafts from penetrating through the wall.

The sealant has good adhesion and fits perfectly onto the primed surface. It is elastic and has the ability to repeatedly stretch and deform when the size of the gap changes, for example, when walls shrink or wood dries out. The material is resistant to temperature changes and high humidity, so it will protect the wooden wall for a long time.

If the crack is too large, the sealant is combined with an acrylic strand, which is tucked into the gap and covered with sealant on top.

In addition, to seal cracks, tow, moss, felt or other natural materials are used, which are usually used for inter-crown insulation.

Types of interventional insulation

The comfort of living in a wooden house directly depends on the choice of this material. How to choose the right one interventional insulation– in a separate publication on our portal.

Frame installation

As mentioned above, the frame of the sheathing can be mounted from a wooden beam or a metal profile. The technology is somewhat different, so it's worth considering both options.

Wooden frame

After preparing the wooden wall, the next step is to install the frame. It can be fixed in different ways - depending on the thickness of the insulation and the number of its layers.

Wooden frame on the walls of a log house

Before attaching the timber to the wall, it must be treated with antiseptic solutions and dried well.
While the timber is drying, you need to make markings on the wall surface and determine the locations of fastenings, guides or racks.
The sheathing elements are installed with a pitch equal to the width of the insulating mats, minus 50 mm - this is necessary so that the mineral wool slabs are installed opposite the timber and fill all the space between them.
Before fastening, the bars are leveled, since they will not only hold the insulation, but also level the wall. If leveling is necessary, wooden shims are installed under the sheathing bars.
The sheathing is secured to the wall with long screws or nails. Large cross-section timber can additionally be secured with stainless steel corners.
If the siding will be mounted horizontally (this is most often the case), then the sheathing guides are fixed vertically.

The diagram shows several options for installing wooden sheathing - both for single-layer insulation and for several layers.

Several options for wooden frame and insulation placement

It is mandatory to install guides in all corners of the building, around door and window openings. Usually, control cords are pulled along the walls, top and bottom, according to the set marks, since all elements of the sheathing must be placed strictly in one plane.

Metal carcass

A frame made of galvanized metal profiles is more durable, but the material has high thermal conductivity, so it freezes easily. However, if the insulation is placed in the grooves of the sheathing elements, then it will also be insulated.

Frame made of metal profiles on timber walls

Work on the installation of metal frame elements occurs in the following order:

Vertical lines are marked on the wall, which will correspond to the placement of the sheathing guides.
Next, along vertical lines, in increments of 250 ÷ 350 mm, metal holders (straight hangers) are fixed into which the profiles will be installed and fixed. These elements allow you to set the frame vertically and level at the required distance from the wall. The convenience of these auxiliary parts is that they have numerous holes through which the profiles can be secured with self-tapping screws at the required level.

Diagram of direct suspension device

By the way, such metal holders can also be used to secure a wooden frame.

In the central part of the hangers there are holes for fixing them on the wall. After they are fixed, their side parts are bent, and a metal profile will be installed between them.

Direct hangers ensure installation of the frame at the required distance from the wall

For structural rigidity, horizontal elements are attached to the vertical frame elements. To do this, pieces of metal profiles of the required size are cut along the folds, their side parts are bent at right angles. The middle wide part is fixed on the front shelf of the installed sheathing guides, and the bent ones on their side shelves.
Solid rigid profile frames are installed around window and door openings, not forgetting to place them in a common plane with the main sheathing.

Having finished installing the frame, you can proceed to installing the insulation.

Laying insulation in a frame structure

Insulation mats begin to be laid between the guides from the bottom of the wall. To create a stable, flat surface, before installing the first row of insulation, a horizontal solid beam is fixed in the lower part of the frame in the same plane as the entire sheathing, or separate sections that are fixed between the vertical elements.
Insulation mats are installed close to the wall, without leaving gaps. If you plan to use two layers of mineral wool of different thicknesses, then lay the thicker one first, and then the thinner one.

Sometimes they resort to constructing two rows of the frame, so first the insulation is installed in the first sheathing, for example, fixed horizontally. Vertical bars of the second row of sheathing are nailed on top of it, and another layer of insulation is laid between them.

Laying insulation along windows

To lay the material around the windows, strips of the required width are cut from the mats. They need to be measured very carefully, since there should be no gaps left between the sheathing and the insulation. In addition, the material must not be allowed to bend outward - it must be pressed as tightly as possible to the wall surface.
Laying mineral wool in a metal frame occurs in the same way as in a wooden one, if it is fixed directly to the wall and not removed from it using hanging posts.
In this case, the metal profiles are fixed sideways, and the insulation is inserted into their groove. This creates an almost continuous insulated surface.

Laying insulation in a metal frame in two layers

If a gap forms between the wall and the sheathing, it is first filled with insulation. Moreover, if necessary, the mats are cut so that they can fit tightly together, forming a continuous basalt sheet along the wall. The next layer of heat insulation is already installed between the metal profiles.

Wind protection

After all the insulating layers have been laid, the remaining gaps (if any) between the blocks have been caulked, and the entire surface of the wall must be covered with a windproof membrane. The individual sheets of which are glued together with special tape or combined on the sheathing elements. In any case, the canvases are overlapped by 100 ÷ 150 mm.

Expansion dowel “mushroom”

After this, the entire structure is stitched with plastic fasteners with wide “fungi” caps.
For them, through holes are drilled in the insulating “pie” and the wall. A dowel “fungus” is inserted into the hole all the way and secured with a wedging plastic rod. The “fungi” should press the insulation tightly against the wall, holding it in the desired position.
Next, counter-lattice bars are nailed or screwed on top of the beams or frame profiles directly on top of the windproof membrane, which will help create a ventilation gap.

The insulation is covered with a membrane. Counter-lattice bars have been installed. Everything is ready for siding installation

Installation of siding on an insulated surface

If you thoroughly understand the siding installation technology, it will turn out to be quite simple, and even a novice builder can cope with such a task:

	If the building has a protruding part of the base, then installation can begin by installing the drip sill.
	If flashing is not provided, then the first step in installing the siding is to secure the starting profile along the pre-applied horizontal markings along the lower border of the siding cladding. In different sets of this finishing material, the starting strips may have different configurations and appearance. Pay attention to the indicated gaps when installing the profile. The starting profile of the upper part has a locking connection that will snap into place with the panel located above.
	When fastening any siding elements, the screws are not screwed in completely. There should be a 1mm gap between the head and the vinyl parts. Self-tapping screws are screwed into the center of the mounting slot-shaped holes located on the mounting strips.
	Next, a corner profile is mounted, which should be located with a technological gap of 6 mm from the ends of the starting strip. When fastening parts, you need to ensure that the profiles are fixed strictly vertically and horizontally, so these parameters must be constantly monitored at the building level. When installing vertical profiles, the upper self-tapping screw must be positioned so that the part “hangs” on it. The remaining screws follow the general rule: approximately in the center of the mounting slot-shaped hole.
	So, if necessary, corner profiles are spliced.
	Finish strips are installed around the window frames. Then, near-window profiles-platbands are inserted into them and secured to the sheathing, into which the end sides of the siding panels will be hidden.
	The same elements are fixed in doorways. At the corners, the profiles are carefully cut at an angle of 45 degrees so that when they are joined, they form a right angle. The diagram clearly shows how to provide for water drainage from the upper casing profile.
	The next stage is the installation of H-profiles, which are used to join the ends of the siding panels.
	Since the siding panels have a certain length, which is often not enough to cover the length of the wall, they are connected to each other in an H-profile. This vertical boundary must be drawn in advance when marking.
	This element is fixed vertically to the sheathing beam. It, like all other elements, is not screwed tightly to the sheathing, but must move freely on the screws.
	Next, comes the installation of the first siding panel, securing it to the lock of the initial strip. The ends of the panel are inserted into the grooves of the corner profile and H-profile (or door or window trim profile). Be sure to ensure that the locking part is completely latched.
	The rules for fastening panels with self-tapping screws do not change - in each vertical guide of the sheathing in the center of the slot-shaped hole, leaving a gap. Usually the self-tapping screw is tightened to the end, and then unscrewed 1 turn.
	It should be noted that connecting or increasing the length of the panels can be done without using an H-profile by installing them with an overlap of 25-30 mm. To do this, it is necessary to trim the locks and fastening frames of the panels. How to do this correctly is clearly shown in the diagram.
	Installation continues in the same order from bottom to top. Each subsequent panel is engaged by the locking part with the underlying one. The horizontalness of the siding panels is checked regularly, at least on every third row.
	To complete the wall cladding, you need to carefully install the top panel. Almost always it has to be adjusted in width. It must dock with the upper finishing strip, which is pre-attached along the upper border of the cladding.
	This figure clearly shows how such a connection should be made.
	To do this, the upper part with the mounting strip to the measured width is measured and cut off from the solid panel. The bottom side with the lock located on it will be used for installation.
	There was no locking part left on the resulting narrow panel. To eliminate this drawback, using a special punch (punch), hooks are made onto which the panel will snap and bent to the front side. The hooks should be located at a distance of 150 ÷ 200 mm from one another.
	After this, the narrow cut panel first engages with the lock of the lower panel, and then the hooks made are snapped under the upper strip of the finishing profile in an upward direction.
	During the installation of panels, when cladding near window or door openings, it is necessary to calculate and remove unnecessary parts of the plastic. To do this, first mark the window border on the panel (along the previously installed near-window or finishing profile, and then make a technological indent of 3 mm from it. Next, cut out the intended fragment and make hooks - just as shown above.
	A prepared and cut-to-size vinyl panel is mounted under the window trim located at the bottom of the opening, snapped onto the panel below and screwed onto self-tapping screws through the mounting holes on the sides of the window frame.
	In order to sheathe the pediment, J-profiles are installed in the direction of the slopes and along the bottom side of the triangle, into which the siding panels will be installed. You can also use profiles for internal corners. To correctly maintain the cutting angle of the panels, you can use a fairly simple diagram shown in the figure.
	This picture shows the only place where the screw can be screwed in from the outside. The remaining profiles are installed on hidden fastenings.
	On the outside of the roof overhang, the ends of the panels are covered with a wide J-profile inserted into a finishing strip fixed to the eaves. The internal corner profile between the pediment and the overhang can be replaced with two J-profiles.

A few important notes:

To ensure that all cladding elements are fixed smoothly and without flaws, you must first carry out careful markings before installation.
All cladding elements are fixed at a certain distance from each other. The size of the gaps is indicated in the drawings and diagrams, and generally it ranges from 3 to 6 mm. These gaps are necessary for the free expansion of the material during temperature changes, without general deformation of the entire wall cladding.
All vinyl trim elements must be fastened loosely without prestressing the material.

And in conclusion, a video about the process of insulating walls for further cladding with siding:

White plaster facade of a high-tech house with a gable roof DIY slopes for plastic windows from the street step by step

Choosing and purchasing the right thermal insulation is only half the battle. Experts say that in some cases Correct installation of insulation on walls can bring 90% of the result. This means that if the work is done incorrectly, the effect will be only 10% of the calculated one.

Today, buildings are most often insulated with foam plastic and mineral wool. In this article we will discuss the features of fastening thermal insulation materials using mineral wool as an example. However, if you are insulating the room with another material, for example, polystyrene foam or polystyrene foam, the article will also show the general principles of proper installation.

The principles of attaching insulation inside or outside are largely similar. However, there are also differences that need to be sorted out.

Installation of insulation on interior walls is most often done using lathing. This is a frame, in the form of bars, which are attached to the wall, and thermal insulation slabs are inserted into the formed cells.

For external walls, the frame method is used less frequently. More often they use foam adhesive or adhesive with dowels. The frame from the outside is used only for cladding the facade with soft stone wool slabs in order to reduce the load on the lower rows of insulation. In this case, it is made from a metal profile or wooden beam.

So, we have identified three ways to attach insulation to the wall, which can be combined:

Lathing;
Adhesive composition;
Using dowels.

Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let's go in order.

Lathing

Lathing is used for ventilated facades. This is due to the fact that soft insulation, in principle, is not used for “wet” facades. It does not have sufficient rigidity to support the required weight of the plaster layer.

If you plan to finish in the form of “Bark Beetle” or “Lamb”, proceed to the following methods. Lathing is often used for thermal insulation from the inside. There she fully justifies herself.

So, how is the sheathing done?

Necessarily! A vapor barrier film secured with staples must be laid on the wall;
The lower base profile is screwed on;
On top of the vapor barrier, using self-tapping screws, a beam with a thickness equal to the thickness of the insulation is screwed. The width of the beam should be actually equal to the width of the slab, but be 2-5 centimeters smaller. The most commonly used beam pitch is 60 cm.
After this, starting from the bottom into the sheathing, the mineral wool is laid.

The slabs in the sheathing should fit tightly. In this case, the cold will not pass through the gap between the timber and the slab. But this approach is not used very often. It is applicable primarily to wooden houses. Also, soft mineral wool slabs necessarily require not only a vapor barrier on the inside, but a windproof layer on the outside. Otherwise the wind will blow. Installing wind protection is an additional expense, so two other mounting methods are often used.

Laying the slabs in the sheathing is the right way when the question arises: how to attach the insulation to the ceiling.

On glue

As the only method of fastening exclusively with adhesive mass, it is rarely used and only under ventilated facades. For plastering work, additional reinforcement with umbrella dowels is required. However, this method has its own characteristics that need to be considered separately.

Firstly, there are two types of adhesives:

Dry mixes;
Adhesive foam.

The dry mixture is sold in bags and requires dilution. Adhesive foam is sold in cans and does not require preliminary preparation. The latter is a little more expensive, but the convenience is worth it.

First you need to level the wall and smooth out all the unevenness as much as possible, possibly plastering the surface.

Sets the bottom bar, which will be the starting point of thermal insulation. The dry mixture is applied to the slab itself.

In the case of a dry mixture, you need to apply the glue to the slabs in several pieces and spread it evenly over the entire surface using a comb. After this, the insulation board is fixed to the wall. Typically, the installation of mineral wool or other materials begins from the corner and always from the bottom row.

Adhesive foam is applied around the perimeter of the slab and in several strips in the middle. After application, press the slabs flat. The foam hardens in 30 minutes to 2 hours. During this time, it is possible to slightly adjust the position of the slab using a level.

Dry mixtures are often used:

EK THERMEX;
Ceresit CT 190;
Ceresit CT180.

Popular foam options:

Ceresit CT 84;
Soudabond EASY;
Insta STIK.

The cost of one cylinder is from 200 to 500 rubles.

We discussed the basic principles of how to attach insulation to a wall using adhesive. You can decide what exactly to use by reading a couple of opinions.

When we decided to insulate the facade, the master said that he would glue it with foam. We were indignant, saying that the polyurethane foam expands, but he said that he would use adhesive foam. I asked which one to buy, good or simple. We said: “Good.” No regrets, 30 minutes after gluing the sheet cannot be torn off. We decided to conduct an experiment and stuck signs on it with the street name and number. Everything is holding up great.

For large differences in walls, it is recommended to use polyurethane foam, specifically for polystyrene foam. It is also called “liquid foam”. If the wall curvature is one to three centimeters, this is not a problem at all. I bought it at Epicenter a year ago, glued the sheet on just for fun - a year has passed, everything is holding together, the sheet cannot be torn off. The foam breaks, but holds up.

For dowels

In 90% of cases, mineral wool and other materials are attached to the wall using dowels.

Described separately.

Now we will simply describe the sequence of work when using this method.

First of all, if adhesive was initially used to fix the insulating boards, they must be well secured. Most often, fastening with dowels can be carried out 2-24 hours after gluing. A more accurate figure can be found in the instructions for the adhesive composition.

Select and purchase an umbrella of the required length;
We drill a hole into which the fastening element will be driven;
Insert the dowel into the hole;
Using a hammer, hammer in the anchor (with plastic nails you need to be especially careful when using force).

Our sheet is securely fixed.

In the case of laying mineral wool, namely its rigid slabs, on the slabs themselves you will have to pre-drill not only holes, but also round recesses for the hats of umbrellas. Otherwise, these caps will protrude above the surface of the insulation, which will create difficulties when installing the finishing trim.

We discussed the most popular ways to attach insulation to the wall. Thinking about the difficulties and features of installation, they are increasingly choosing another material for insulation - polyurethane foam. It doesn't need to be attached at all.

Dowels allow you to attach the material to a brick wall and surfaces made of concrete and wood.

Alternative

Has very low thermal conductivity. For this property it is often used in northern latitudes. It is produced in the form of foam and sprayed using special equipment. Such insulation is more expensive, but is more effective.

Practical tips

In this short section we have collected useful, practical tips that will help when installing thermal insulation.

If you use polystyrene foam, moisten it with water before applying the foam adhesive. This will improve the adhesion (adhesion) of the foam and the sheet.
When insulating walls outside, there may be a blockage - a protrusion at the bottom of the wall of the house. In this case, the base profile does not need to be installed. Simply cover the pile with waterproofing to prevent moisture from getting into the insulator.
Insulation sheets should always be fastened in a checkerboard pattern. This is necessary for inconsistency of seams. This fastening allows you to avoid cold bridges.
Do not leave fixed material on the wall unprotected. Putty foam or hard stone wool or cover soft slabs with a windproof layer immediately. If moisture gets into the thermal insulation during the installation stage, the material will do its job very poorly.

We looked at the general principles of how to attach mineral wool or other thermal insulation. As you can see, attaching insulation to the wall is a non-trivial task, but it requires some skills.

Perhaps you still have questions, then you are welcome to ask them in the comments.

And one more trick:

Any wall, regardless of the material, must meet the requirements prescribed by a number of GOSTs. This applies not only to strength, but also to the ability to retain heat. The reliability of walls is ensured only by their durability; the right choice, coupled with the installation of insulation, will make your stay in the house comfortable.

If the goal of residents is to achieve comfort or save on heating costs, they need to know about the correct methods of thermal insulation of the vertical surfaces of the building, including the types of fasteners. Due to the walls, a house can lose up to 30% of heat; Neither the floor, nor the attic floor, nor the roof can compare with this value.

The choice of method for fastening thermal insulation depends on the following factors:

type of insulation chosen;
wall material (wood, concrete, brick);
surface structure (flatness, presence or absence of cracks).

If the fastening for a specific material is chosen correctly, the strength of the heat-insulating structure will be guaranteed. This entails extending the service life of the insulation, as well as the walls. What fasteners are used to install materials? In what case is styling more effective? This is worth considering in more detail.

The choice of fastening depending on the type of insulation

The modern market is replete with dozens of high-quality products that can make life in the home more comfortable. The following are the most popular materials among consumers, methods of their installation, advantages, disadvantages, as well as some features.

Popular due to its lightness, low thermal conductivity coefficient, and accessibility. Otherwise called polystyrene foam. Depending on the type of wall, it is laid and fixed vertically in two ways:

The first method is more suitable for concrete or brick walls, if the latter are fairly smooth. It is only necessary to clean the surface from dust and dirt, and correct defects in the form of cracks using plaster.

The second method of fastening foam is primarily suitable for wooden structures. It is acceptable to use for brick, concrete, but to a greater extent for external insulation. Under the influence of natural factors, the adhesive composition can deteriorate its properties, after which the slabs will simply fall off, and the vertical surface will begin to transmit heat to the outside.

There are two ways to apply glue to the board. The first involves coating the entire area with the mixture using a spatula; the second is treatment with glue around the perimeter and spot application of it to the center of the sheet. Laying foam plastic using the first method is more correct, but it will cost more than the last method.

When fastened with dowels, each plate is fixed with at least 4 elements located at the corners of the sheet. It is advisable to use a fifth dowel (in the center of the slab) to strengthen the connection. Some builders, once again playing it safe, drive in dowels every 20-25 cm. A novice user insulating walls is free to choose a method based on financial capabilities and the expected quality of their work.

Mineral wool

Thermal conductivity and cost differ little from polystyrene foam, so mineral wool is considered the second most popular insulation for walls. It retains heat perfectly, but during installation it requires additional labor-intensive work - the manufacture of sheathing. This is a wooden structure made of bars, which, when connected, form cells into which a mineral wool slab is then placed.

The insulation is only suitable for interior walls. Alas, it will significantly reduce the usable space of the rooms (the thickness of the slabs varies from 2 to 10 cm).

It is not suitable for installation on external walls, since when 2-3% of the area (material) gets wet, its heat-saving properties are reduced by half. Another possible problem when working with mineral wool is slabs falling out of the cells. There are two ways to solve this:

at the stage of creating the frame (sheathing), ensure that the dimensions of the cells (length and width) are 1-2 cm smaller than the dimensions of the insulation;
if the sheathing has already been assembled and the slabs are falling out, you can drive nails along the edges so that they stick out 2-3 mm. Next, mineral wool is placed in the “window”, and a thin fishing line is stretched between the fasteners, holding the material from falling out.

Installation of mineral wool slabs involves the following stages of work:

cleaning the surface of the walls from dirt;
antiseptic treatment;
laying a vapor barrier layer on the walls (attached to wood with staples of a construction stapler; in the case of concrete and brick, too, but thin wooden slats are pre-stuffed);
production of sheathing;
placing slabs inside cells;
laying a waterproofing layer fixed with the same stapler;
final finishing (plasterboard, fiberboard, clean boards, lining are used).

Plaster

It is difficult to work with this insulation, but it is perfect for brick and concrete walls. Wooden structures, as a rule, are not designed to bear significant weight, so plastering them is not recommended.

The process of applying insulation-plaster involves three stages:

applying a spray layer 5-7 mm thick to a clean initial surface (the main goal of this stage is to hide wall defects);
the main layer with a thickness of 12-15 cm is laid in stages in small pieces (2-3 cm each);
finishing work - treating the plaster with a mixture of cement and sand, smoothing the surface.

It is important to remember that the next layer is applied after the previous one has completely dried.

Wooden walls were plastered many centuries ago, when other buildings simply did not exist. Today, this method is becoming less and less common, but fans of old traditions sometimes come across. If the consumer chooses plaster, he should purchase shingles or shingle panels (thin plates of wood from which the lathing is created) and install them diagonally. Only after this is the plaster applied.

Foamed polyurethane foam

It belongs to new thermal insulation materials and is inferior to polystyrene foam with mineral wool only in its high cost. In addition, it is not recommended for novice builders to work with polyurethane foam - there is a risk of making irreparable mistakes.

For high-quality installation, you only need to create a sheathing, as was the case when installing mineral wool. Compliance with the cell sizes is not so important - polyurethane foam is carefully foamed into the provided cavities and, expanding slightly, evenly fills the space. Excess insulation after crystallization is cut off with a knife.

Self-adhesive insulation

These include, for example, penofol. The material is supplied in rolls and on one side has a layer treated with glue for easy installation on the desired surface. Installation is carried out quickly, but the original surface must be properly cleaned not only from dirt, but also from cracks, roughness, and knots.

There are thermal insulation materials that are glued like wallpaper. An example is cork roll insulation. Unlike indoor wallpaper, you only need special contact or acrylic glue.

Experts recommend insulating the house from the outside and inside, not limiting yourself to just one method. The outer cladding of the building is preferable. Unfortunately, this is often impossible to do (for example, when the house is closely adjacent to other real estate), so you have to limit yourself to insulation from the inside of the room.

Summarizing all the information presented above, it is worth noting that polystyrene foam, plaster and foamed polyurethane foam are suitable for external walls, mineral wool, polystyrene foam, self-adhesive insulation (if there is reliable thermal insulation on the outside) for internal walls.

The chosen method of fastening the insulation depends on the material itself, the structure of the walls, external or internal cladding. Correct fixation of thermal insulation is the key to its effective service and longevity of a residential building. Even a small gap between the slabs can cause the appearance of “cold bridges”, which will lead to freezing of the house in winter. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to wisely choose insulation and the method of attaching it to internal and external walls.

How to properly fix insulation to the wall

Features of choosing to attach insulation to the wall depending on its type. How to properly fix thermal insulation for its long-term operation.

How to attach polystyrene foam to a brick wall

Everyone seems to like brick as a building material - strong and elegant in appearance, relatively easy to build. However, its important drawback (low temperatures in winter) still remains. Eliminating this problem, which occurs in any brick building, is relatively simple. You just need to resort to using high-quality thermal insulation material.

If you have not yet decided on its choice, we recommend using penoplex (a modern type of polystyrene foam). The number of builders who are interested in how best to attach insulation material is growing. The reliability of its operation, and therefore the comfort of residents in cold weather, depends on the quality of installation of a foam structure. Also, the choice of method for installing the material depends on a number of factors, which affects the overall outcome of the work.

How to install penoplex

The material is made on the basis of polystyrene foam (one of the main types of chemical industry products these days). It is widely used during construction and repair work.

However, it also has certain limitations, for example, poor compatibility with “wet facades”.

Gluing material over a wet facade means dooming it to rapid decomposition of the adhesive layer and rapid falling off.

It is recommended to use penoplex in insulating plinths, as they allow ventilation and waterproofing at the same time. Of course, we are talking only about external work - when insulating rooms from the inside, it becomes possible to glue the material anywhere. In addition, this ensures that the wall will not only retain heat, but will also be suitable for almost any finishing and decoration.

It should be borne in mind that this method also has negative sides. These include the risk of formation and accumulation of condensation, plus the usable area of the house is always reduced. However, the undeniable advantages of penoplex for internal insulation more than outweigh its disadvantages. For example, it is durable and flexible, and it is a pleasure for installers to work with it (especially when compared with mineral wool).

Method of attaching polystyrene foam to a brick wall

There are three ways to attach insulation boards:

Glue. When insulating the foundation, a special bitumen glue is used. In other cases, polyurethane-based or cement-based adhesives are more beneficial. This technique is technologically simple and saves money. However, if a large load is likely, glue alone will not do.
Dowel. Most often, dowels are used together with glue when it is necessary to insulate plinths and facades. This allows you to mount the penoplex more firmly, but drilling breaks the tightness of the structure, including the sheets themselves. The use of plastic dowels in apartment buildings and in places of high mechanical stress is not recommended.
Foamy. Polyurethane foam is cheap and can be applied quickly and easily. However, by itself it cannot be used for fastening, only together with other options.
Using self-tapping screws. Basically, they come complete with penoplex. The reliability of such a connection is quite high, but it will not be possible to use it without first drilling holes.
Finally, liquid nails. They are good because they make gluing faster and easier. There is only one drawback: the high price. Because of this, the use of liquid nails is very, very limited.

Thus, the method by which it would be most appropriate to attach the insulating material must be determined taking into account the type of surface, the conditions of the work to be done, acceptable costs and some other factors.

We install the insulation with glue and screws

The type of surface is the most important criterion for choosing the type of installation. For example, fungi are useful for attaching foam-based materials to brick and concrete. Self-tapping screws, in principle, are not friendly with stone foundations, since there is a high risk of painting. Glue should always be taken strictly for a specific type of surface. Liquid nails are the most convenient (they allow you not to think about which wall you will glue the material to). However, its surface should be as smooth as a sheet of high-quality paper. Achieving this can sometimes be difficult, especially in older houses and in houses with poor-quality wall geometry.

Working method

Before you start attaching the penoplex, prepare everything that may be needed within walking distance. These include: glue, mushroom dowels (at least five pieces per sheet and some reserve), vitriol, reinforcing mesh, mounting foam. Also, to help your wall survive the winter better, take a hammer, a plumb bob, a special knife, a brush and a hammer drill.

At the first stage, all signs of dirt and previous finishing are removed. Vitriol is used if mold needs to be eliminated, otherwise it can be removed immediately and left for another purpose. Protruding areas along the entire wall must be cleaned, and depressions must be covered with plaster.

Penoplex boards are attached as follows: Having attached the material to the wall, drill five holes (at the corners and strictly in the middle). You need to drill exactly along the length of the dowels. Each hole is slightly filled with polyurethane foam. The fungus is driven into the center. If you intend to use adhesive fastening, it is done around the perimeter and in the middle.

It happens that it is not possible to use whole slabs, and you need to resort to sections. In such cases, you must always check the straightness of the lines using a plumb line.

Additional nuances

When attaching penoplex, the seams are sealed using polyurethane foam. To the facades this the material is attached only after rolling with a needle roller, which gives the penoplex the necessary roughness. Regardless of the method of fixation, it is installed strictly from the bottom up (and no other way!), and a special base profile is left under the first row.

If you need to insulate a loggia, or if you are insulating a basement without supporting it with a top layer of insulation, be sure to use disc dowels. Only they are able to withstand the colossal mechanical stress that arises in such cases and prevent the structure from collapsing prematurely. Even the formation of cold bridges is not as important as mechanical stability. At least six dowels are installed per square meter.

The slabs are secured with dowels in the center and then in the corners. Since they are connected staggered, at the corners each dowel holds three insulation boards simultaneously. If you are insulating a structure that itself has corners, then the outermost dowels should be at least fifteen centimeters away from them.

If mastic is used when installing penoplex, then all work with it is carried out only after ensuring maximum ventilation, since it contains a large amount of volatile hydrocarbons of dubious usefulness.

When using penoplex as a base for plaster, remember that it must be reinforced.

Why penoplex and not polystyrene foam?

It would seem that one material is made on the basis of another, and it would be possible to take a cheaper one. But that's not true! Polystyrene foam has an important drawback: it is porous and very easily absorbs moisture from inside the room, as well as from the outside. It cannot be used without additional isolation from the access of vapors and water, and this automatically destroys almost all savings. It is better to use a more modern and advanced penoplex, which is guaranteed to solve this problem.

Judging by the reviews of people who already use penoplex as thermal insulation, if the walls are covered with a crushing or crumbling composition (aerated concrete, silicate), they need to be protected from crumbling and shedding using primers. Even before you start installing the insulation, you should prepare brackets for hanging elements (air conditioners, etc.).

How to attach foam plastic to a brick wall, how to glue foam plastic

The reliability of its operation, and therefore the comfort of residents in cold weather, depends on the quality of installation of a foam structure.

Attaching extruded and expanded foam to a brick wall

How to attach polystyrene foam to a brick wall so that the adhesion of the material to it does not weaken for many years is of interest to home owners who have started insulation work.

Insulating a brick wall with polystyrene foam will help significantly save on building materials when constructing a building.

PPS as insulation

Both extruded and foamed polystyrene foam (both types of material are simply called polystyrene foam) are currently perhaps the most popular insulation for walls and ceilings in buildings for various purposes.

Extruded PPS is denser and stronger, so it is more appropriate to insulate buildings from the outside. It is better to use foam material to insulate internal surfaces that are not subject to mechanical stress. Sometimes external walls are also lined with this type of foam, but it must be covered with a protective cladding (wall insulation done in this way can be much more expensive).

Correct fastening of polystyrene foam to the facade using dowels.

The methods for attaching insulation to brick both outside and inside the house are almost the same. The main thing is that a material with suitable environmental safety characteristics is selected for them. The thickness of the purchased PPS slabs should depend on the thickness of the brickwork and climatic conditions in the region where the house is located.

It must be added that external wall insulation is much more effective than internal insulation; It is better to resort to the latter if it is not possible to insulate with foam plastic from the outside.

Preparing the wall for insulation

The insulation can be attached to a brick wall only after it has been prepared. PPS will not last long on an untreated surface. You need to remove from it:

dust;
dirt;
traces of oil, fat;
peeling fragments;
fungus.

Cracks and deep depressions in the wall should be plastered, as well as protrusions should be knocked down and protruding elements should be cut off. Perfect leveling of the surface is not required (differences in height up to 1 cm are allowed), although the consumption of adhesive on a flat wall will be much lower. To ensure that the insulation fits tightly to it in areas with minor protrusions, it will be enough to make small indentations in the foam boards with a block of sandpaper. A thicker layer of glue will have to be applied to the depressions.

Table of characteristics of foam plastic of various brands.

After repair, the surface is treated with an antifungal agent and primed with a deep penetration vapor barrier compound, which will ensure reliable adhesion of the insulation to the brick.

Wall impregnation products are applied one at a time only to thoroughly dried surfaces, so it is better to carry out insulation work in the warm season.

Working in conditions of high humidity has a negative impact on the quality of repairs, so you should choose periods with clear weather.

How to attach polystyrene foam to a wall

Thermal insulation is attached to a brick wall using adhesive mixtures and disc-shaped dowels (“fungi”). The most reliable method of laying EPS slabs is a combined method, in which the slab glued to the surface is additionally fixed at 5 points with disc fasteners.

Insulation of the wall begins from the corner bottom part, but before gluing the first slab, a starting profile is installed, the width of which must correspond to the thickness of the foam. The correct installation of the profile is checked using a building level.

The adhesive composition can be placed both on slabs and on the wall. To apply the glue, use a comb spatula. An adhesive is applied to the insulated surface if it is not level enough. In this case, the glue helps smooth out the unevenness.

Scheme of additional fastening of foam plastic with dowels.

Sheets of foam plastic are attached to the brick wall, pressing it against it so that there are no gaps between the panels. While the glue has not hardened, it is necessary to check the correct installation of the slab vertically and horizontally using a building level.

After laying one row, you can begin gluing the next one. The vertical seams in it should not coincide with the seams of the first row. This method will ensure reliable fastening of the foam and better insulation of the wall.

Disc-shaped dowels are screwed into the wall after drilling holes for them through the thickness of the glued insulation. It is recommended to screw “fungi” into the corners and center of each slab. The fastener caps should be somewhat recessed into the material. For internal insulation, disc dowels can be screwed into the seams between panels. Thus, the consumption of fasteners is reduced by more than 2 times.

Possible gaps between the insulation boards can be filled with foam, but it is better to seal them with crushed polystyrene foam or EPS dissolved in acetone. The sealed cracks are coated with glue on top.

Finishing of insulation

The attachment of foam plastic to the wall is also enhanced by the external finishing of the thermal insulation. 2-3 days after finishing pasting the facade with insulation, the areas above the fastener heads should be puttied. After this, a thick adhesive composition is applied to the polystyrene foam with a roller, and a reinforcing mesh is pressed into it using a spatula or the same roller. Its adjacent strips are applied with a slight overlap on each other (10 cm).

The mesh will protect the surface of the heat insulator from cracking. In addition, it will serve as the basis for the plaster layer. It is better to cover the corners of the house with a plastic or metal profile to protect the PPS from damage.

The finishing of an insulated wall has not only decorative functions: the facing layer will protect the insulation from the unwanted effects of external factors.

Insulating the wall with polystyrene foam before facing it with siding

If the house has a ventilated facade, then loose foam plastic can be laid between the sheathing profiles. A stronger and more expensive extrusion material is not needed with this method of insulation. The foam sheets will be covered with siding.

The thickness of the thermal insulation sheets must correspond to the thickness of the sheathing elements. The insulation should be attached to the brick wall with glue, avoiding gaps between the panels. After gluing the PPS to the sheathing, a vapor barrier membrane is attached. Additionally, the thermal insulation is fixed with a counter-lattice, to which the cladding is subsequently attached.

Attaching insulation to a brick wall with your own hands, for example polystyrene foam

How to attach polystyrene foam to a brick wall so that the adhesion of the material to it does not weaken for many years is of interest to home owners who have started insulation work.

How to properly attach insulation to a brick wall

Today, an integral part of the renovation, and one of the main ones, includes a set of works to insulate the wall surfaces of the apartment. Residents, as well as owners of companies, retail outlets and production facilities, are actively looking for ways to save energy in their premises. It’s not news to anyone that the largest expense item of all payments for various utilities is payment of heating bills.

Therefore, the majority of the population takes various measures to ensure that their homes are always warm and comfortable while consuming less energy. That is, we are talking about reducing heat losses as much as possible. Many people insulate their apartments on the advice of acquaintances or friends who have already gone through the insulation stage. And at the same time, important points that necessarily take place in each specific case are often missed. Therefore, to be sure that you have done the insulation of wall surfaces correctly and to the maximum, a certain minimum of knowledge is required.

So how to properly insulate an apartment without leaving the least chance for premature heat loss from the room, regardless of what material the walls are built from - brick, wood or concrete? Anyone who asks such a question and knows the answer to it is doing the right thing, because when performing insulation work independently, the knowledge necessary in this case will help him avoid many mistakes and perform insulation at the proper level. For our part, we are ready to help and in this article we will talk about thermal insulation materials and methods of their fastening.

So, first of all, you should figure out which insulating materials are most often used today for finishing wall surfaces, and which of them should be preferred in each specific case. After all, there is a large selection of thermal insulation products on the building materials market. This does not mean that it is enough to choose any material that suits your price range and go ahead and create a thermal barrier. This is wrong. You should know that modern high-quality insulation is carried out with a small variety of thermal insulation materials. And each case has its own nuances and recommendations, which we will talk about now.

Plaster

Plastering brick wall surfaces

Insulation with plaster has a very long tradition; over the centuries-old period of its use in construction, the composition of the plaster mixture and the methods for treating wall surfaces with it have been constantly improved. And today this material occupies a leading position in the niche of finishing analogues and continues to be used in most cases. This material is especially in demand when plastering brick surfaces. Well, if our goal is insulation, then in this case we should use a version of plaster with insulating properties, which is recommended to be applied to the wall in three layers. Let us note:

The first layer is to spray the wall with a liquid plaster solution no more than three centimeters thick. It is necessary to throw the plaster onto the wall surface with such force that the solution completely fills the cracks and gaps between the bricks.
The second layer is the primer layer. This is a very thick layer of thick dense solution, it can vary between 5-15 centimeters. If the thickness of the total layer exceeds 5 centimeters, the solution should be applied in several stages. In this case, the next layer can be applied only after the previous one has dried.
The third layer is the covering. This layer is intended for sanding plaster and has the smallest thickness. The solution itself is a mixture of fine river sand with a slight addition of cement. Before spraying, the brickwork should be moistened with water. This is done to prevent moisture from the plaster mixture from being transferred to the brick. If you do not do this, you risk significantly reducing the quality of the plaster. And we remind you once again that each layer of plaster should be thoroughly dried.
Plastering wooden wall surfaces

The method of plastering wooden walls by our ancestors was worked out to the smallest detail. And it is no coincidence, because in former times wood was the main building material. This is an amazing technology that is used quite rarely today - mainly in suburban construction or old houses in which the partitions are made of wood. In order to plaster wooden surfaces, you should carefully prepare for the process.

This means that you need to purchase the required amount of shingles or ready-made shingles with cells measuring 45x45 millimeters. Next, you need to install these elements in a diagonal direction, thus arranging a lathing that will accept the plaster mortar. For confidence and strength of fastening, you can hammer nails into wooden walls up to half their length, onto which you can screw a binding wire. With this design you will create a strong metal reinforcing frame on the surface.

Plastering reinforced concrete wall surfaces

Builders and specialists believe that this is the most complex type of surface, therefore, to apply plaster on them, a strong and reliable reinforcing frame should be mounted on the wall. Technically, it looks like tat: a metal mesh is attached to the wall using dowels or self-tapping screws. Today, manufacturers supply the construction market with a special plaster mesh, which is made by welding. This is a durable material that takes up little space. Before attaching the mesh, the wall surface should be treated with a high penetration primer mixture.

This is an excellent and cheapest insulation of all existing thermal insulation materials. To lay it, you must first prepare the wall; it should ensure the tightest possible fit of the foam over the entire surface. If your apartment has brick walls, the wall should be plastered, although only two layers of plaster will be enough; a third coating layer is not necessary.

Another softening effect is that the second, primer layer can be of small thickness, only up to five centimeters, possibly less. True, there is one caveat - the foam must be protected from exposure to water, moisture and condensation. Therefore, it will be necessary to create a vapor barrier to prevent moisture from entering the insulation and thus avoid the possibility of moisture forming on its surface. If this happens, the foam will sharply lose its high properties, and subsequently completely turn into a useless item.

The insulation is attached to the wall in several ways. On a plastered brick or reinforced concrete wall, it is best to fasten it with glue, which should be applied to the back surface of the foam over its entire area; its perimeter should be treated especially carefully with the mixture. Then the sheet should be applied to the wall and pressed well with the entire surface against the wall.

The insulation is secured to a wooden or concrete wall with special dowels in the shape of mushrooms. To do this, apply foam plastic to the wall and, holding it, drill several holes in such a way that the drill bit of a hammer drill or hammer penetrates the wall body and leaves holes there of the required depth. It is these holes that are intended for the initial fastening of the foam with fungi. Then the required number of holes is drilled around the entire perimeter at intervals of 25 centimeters.

Mineral wool

This insulation is one of the most common and sought-after thermal insulation materials, most often used for high-quality wall insulation. It should be noted that the excellent properties of mineral wool are quite diverse, and one of them includes the possibility of simultaneous insulation and soundproofing of walls.

Attaching the material is very simple, although some additional equipment will be required. First of all, it is meant that in order to place mineral wool on the wall, a simple frame must be assembled on its surface. How it's done?

To make the frame, wooden slats are used; you can also make a lath from a metal profile. But if we take into account the price issue, it is better to choose the most simplified option, which will save time on its production and money. This can be achieved by using boards or wooden slats as the starting material. It is recommended to install them vertically using self-tapping screws with a distance between them slightly less than the width of the mineral sheet, which is produced in rolls or mats. This design will make it possible to lay heat-insulating material in the cells of the frame with high density, eliminating the possibility of cracks and gaps. The highest thermal insulation effect can only be achieved by completely eliminating cold bridges between the inside and outside of the room.

We said that the insulation is attached very simply. And yet, how is this accomplished?

First, if you use mineral wool made in the form of mats, then there is no question here at all - in this case, fastening is carried out due to the density of its placement in the cell.

Secondly, the material inserted under tension in the space between the slats will be held by the slats.

Third, the material will hold well if you hammer small nails in a checkerboard pattern on the wall inside the frame. After this, the installation of insulation begins from bottom to top. At the same time, a strong thread is stretched between the nails in a zigzag manner, which will create a kind of mesh that can firmly hold the insulation.

This high-density thermal insulation product appeared on the building materials market relatively recently, but due to its excellent properties it has already gained great trust among consumers. The speed and ease of installation work are considered especially attractive, although other performance characteristics of this product are impressive. Penoplex is fastened with special self-tapping screws that come with the insulation. You can see for yourself that the installation process is extremely simple - you need to attach the foam board to the wall surface and drill through holes in two places, that is, both in the material itself and in the wall. The fastening is completed, as we have already said, with special type self-tapping screws. As you can see, it's really easy and simple.

Nuances of insulating the inside of the wall

So, we looked at some options for attaching insulating material to the wall surface, and various types of insulation. However, insulating a room has some additional nuances that must be taken into account when insulating a room. And the main one is the thickness of the insulation product, because it requires the allocation of some part of the room’s space, which, given a small usable area, it is desirable to minimize. Therefore, there are many points of view among ordinary people regarding the material with which it is possible to perform high-quality insulation with a slight loss of usable space in the apartment.

For example, many believe that properly laid plaster will perfectly protect the room from the ingress of cold. Of course, in practice this is true; plaster will create a fairly serious barrier to the penetration of low temperatures. However, one should not lose sight of the fact that good thermal insulation will require a thick layer of plaster, because this type of insulation has a thermal conductivity coefficient twice as high as, for example, polystyrene foam.

Let's look at this with an example. Polystyrene foam five centimeters thick is comparable in thermal insulation characteristics to a layer of plaster ten centimeters thick. This means that in addition to losing additional room space, you will have to shell out quite a decent amount of money on the material.

So, foam plastic and all problems are solved? It's not that simple either. Polystyrene foam has the inherent quality of porosity, that is, it is not an obstacle to the passage of airborne substances, including air vapor, through it. And these vapors do not come from the outside, but from the inside of the room, so there is such a phenomenon as condensation between the foam and the wall. Therefore, in order to use foam plastic for insulation and at the same time protect the wall surface from the formation of condensation, the insulation should be protected with a vapor barrier material.

Of course, there are many more options for insulating wall surfaces than we have considered. But in any case, regardless of whether you give preference to one of the main insulation methods we have given or choose another option, try to carry out the process itself efficiently, following existing recommendations, especially regarding attaching the insulation to the wall surface. And then your apartment will be provided with comfort and coziness at any time of the year at minimal cost.

How to properly attach insulation to a brick wall

Today, an integral part of the renovation, and one of the main ones, includes a set of works to insulate the wall surfaces of the apartment. The common people also

How to attach insulation to the wall: adhesive installation, fixation with dowels. Laying mineral wool - advantages, materials and stages of work How to attach insulation to a wooden wall

Advantages of external wall insulation

Insulation properties

Advantages

Flaws

Thermal insulation process

Thermal protection device for a wooden house

Preparing the base

Creating a vapor barrier layer

Frame making

Installation of thermal insulation

Laying waterproofing

The final stage

Installation of insulation for a frame structure

Installation of mineral wool

Creating an air gap and finishing

Production of thermal insulation for a brick building

Selection Basics

Insulation characteristics

Product Overview

Material selection

Insulation technology

Facade preparation

Installation under siding

Insulation under plaster

Expanded polystyrene

Mineral wool

Warm plaster

Specifics of insulating a wooden house

General arrangement of external insulation of a wooden house

What material to choose for external insulation of a wooden house

Video - Insulating the walls of a house from the outside

Insulation of a wooden house from the outside with mineral wool

Calculation of the amount of insulation

List of tools

Laying mineral wool on a wooden frame

Laying mineral wool on brackets

What does high wood moisture cause?

Materials for insulating wooden walls

The most important condition is a vapor-permeable membrane

The optimal insulation is mineral wool

Required thickness of insulation for a wooden house

Insulation thickness calculator

Frame details

Preparatory work

Frame installation

Wooden frame

Metal carcass

Laying insulation in a frame structure

Wind protection

Installation of siding on an insulated surface

Lathing

On glue

For dowels

Alternative

Practical tips

The choice of fastening depending on the type of insulation

How to attach polystyrene foam to a brick wall

How to install penoplex

Method of attaching polystyrene foam to a brick wall

We install the insulation with glue and screws

Working method

Additional nuances

Why penoplex and not polystyrene foam?

Attaching extruded and expanded foam to a brick wall

PPS as insulation

Preparing the wall for insulation

How to attach polystyrene foam to a wall

Finishing of insulation

Insulating the wall with polystyrene foam before facing it with siding

How to properly attach insulation to a brick wall

Plaster

Mineral wool

Nuances of insulating the inside of the wall