Insulation in Portugal

Insulation in Portugal

Insulation in Portugal The climates great here, feels just like California most of the time.

That is apart from when you go into a Portuguese house if its more than twenty years old. You have a range of temperatures to endure from arctic to equatorial. In the winter they are very cold and seem to suck the heat out of you no matter how high you turn up the heating or how many clothes and fleeces you wear. In the summer they can be stiflingly hot so hot in fact that its hard to sleep because the roof is releasing all of the heat that it has collected during the day straight into your bedroom !
The answer is of course that these houses are not insulated and this omission allows the arctic to equatorial conditions to prevail. What the houses need is insulation but where and how and what are more difficult questions and require some detailed explanation.
Types of insulation
The most common insulation used in Portugal is “wallmate, floormate and roof mate” This is an extruded polystyrene product and is very easy to work with.
Surprisingly cork although one of Portugal’s major natural products is both expensive ( about 3 times the price of wallmate) and hard to obtain without pre-order. Try www.isocor.pt Rock wool and fiberglass bats and rolls are available but sheep’s wool and processed paper are rare.
Where to insulate – Its simple. Everywhere roof walls, floors and windows.
Ventilation
Trapping warm air inside your home with insulation is the goal but it has to be done with adequate ventilation this often seems counter intuitive – heating up your house spending money and effort on insulation and then opening a window !
If you don’t ventilate you will trap moisture laded warm air in your house which will then deposit the moisture on the coolest thing in the house it could be the walls ceilings or floor. Most likely to be the windows making your house look like a late night launderette.
How to insulate https://www.casteloconstruction.info/tag/how-to-insulate-a-stone-house-in-portugal/
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Insulation in Portugal

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