Settlement house 1954 - complete renovation possible?

Earlier and earlier.
In the past, there were frost flowers on the window and the hot water came from the stove next to the kitchen oven. Not that long ago. Just ask the people born before '55.

I recently had the pleasure of a partially renovated old building. The living room was heated by a pretty, cozy open fireplace. Face glows, back freezes.

Because it was so great, there were already wallpapers with a styrofoam-like coating in the '50s.

When renovating an old building, you have to be careful to preserve the charm. I would have doubts about turning a building structure that is not designed to be airtight into a Tupperware container. We saw that during demolition where damage existed. Mold, mildew, dry rot appeared where old met new over the decades.

I pay 65€ heating costs per month. I don't have underfloor heating, but a crawl space. My house is never cold in winter!

These are always such statements... How many square meters is the place? Is it a mid-terrace house? Do you also heat with a fireplace for which you get cheap firewood? Are you satisfied with 19° room temperature? Was there no insulation done at all? Are all rooms heated constantly? etc.

My parents also have such a little gem from the 50s like the building shown here. Except for the roof, nothing is insulated (90s) and accordingly the heating costs are on average 150€/month for 120m². We, on the other hand, heat our 185m² old building from '39 with just under 60€. With a planned minimum service life of 25 years, we save around 50,000€ in heating costs in comparison, while we haven’t even invested 10,000€ in the "insulation craze" (insulation under screed, cellar ceiling, top floor ceiling and roof slopes done by ourselves and blown-in insulation by a specialist company). For that, we can also occasionally treat ourselves to a new central unit for the ventilation system and still save money. Not to mention the already mentioned living comfort.

Sometimes I do wonder how people managed to live before the insulation craze and all the KFWs... The poor devils, ey...

Quite simple: with higher heating costs and less living comfort. No one claims it is impossible, the question is only: why put up with that unnecessarily?

110 sqm plus usable area No fireplace Detached house Winter living room always nice and warm. Hallways are generally not heated to 30 degrees daily by me. Bathroom always warm. Bedroom usually never heated, as I cannot sleep in a warm bedroom. Admittedly, in winter the feet in the hallway are occasionally cold. Then I also sometimes heat the hallway up. Even in Costa Rica at 30 degrees my darling finds the water too cold. But at home she has never complained. That says something. But hey... everyone as they think they have to... If you want to spend 200k to follow the insulation craze and all that KFW stuff, go ahead. I don’t stop anyone.

Yes, apart from polemics, there is nothing. You can already tell by the 200k for the insulation craze. We’re happy to discuss things factually, but not on that level. Basically, you partially heat your house in winter. Out of 110sqm, the living room and bathroom. You heat around 35-40sqm for 60€/month. Well, if that isn’t a top value...

And then in the end complain about mold because the warm air condenses on the cold surfaces in the bedroom or hallway.

Sometimes I do wonder how people were able to live before the insulation craze and all the KFWs... Poor devils, really...

Quite simple: until the 1950s, often only one room was heated, usually the kitchen. Almost exclusively with coal or wood. The living room was mostly only used on special occasions. And on the bedroom windows, ice flowers hung while people themselves slept under thick down blankets. Typical living spaces were around 15 m2 per occupant. The low efficiency was thus paid for with a small heated area and low temperatures.

Then came the economic boom and cheap oil (and gas)... so 40 m2 per person and 24° all winter long became quite normal. So, the cheap oil will soon quietly leave us...

First pay off your insulation wool over 30 years and then we will compare the costs on the one hand and the mold in your wall with my "cold" walls on the other.

I would be curious about that too.

There are already calculation tools today that estimate the heating demand of an apartment sufficiently accurately. (Links not allowed). With the corresponding U-values of the measures, you can calculate the payback period – with the KfW subsidies, this usually comes to < 20 years. I also assume energy prices will tend to rise. After 20 years, some improvements will probably be necessary again – even if many things have to be replaced, in the end you have had the comfort over time.

Mold requires walls with surface temperatures on the living space side below the dew point and humid air inside the room itself. The first is prevented by external insulation if it is done correctly, i.e., without thermal bridges. In old buildings, the risk of mold is typically low because the air inside is exchanged by itself due to poor airtightness. That means ventilation behavior is more important in insulated and airtight houses. For the second point (and for my pollen allergies ) a ventilation system comes into play during planning. Apparently, the problem there is often that the air becomes too dry.

Mold issues mostly originate somewhere between a thermal bridge and incorrect ventilation.