House building
 

The Winter Fuel Allowance thread highlights the difficulty of heating houses throughout the winter. Is this true of all houses in Spain ie, those types built years ago. I'm talking about the picture postcard houses you see in town squares and in the rows of terraces.

Or is it mainly modern villas and apartment blocks.?

Re: House building
 

I think that it will depend on the style of the house. Our town house is a corner house so loads of windows and is difficult to heat but our neighbours house has few windows and middle terrace so much easier to heat. Generally Spanish houses are built to keep cool in the heat rather than warm in the cold and this effects heating as does the tiled or marbled floors.

Rosemary

Re: House building
 

Thanks Rosemary, I guess there is a trade off between light and energy.

If you are having a house built from scratch how difficult would it be for cavity wall insulation etc, to be incorporated into the project. I don't believe this is commonly done on new builds

Re: House building
 

I think, but I'm not sure, that all new builds must be insulated now.

Re: House building
 

The old traditional Andalucian houses you see in villages like Benalmádena pueblo or Mijas or great both for keeping cool in summer and warm in winter

They have very think walls, small windows and have a very limited amount of space inside so easy to heat.

The trade off is that they are dark and small, but fine for the Andalucians of old who lived most their life in the street and fields anyway :)

Re: House building
 

Our house is in the middle of a terrace but still gets cold. When they reformed our house before we bought it why they didn't put in some insulation on the internal walls and underside of the roof is beyond me. I could understand it if energy was cheap in Spain but it's not. Unfortunately (well fortunately really) our house is the Spanish version of listed and the facades cannot be changed so we are limited what we can do by the way of solar heating etc.
If you are having a house built in Spain ensure that it is insulated to, if possible, Uk standards. It will also help to keep the house cooler in the Summer.

Re: House building
 

I think one of the main problems is lack of cavity walls which I believe is down to building regulations and earthquake risk.
Please correct me someone if I'm wrong on that.

The result of this is that the Winter cold strikes straight through to the inside of the walls making heating much more difficullt and expensive and often causing problems with condensation.

An even bigger problem also relating to the lack of cavity walls is the tremendous build up of heat in the whole structure in Summertime which virtually turns the whole building into a giant heat storage radiator, making it extremely difficult to cool down even at nights with the heat bouncing back out of the walls.

Once again this works out very costly with the use of power guzzling aircon systems which most ppl.find essential.

Re: House building
 

Hi, my house is in the old part of the village and is mid terrace. when I bought it some years ago i was going to reform it, before i could part of the roof fell in and took the floors with it, so the easiest thing to do was demolish and start again which i did, Over the years the building regulations seem to have advanced a lot and my litle village house was rebuilt with cavity walls and insulation, probably not as much insulation as would be required in the UK but out of 3 different houses I have lived in in Spain this one is certainly the warmest, I dont have aircon, dont even use a fan in summer, and for winter I have a log burner and as you go up the stairs you can feel the heat from this. Every single page including drawings of the project for the rebuild has to be stamped by the College of Architects in Malaga. You also have to include the report from the geological/seismic people. I have had two winters in the house now and am very happy with it.

Re: House building
 

Thanks for all the comments, As Dick suggested and Cerillo mentioned there seems to be a connection with seismic acivity, although I don't see what difference having cavity walls would make if an earthquake were to occur.

Re: House building
 

I would have thought that cavity walls would collapse or move much more easily than thick solid walls.

However I'm no structural engineer and maybe there are new ways to overcome such problems ?

Re: House building
 

I'm no structural engineer either, What you say makes sense, cavity walls don't have foundations do they?

Re: House building
 

I have a big detached house built 27 years ago which has cavity walls with insulation between the walls. It also has proper foundations. It has massive double glazed windows on every wall. It also has oil fired central heating. My friends houses are the same. Cool in the summer and warm as toast in the winter.

I am sure there are others on here who have the same and do not live in a converted single block wall former almacen or an old stone village house colder than the Antartic and dingier than a dungeon. I cant remember when the law came in but new builds have had to be insulated (often spray pumped on) for at least 6 years or more now to my certain knowledge

Re: House building
 

I have a typical Spanish chalet (villa) built 30 years ago. We use minimal fans in the summer to keep cool (we don't like air conditioning) and minimal heating in the winter to keep warm - one gas heater.

We are able to do this because we are near to the coast and away from the mountains. Our friends who live inland need to cater for the vast differences in temperatures between summer and winter, at considerable cost and inconvenience.

We live in an earthquake zone, but there is nothing we can do to help us if such a disaster should strike. Apart from praying.

Re: House building
 

I would expect cavity walls to have similar foundations to solid walls given similar ground conditions.

Interesting to know that there are some houses around the Costas with cavity walls.

I imagine the build regulations must vary between different areas depending on the risk factor, with maybe the N.W. one of the lower risk areas.

Re: House building
 

I had a new house built 8 years ago under my supervision as the developer.

The structure is earthquake proof (up to a certain level) as the whole structure is reinforced concrete with huge foundations.

The walls are all cavity walls and this has no bearing of their safely in an earthquake as they are totally non structural - they just fill the gaps between the ferro-concrete structure. They are all insulated with 4" of sprayed foam. The roof is also insulated. All the windows are double glazed. The floor is also insulated as it has underfloor heating.

Even 8 years ago this was the normal construction method and was mandatory.

The 10 year insurance policy which is also mandatory insists on geological surveys and construction to a standard that can cope with expected seismic activity and other potential problems such as landslip and flooding. It also insists on concrete and steel samples being tested at each stage of construction and supervision by a qualified structural engineer (in addition to the normal architect).

Modern Spanish houses, if constructed legally, are as good as anything in the rest of Europe, sadly it was not always that way!