Had building regs around today as I've simplified my plans and wanted to tie things up. I have this annoying change of use going on with an old pub dating from 1600, 1850, and 1920 depending on where you look. Building regs for change of use call for insulating the heck out of the place.

The issue I'm having is you can't just insulate a solid wall with plastic paint or cement render outside and high external ground levels. The regs assume it is quick and easy to bung a bit of insulation on, but for me there is digging trenches outside, knocking off render and replacing with lime, replacing all the doors and windows lost in the process. The assumed payback on energy saving is 30 years, and I'm running into thousands of years payback. Apart from the time and money I doubt that will be environmentally friendly. I would much rather throw £100k into a pot to help other people insulate their lofts ratherthan do inefficient work here, but there isn't the option.

Has anyone been through this? I'm getting a bit fed up. I tried being depressed for a while but that didn't work for me so I'm looking at making a plan. It seems obviously silly so am I missing something here? My plan at the moment is to find cheap insulation and throw it away again when the damp issues get a bit much.

Thanks Mike. I reached an impass with the private building regs firm over the issue of payback time. He has agreed to sign off works to date and I'll move on to the council building regs for the rest of the project.

The disagreement was only over 2 short pieces of wall. While they aren't causing issues at the moment they have been troubled by modern finishes and optimistic external ground levels so are damp with no means of drying out. In an ideal world I would be straight on to fixing them, but old houses are rarely ideal and there are some more urgent things to pour money into.