The paper presents the problems connected with preserved examples of buildings in Upper Silesia that contain the elements of half-timbered walls. This type of construction currently characterizes houses of various utility functions. Often, their formation was related to the construction of patron settlements, accompanied by the development of industrial plants. Today, there is a problem of insufficient thermal insulation of barriers in half-timbered houses and numerous attempts to improve their thermal parameters are observed. In this type of projects, the correct determination of the existing state in terms of construction of the barrier and thermal protection seems to be important, as the starting points for further analysis. The study determines the insulation of frame walls with ceramic fill, with a variety of material and construction solutions. Literature examples and in situ measurements results were used for the research.

The article presents chosen issues related to the heat insulation of complex structure walls. Subjects covered in this study are building partitions that had been constructed in the so called “Prussian wall” technique and are located in the Upper Silesia region. Their technical condition as well as usable state are not satisfactory, especially in the light of thermal protection. One way of increasing their standard is insulating partitions. In case of historical monuments or rich architectural facades, typical insulation methods (the ETICS system) will not apply. Thus, the solution is to insulate external walls on the inside surface. This, however, causes moisture content difficulties, which means that steam diffusing through partition undergoes the process of condensation. The authors suggest their own solutions to the problem of insulating diverse external partitions and base them on the research conducted in situ. They use The School of Music in Gliwice as an example. The measurement results obtained here were used in “heat-water content” modeling of walls for which WUFI 2D programme was applied. As shown in numerical analysis, the thickness and the sort of insulating layer have a key impact on the partition water content including wooden elements of construction. In case of walls that are 25 cm thick, the water content in the wall itself and wooden elements increased alongside the insulation material thickness, but it did not excess the permissible level, otherwise wood degradation would ensue. For “Prussian walls” that are 12 cm thick and insulated on the inside we observe exceeding the level of 20% water content, which is critical for wood durability. These results present elementary problems that occur when buildings with “Prussian walls” construction undergo thermo insulation. Restoration process must be a compromise between the need to retain the historical aspect of a building and the need to bring them to modern heat and usability standards. On the basis of numerical analysis, possible solutions, which meet these criteria, have been proposed.

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The paper discusses the conservation state of selected examples of historical objects preserved in the Silesia Province, having a complex structure with the elements of Prussian wall. They can be found mainly in the so-called company towns created in the late 19th century. The work presents the structural and architectural details characteristic for such objects, with the emphasis on different technical condition of the structural and finishing elements. External envelopes were evaluated in terms of their thermal insulation and humidity condition, depending on their structure, type of material and location, using theoretical and calculation methods. Due to historical value of the buildings and special character of the façade, the paper suggests that the material values, thermal conductivity and humidity level of the envelopes should be closely identified to provide a basis for further analyses.