Loft insulation and other home grants

[Sarah_W]

I've just bought a place in Croydon to renovate with no loft insulation or central heating. It's registered as my own home and my salary is 6.5k per annum (although I take a lot of company dividends).

I've heard a lot about loft insulation grants and even grants for instlling central heating. Does anyone know if I'd qualify for these? Sounds with a lot of these things that you ned to be long term unemployed to get these benefts and that they're not available to those who work hard for their money :-(

[anonymous-user]

Sarah_W said:

I've just bought a place in Croydon to renovate with no loft insulation or central heating. It's registered as my own home and my salary is 6.5k per annum (although I take a lot of company dividends).

I've heard a lot about loft insulation grants and even grants for instlling central heating. Does anyone know if I'd qualify for these? Sounds with a lot of these things that you ned to be long term unemployed to get these benefts and that they're not available to those who work hard for their money :-(

I think eveyone can benefit - the grants are usually passed on by the loft insulation people.
I insulated our loft (large detached house) for about £100 using a company called Igloo

http://www.iglooinsulation.co.uk/ (their website says "Grants for all")

[Shaolin]

When we did ours the grant depended on the level of current insulation only - the less you have the bigger the grant. You may be able to get cavity wall insulation grants too if appropriate.

[andy43]

Certainly with loft insulation, if you don't pay taxes (eg dole/oap) it's completely f.o.c.
Even when you do earn, you'll get it roughly half the true cost - 250-ish.
Energysavingtrust would be a good place to start

[eps]

The grant, for loft insulation, effectively pays for the labour... If you do it yourself it will be cheaper.. but you'd have to get your hands dirty.

"invite" 1 or 2 of the companies to come round and they'll happily quote you.

Of course once you've insulated your loft it won't be usable for storage, as they'll insulate to about 270mm most loft joists are about 100mm.. So there will be 170mm of material above the joists. If you want or need to store items in the loft you can board out and ask them not to cover it, or build a raised platform above the insulation..

If you did it yourself you could opt for a more thermally efficient insulation and end up with about 220mm overall.. Crown Dritherm 32 is the one to look at (I don't work for them, but it is the product we recommend to clients, as part of Building Control), where wool type insulation is specified.

[fatboy b]

Loft insulation grants are a simple waste of time and money. I've had 2 companies round. Each time a tw@t in a suit has a 5 second look in the loft, and says yep you qualify. He measure's the house and says "right, that works out to £500, but you get a 50% grant, so that's £250". Then they let you down by not calling back, or give you a days notice to come and do the work even after I asked them to give me a weeks notice as we both work.

We've recently had a couple of guys round doing various maintenance jobs on the house, and in fact did our loft insulation yesterday. Took them 3 hours, and charged £200 including the insulation. It's a damn-fine job too.

ETA - 4 bed detached house.

Edited by fatboy b on Wednesday 4th November 07:16

[stevethegreek]

OP - it may be worth talking to your Energy/Utility supplier or taking a quick look on their website. We did this last year and managed to get a grant for both loft and cavity wall insulation as part of an initiative they were running.

Also - take a look here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/grant-gra...

STG.

Edited by stevethegreek on Wednesday 4th November 11:39

[Simpo Two]

Or just buy some insulation from B&Q, whack it down and be done with it; it has to be the easiest DIY job there is (although it gets harder if you put your foot through the ceiling!)

[Penny-lope]

Can I just ask (girlie question )

Can you only insulate the floor....what about the actual slant of the roof? Or does that have to be left free for ventilation to prevent damp?

I have a huge loft....lenght of my entire flat (and could easily be converted into 2 rooms) so I know I am lossing a lot of heat.

[Mattt]

If you have a loft conversion then you insulate the pitches - and have special details at the ridge and eaves (although I'm no roofing expert).

[andye30m3]

Penny-lope said:

Can I just ask (girlie question )

Can you only insulate the floor....what about the actual slant of the roof? Or does that have to be left free for ventilation to prevent damp?

I have a huge loft....lenght of my entire flat (and could easily be converted into 2 rooms) so I know I am lossing a lot of heat.

If you have a loft conversion and want to insulate you need to leave a 50mm air gap below the tiles, best way is to insulate is between and below the rafters with celotex / kingspan rigid insulation or something similar.

Edited by andye30m3 on Wednesday 4th November 12:18

[Bill]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

B+Q currently have 1x5M subsidised (apparently) rolls on BOGOF, so 16 quid for two. So my brother and I have done my loft this morning for 130 quid (about half the footprint of yours). I did have one layer down between the joists though, so this is additional.

[Bill]

Penny-lope said:

Can I just ask (girlie question )

Can you only insulate the floor....what about the actual slant of the roof? Or does that have to be left free for ventilation to prevent damp?

I have a huge loft....lenght of my entire flat (and could easily be converted into 2 rooms) so I know I am lossing a lot of heat.

Ventilation is good if you're not converting the loft, and there's no point allowing heat to pass into the loft space if you're not using it so insulating the floor makes most sense.

How much insulation do you have up there at the moment?

[eps]

andye30m3 said:

Penny-lope said:

Can I just ask (girlie question )

Can you only insulate the floor....what about the actual slant of the roof? Or does that have to be left free for ventilation to prevent damp?

I have a huge loft....lenght of my entire flat (and could easily be converted into 2 rooms) so I know I am lossing a lot of heat.

If you have a loft conversion and want to insulate you need to leave a 50mm air gap below the tiles, best way is to insulate is between and below the rafters with celotex / kingspan rigid insulation or something similar.

Edited by andye30m3 on Wednesday 4th November 12:18

You only need to leave a 50mm gap if you use rigid board insulation such as Celotex or board from Kingspan (for Warm Deck roofs). If you use something like Crown Dritherm 32 insulation roll (which is about the best insulation roll you can get) you can fill the void as it will ventilate through the roll. Cold deck is another thing altogether.

Of course not all insulation roll is the same - the U values vary quite a lot!

[eps]

Penny-lope said:

Can I just ask (girlie question )

Can you only insulate the floor....what about the actual slant of the roof? Or does that have to be left free for ventilation to prevent damp?

I have a huge loft....lenght of my entire flat (and could easily be converted into 2 rooms) so I know I am lossing a lot of heat.

Ideally the insulation should be at ceiling level (or the floor if you're in the loft), but you can insulate at rafter level (the slant as you call it). There are actually different target U values for both.. Ceiling level is 0.16 U and Rafter level 0.20 U. As the lower number is "better" you can use less at the rafter level, but it will need to maintain ventilation, depending on insulation material type.

You really need to make sure that you do have enough headroom. I've been to too many clients' houses where they think they've got enough headroom, but they haven't. The joists (floor) will probably have to be improved, meaning you'll lose headroom and the rafters will also have to be improved or battened off, to allow you to put enough insulation in place, meaning you'll lose more headroom. Obviously you will also have to put board on the floor and board on the rafters, this will further slightly reduce the headroom. It would be ideal to know the max. headroom (i.e. to the ridge beam) you have now and the dimensions (width and depth and centres, i.e. measurement from the centre of one joist or rafter to another) of the joists and rafters you have in place and the pitch of the roof.. It's amazing how quickly headroom disappears..

[eps]

Simpo Two said:

Or just buy some insulation from B&Q, whack it down and be done with it; it has to be the easiest DIY job there is (although it gets harder if you put your foot through the ceiling!)

Agreed and it's not too nasty a job if you pay the extra for the space blanket stuff..

I did mine a few years ago, but with the wide rolls from Wickes.. Cross laid of course, but now we can't put anything up there!

[Dover Nige]

I've got little downlight / spotlights in my upstairs ceilings that also have little transformer boxes near to them.

The only insulation I have looks like little grey balls of stuff that have probably been up there since the 50's.

Do I have to put some sort of cover over my spotlights and transformers before I can lay rolls of that space blanket stuff up there?

...and will I get attacked by giant spiders?

[schmokin1]

my architect mentioned that if you have the usual 4 inch joists in the attic floor you can take up your attic boards, use 100mm rockwool, then lay one inch (approx) celotex across the top of the joists and screw your floor boards back through it, thus meeting the same U value as if you had the 170mm rockwool on top of the floor and the 100mm between the joists.

cheers all schmo

[.:ian:.]

Bill said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

B+Q currently have 1x5M subsidised (apparently) rolls on BOGOF, so 16 quid for two. So my brother and I have done my loft this morning for 130 quid (about half the footprint of yours). I did have one layer down between the joists though, so this is additional.

Wickes have an in-store deal thats cheaper 1.2M x 7M rolls of 170mm for about £10 each - (actually £29 each, but buy one get 2 free) They wont deliver these though.

Homebase also allegedy have similar sized rolls for £8 each, but they only had the more expensive stuff in store (funny that..)

[Bill]

.:ian:. said:

Wickes have an in-store deal thats cheaper

Now you tell me