Another loft insulation question on an old house!
Discussion
I didn't want to hijack the other thread, but we find ourselves with a related question. It is a house that belonged to my partner's father that she has just inherited and we are about to refurbish with an eye to renting once complete.
We ventured up into the loft area to clear out and found that there is minimal insulation up there - it being very old, likely 1980s - and having flattened to a few cm... The centre has been boarded over for storage with the sides open to the rafters. The house is about 90 years old with clay tiles that have no felting - just straight to the battens - the gable ends are rough cut wood with no felting/membrane.. I don't think it has been touched apart from the odd replacement tile since built. It seems dry/sound but is obviously well ventilated with quite a few large old wasps nest up there!
Clearly we want to improve the insulation but are unsure of the best method. Remove the boarding and add a suitable amount of insulation? If we want to retain some storage would using some kind of loft legs/stilts make sense or just remove the boarding completely (it isn't needed really)?
Is there anything we need to consider/bear in mind?
Thanks!
We ventured up into the loft area to clear out and found that there is minimal insulation up there - it being very old, likely 1980s - and having flattened to a few cm... The centre has been boarded over for storage with the sides open to the rafters. The house is about 90 years old with clay tiles that have no felting - just straight to the battens - the gable ends are rough cut wood with no felting/membrane.. I don't think it has been touched apart from the odd replacement tile since built. It seems dry/sound but is obviously well ventilated with quite a few large old wasps nest up there!
Clearly we want to improve the insulation but are unsure of the best method. Remove the boarding and add a suitable amount of insulation? If we want to retain some storage would using some kind of loft legs/stilts make sense or just remove the boarding completely (it isn't needed really)?
Is there anything we need to consider/bear in mind?
Thanks!
So my thoughts on this are.
- Loft insulation is cheap, easy to fit, and low risk. So having a reasonable amount is good.
- However there is no point in going totally mad when you have solid walls and uninsulated skeilings
- Therefore somewhere between 150-250mm is about where I personally might pitch it.
Then look at the options for the skeilings.
In my last house, I look down the skelling plasterboard from the inside, room at a time, and fitted 50mm insulation between the rafters, and the 50mm over the top of the rafters, before reboarding and got some one in to skim the whole ceiling which also 'removed' the artex. With 3x2 rafters this left a good inc between the felt and the foam, and I extended the foam between the rafters up into the loft enough to hold back the loft insulation reasonable well.
I was also blessed with cavity walls, so had then filled with eps balls which also worked really well for me.
- Loft insulation is cheap, easy to fit, and low risk. So having a reasonable amount is good.
- However there is no point in going totally mad when you have solid walls and uninsulated skeilings
- Therefore somewhere between 150-250mm is about where I personally might pitch it.
Then look at the options for the skeilings.
In my last house, I look down the skelling plasterboard from the inside, room at a time, and fitted 50mm insulation between the rafters, and the 50mm over the top of the rafters, before reboarding and got some one in to skim the whole ceiling which also 'removed' the artex. With 3x2 rafters this left a good inc between the felt and the foam, and I extended the foam between the rafters up into the loft enough to hold back the loft insulation reasonable well.
I was also blessed with cavity walls, so had then filled with eps balls which also worked really well for me.
1930's house opposite had no roofing membrane type stuff.
He had the tiles removed and replaced with membrane under the tiles, even without extra insulation it was much warmer and much less dusty, Also before everything up there had to be covered in tarpaulin as rain would get past the tiles.
He's now gone further and insulated under the tiles, added lath and used celotex type stuff to insulate it
He had the tiles removed and replaced with membrane under the tiles, even without extra insulation it was much warmer and much less dusty, Also before everything up there had to be covered in tarpaulin as rain would get past the tiles.
He's now gone further and insulated under the tiles, added lath and used celotex type stuff to insulate it
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