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Fitting of loft insulation
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sillymum
Posts: 12 Forumite
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If you've landed here because you're looking for loft insulation deals head over to our Loft Insulation guide.
Back to sillymum's original post...
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Hello
We have recently moved house and have just had our loft insulated (via the grant available from the local council). We had planned to start boarding the loft yesterday (so we can use it for storage) but the company have laid the rolls of insulation across (as opposed to in between) the joists. It is quite a few inches higher than the joists so we knew we would have to raise the height of the joists before adding the floorboards by adding some wooden battens but we won't even be able to do that now. If we cut the insulation in every place that it meets the joists it will take forever (and be a nasty job!) and will leave lots of gaps so the insulation won't work as well. Actually the company said that you don't need to raise the height of the joists and that it is OK to compress the insulation but then the insulation won't be as effective will it??
Any thoughts anyone? Is it normal practice to lay it across the joists? We did it ourselves in our last house (but my husband said never again!) and we laid it in between the joists, then boarded and it was quite straightforward. The company also just laid the insulation on top of the old stuff that was there, and a small boarded area. Should they have done that do you think? It's all making the finished result very high!! Also, any advice on how we go about laying boards?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
If you've landed here because you're looking for loft insulation deals head over to our Loft Insulation guide.
Back to sillymum's original post...
----
Hello
We have recently moved house and have just had our loft insulated (via the grant available from the local council). We had planned to start boarding the loft yesterday (so we can use it for storage) but the company have laid the rolls of insulation across (as opposed to in between) the joists. It is quite a few inches higher than the joists so we knew we would have to raise the height of the joists before adding the floorboards by adding some wooden battens but we won't even be able to do that now. If we cut the insulation in every place that it meets the joists it will take forever (and be a nasty job!) and will leave lots of gaps so the insulation won't work as well. Actually the company said that you don't need to raise the height of the joists and that it is OK to compress the insulation but then the insulation won't be as effective will it??
Any thoughts anyone? Is it normal practice to lay it across the joists? We did it ourselves in our last house (but my husband said never again!) and we laid it in between the joists, then boarded and it was quite straightforward. The company also just laid the insulation on top of the old stuff that was there, and a small boarded area. Should they have done that do you think? It's all making the finished result very high!! Also, any advice on how we go about laying boards?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
0
Comments
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if its just being used for storage, then lay the boards on top.
make sure there is no wiring or pipes underneath, ie on top of the joists.Get some gorm.0 -
Hi
It would have been better to do this before the new insulation went in, but if you pull back the new and fit these then you will have storage.
Min spec for insulation is 270mm. and the only way it can be done is to cross lay it. so yes, it looks like a sea of fibreglass.!!
As said ,do not trap cables or pipe.
http://www.knaufinsulation.co.uk/output/products/page_392.html
Corgi Guy.Ask to see CIPHE (Chartered Institute of Plumbing & Heating Engineering)0 -
Thanks guys for your advice.
Ormus, are you saying it is OK to squash the insulation down and screw the boards to the joists with the insulation in between? I think that is what the installation company think we should do (I will phone them tomorrow to check!) but I thought that the insulation worked by having lots of little air pockets which wouldn't be there if it was all compressed?? I could be completely wrong though!!
Canucklehead, that stuff looks great. Do you mean that we should just pull up all the new stuff and get rid of it (might be a little painful as we face a bill for nearly £250 :eek: ) or do we put those boards down then the new insulation back on top?? Will we then have to lay boards on top of the insulation before we put our stuff up there? Think it might get a bit messy otherwise!
Sorry if I'm being a bit dim. I thought this would be really straightforward, but obviously not!!
Thanks for your help with this0 -
You are right Sillymum thats how the insulation works by trapping air.
You arent as daft as you look !!!!!!!
If you compress it by boarding out the loft it will reduce its effect.
It all depends how much stuff you are going to put up in the loft as to what you do.0 -
i was assuming that there was previous insulation installed?
my loft has this sort. previous owner installed a few inches of glass fibre. then last year i installed new thicker glass fibre over the top.
the house is much warmer now. (combined with cavity wall insulation too, done at the same time).
yes by compressing the fibre you will reduce the insulating properties, but not by that much when you consider the whole loft area.Get some gorm.0 -
Thanks Mervyn11!!
So what would be the options for not much stuff vs lots of stuff?! I must confess to being a bit of a hoarder and when we moved the loft at the old house was full to bursting but I am going to try to be ruthless and get rid of a lot of it. There will still be quite a few bags, boxes etc though...
We really didn't think this through at all!
Thanks for your help0 -
Hello Ormus
Yes, there was some insulation in there before. The new stuff is really thick. We're having cavity wall insulation done too. Hope it will make the house warmer as it is quite nippy at the moment!
So have you boarded just a small area of your loft? I guess that wouldn't reduce insulating properties by that much. Did you put the boards on top of the insulation and screw down into the joists??
Thanks0 -
Hi
Keep the area down to a minimum. Spread the lagging around the rest of the roof.
Be utterly ruthless in your cull of stuff!!!
You will never know how much you don'twant to keep in a loft until you have a roof fire.!!Trust me!
Corgi Guy.Ask to see CIPHE (Chartered Institute of Plumbing & Heating Engineering)0
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