Insulating a bedroom ceiling on the cheap?

Okay, looking for any ideas on how to insulate my daughters bedroom ceiling which is located under a flat roof which has no insulation!

I really don't want to start ripping ceilings down to put insulation in and plasterboarding the ceiling again so close to Christmas and in a moment of madness which must be due to the cold weather we are having up here in the wild wooly wastes of the Northern most reaches of the Highland of Scotland I wondered if it would be possible to staple some form of insulating fabric to the underside of the ceiling to try and keep the bedroom warm.

The only heating in the room is a radiator run from a woodburner but the room always feels colder than the rest of the house which must be due to the lack of insulation in the roof.

Any fabrics out there that have good insulation properties, are easy to fix to a ceiling and relatively cheap?

Would garden fleece be any good?

This would just be a temporary measure untill next year when the insulation could be done properly.

Comments

  • So would this Sempatap be good to put behind a radiator ? If its like wallpaper it would be easy to do.
  • fiddiwebb
    fiddiwebb Posts: 1,806 Forumite
    Sempatap isn't cheap and also there is some debate about how good it's thermal properties are anyway.
  • fiddiwebb
    fiddiwebb Posts: 1,806 Forumite
    No cheaper altenatives then, taking into account this would just be a temporary measure.

    Anyone know of a good insulating fabric that can be pinned,stapled or whatever to the ceiling ?
  • Ben84
    Ben84 Posts: 3,069
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    I'd use some type of space heater as a short term solution. It probably doesn't make environmental or financial sense to spend much money or resources on a short term thing.
  • fiddiwebb
    fiddiwebb Posts: 1,806 Forumite
    Ben84

    I was not intending to spend much money on a short term thing and I don't think a space heater is cheap or green to run as well.

    Surely there must be some kind of relatively cheap fabric/material that has good thermal qualities that can be used?

    All I want is something that will trap or slow down at least, the heat from the room escaping through the flat roof.

    Maybe I'll just try a few layers of garden fleece and see if that makes a difference.
  • Ben84
    Ben84 Posts: 3,069
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    fiddiwebb wrote: »
    Ben84

    I was not intending to spend much money on a short term thing and I don't think a space heater is cheap or green to run as well.

    I don't think an electric heater is cheap or green, I just think it could well be cheaper and greener than temporary insulation.

    I'm wondering what is the potential embodied energy of the insulation. These figures can be very high for some materials. Insulation doesn't save energy from day one, it can have a long pay back time in energy terms.

    Also, what does the insulation cost. Even at a seemingly modest £2 a square meter it would add up fast. My fairly small room at about 3m x 8m would cost around £50, which represents a lot of potential energy from an electric heater. Easily a lot more than temporary insulation would save over the next few weeks.

    Another concern is what to do with it when you're finished using it. Will it ever be useful again, or could it end up in the landfill having only ever been used for a few weeks.

    To actually save money and be environmentally sound in a short space of time, I expect it would have to be unusually cheap, yet surprisingly good at insulating, and it would ideally have a good use when you're finished with it. Hopefully there is such a material, but I can't think of one.
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460
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    This is just me thinking aloud. But what about buying some loft insulation - I saw some at Homebase made from recycled plastic bottles, so no fluff to fall down. That could be stapled to the ceiling, and then re-used in the loft next year? It would have tiny little tears in it from pulling it off the staples, but that could be fixed by gluing in an extra little clump, surely?

    Hope this helps.
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 16,073
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    You may already have solved this, but I've recently insulated my utility room (flat roofed) ceiling ... and now it is snowing, I can see the results!

    As the ceiling was made of concrete asbestos panels, we couldn't drill into it. So we have glued (making sure it was clean and dry) thick panels of foil coated polysterene (please don't comment on the environmental credentials of the materials... I couldn't find a way of getting sheeps' wool stuck to the ceiling :rolleyes: ) to the ceiling. We've taped the joins and painted them with problem-solving paint followed by emulsion. It's by no means perfect, but I can clearly see that (with the exception of one spot where we couldn't get much insulation between the pipes and the roof) it has worked, as the snow has hardly melted at all.
  • You could go with expanding foam depending if the void between the rafters are already insulated with rock wool of sorts drilling holes at even spaces the going round and filling the space with the foam
    Probally not the most cheap option but it would be cheaper than ripping the ceiling down but it would be the most effective option with the low heat transfer of foam.
    The other thing would be the radiator size for the room
    Check the btu's required for the room
    http://www.radcalcs.com/
    check a radiator stockists catalogue for the btu's * for a particular size radiator
    *you may have to calculate to Kws to find a radiator
    + the web site doesn't take account for the roof so take the roof as an additional external wall
    I find a few places I go to have undersized radiators
  • You could go with expanding foam depending if the void between the rafters are already insulated with rock wool of sorts drilling holes at even spaces the going round and filling the space with the foam

    What's the effect on twin and earth cables for lighting when you do this?
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