Where to buy mineral wool attic insulation?

leftieM

B&Q don't have it listed on-line. I've already tried numbers in the yellow pages looking for someone to install it but the 2 people who said they'd call didn't show up.

meadowcat

Do you mean the normal loft insulation stuff?

I think B & Q don't have it listed online because they don't deliver it, but they have rakes of it in the stores. It was half price for a while.

Have you checked if there is a grant available for this? DD got cavity wall insulation and there was a grant for it, but there was also a grant available for loft insulation. I think it was about £50 - but I'm not sure. Anyway it would probably be cheaper to do it yourself even without the grant.

Don't you just hate it when you ask someone call to give you a price for something and they don't turn up? DD recently needed repairs to three of her double glazed windows - two hinges and a locking mechanism. This guy was advertising - no job too small; free estimates. Three calls and two promises later I just got somebody else to do it.

:mad:

leftieM

Thanks Meadowcat. I think I was putting in the wrong words for searches. I should have looked for 'fibreglass'.
The two guys who were supposed to show were part of the £50 cashback scheme. To qualify for the grant we had to use someone from a list. It was very limited with only 2 in the Belfast area.

Caveman_4

leftieM. I got my walls insulated with the grant scheme saving me £150 off of a £400 install. DCI Energu who did my install said they wouldn't do the roof insulation via the grant scheme to my house as they don't get enough to do it properly and just throw the stuff down perpendicular to your beams. Meaning that the attic is out of commission for good afterwards. They told me that the attic grant is really aimed at old biddies who are never going back into the attic, not an option as Cavewoman has dreams of extending.

Regards

Cavey

leftieM

Interesting! That explains why those guys asked if I wanted the cavity walls done too.

meadowcat

That's probably why they didn't want the job - because it was only loft insulation. Isn't it great to be able to pick and choose what work you do. But then again N.I. is a very small place and word of mouth can make you or break you.

I don't think a £50 grant is all that good anyway. Probably cheaper to do it yourself and if you do, you will know you have done the job properly.

Caveman_4

meadowcat, leftieM. Some friends of ours have built their own house recently and put sheeps wool insulation in the roof space. Not exactly sure where they got it from but the link below highlights a company that do it.

https://www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk

I got a price list from them but it works out reasonably pricey especially if you are not getting that VAT back on it(you do when you build a new house).

Said friends also put foil coated panels in between their rafters. I have been searching the web to find out if there is any great benefit to this. If i have any findings will post here.

My motivation for this is we moved into an old house in feb this year and burnt through 500 litres of oil in 6 weeks :mad:. We changed over to gas and its obviously far cheaper, £52 a month. Since we have had the walls (DCI Energy)and windows (turkington) done the house retains the warmth longer but as i am a miserable tight !!!!!! scotch git anything that will save me pumping hot air out the roof is appealing.

yours tightly

cavey

leftieM

We looked into the sheeps wool insulation but it was working out at about 5 times the cost of bog standard insulation. We really wanted to use the sheep's wool as we're 'eco-mentalists' but we're also skint and we have to use something. The upstairs in our house feels 4 degrees colder than downstairs.
Thanks for the information anyway.

meadowcat

Caveman wrote:

My motivation for this is we moved into an old house in feb this year and burnt through 500 litres of oil in 6 weeks :mad:. We changed over to gas and its obviously far cheaper, £52 a month. Since we have had the walls (DCI Energy)and windows (turkington) done the house retains the warmth longer but as i am a miserable tight !!!!!! scotch git anything that will save me pumping hot air out the roof is appealing.

yours tightly

cavey

Caveman, you have my sympathy. We lived in a big old house (over 100 years) on top of a windy hill for over 20 years. It is almost impossible to keep all the heat in an old house. I used to think somebody had syphoned off my oil. I just couldn't believe how quickly it went. We would have used at least 5000 litres a year and even then the house wasn't that warm.

We moved to a brand new bungalow (getting on a bit :snow_laug ) a couple of years ago. We now use about 1500 litres a year and the house is very cosy. Our electricity bill has dropped by about half - it's now around £150 which I think is probably normal, or at least the high side of normal. I got a solar water panel in July and I now have the alternative energy bug. I would love to get a wind turbine https://www.windsave.com hmmm.... wonder what the neighbours would think of that.

I'm thinking of adding extra insulation in the roofspace. It certainly wouldn't do any harm. As far as I know, other countries use much more insulation than is required minimum here.