Help: cold loft

MrsChaos

Hi all,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place. DH and I traded bedrooms with DS1 in May. He moved into the loft and we came downstairs. We never spent much time up there during the day, so the fact that it was a bit cool in winter didn't matter so much. DS1 spends a lot of time in his room (he's 15), including studying for his GCSEs and he's complaining about the cold.

I have quite a few questions rattling around in my head and hope that some of you can point me in the right direction. Just a few bits of info first: The entire loft space has been converted into one bedroom, with a door and enclosed staircase going up from DS2's room. There is no doorway at the top to separate staircase and room. The floor is just varnished boards - no rugs or carpet. We had velux windows fitted in the roof, one at the front and one at the back. They are quite high up (need stepladder to open and close) and don't have blinds or curtains. Our house is part of a terrace with properties at either side, but one of them has been empty for at least 7 years. It's recently been reported to the relevant council department.

I'm looking for the measure that would make most difference to the temperature in our loft and these are my questions:
Would it be cheaper to run the heating for the whole house, or buy a small heater for DS1?
How much of a difference would carpeting make?
A friend suggested that we'd need to improve air circulation, but I don't know how.
Is there anything else we could do that would have a high impact?

Thanks for reading through this, and TIA for any advice you can give me.

MrsC.

fto

MrsChaos wrote: »

Hi all,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place. DH and I traded bedrooms with DS1 in May. He moved into the loft and we came downstairs. We never spent much time up there during the day, so the fact that it was a bit cool in winter didn't matter so much. DS1 spends a lot of time in his room (he's 15), including studying for his GCSEs and he's complaining about the cold.

I have quite a few questions rattling around in my head and hope that some of you can point me in the right direction. Just a few bits of info first: The entire loft space has been converted into one bedroom, with a door and enclosed staircase going up from DS2's room. There is no doorway at the top to separate staircase and room. The floor is just varnished boards - no rugs or carpet. We had velux windows fitted in the roof, one at the front and one at the back. They are quite high up (need stepladder to open and close) and don't have blinds or curtains. Our house is part of a terrace with properties at either side, but one of them has been empty for at least 7 years. It's recently been reported to the relevant council department.

I'm looking for the measure that would make most difference to the temperature in our loft and these are my questions:
Would it be cheaper to run the heating for the whole house, or buy a small heater for DS1?
How much of a difference would carpeting make?
A friend suggested that we'd need to improve air circulation, but I don't know how.
Is there anything else we could do that would have a high impact?

Thanks for reading through this, and TIA for any advice you can give me.

MrsC.

To be honest I would be more concerned about what happened if you had a fire...........You should have a fire door, the window should be low down, so you have a chance of escape & you should interlinked smoke detectors ..............thats just for starters.Has for it being cold........theres no heating, so it will be cold.Your cheapest option would be a portable heater.........althrough have a radiator installe would be a better option, but again it depends where the header tank is.

andrew-b

Agree with FTO it sounds like the loft conversion may not comply with building regs. However i'm not sure whether a fire door in DS2's room would be sufficient so would be worth checking.

With regards to temperature, it sounds like insufficient levels of insulation in the loft conversion - or perhaps none at all. If there is insufficient insulation between the roof rafters then any heat you do put into the room is simply being lost through the roof.

The best way to solve this is to rip down all the plasterboard attached to the roofing rafters, insulate with the best "between rafters" insulation you can find and reclad, replaster and redecorate..i.e. a big job! Though before doing that really you need to establish exactly what level of insulation is already there perhaps via making an exploratory hole.

Changes to the floor covering won't make much difference..if anything it may make it worse by acting as insulation and reducing heat loss from the rooms below into the loft room. There may actually already be old loft insulation under the floor of the loft room so removing that could help warm up the loft a bit...though that in turn would increase the heating bill for the rooms below!
What sort of heating system do you currently have..is it a gravity-fed system or a combi boiler or something else?

fto

Its probably always had a loft, being a old terrace house.But some means of escape,would be a priority for me.

MrsChaos

Thanks for your advice. I hear what you are saying about the risks associated with fire and accept that I need to look into that as soon as possible. We do keep a step ladder up there and the windows are big enough to get out, but I know that that's not enough.

I forgot to mention that there are two radiators in the loft - one on the front wall and one on the back. We used to have a gravity fed system when the loft conversion was done - therefore they are not very tall. We had a new system with a combi boiler installed last year, but the radiators in the loft were still quite new, so they stayed.

Sounds like any proper solution to the problem is going to by costly in the short term, but since the loft is likely to be used as a bedroom for years to come, I'll have to seriously think about it. Looks like I need to make an appointment with the bank. I would quite like an expert to come and have a look at it, but have concerns about finding someone trustworthy. How would you go about it?

It looks like we'll muddle through this winter as best as possible, and then try to sort it out next year. DS1 has only just settled in the room after changing the house around, and I really want him to focus on his studies.

Thanks again,
MrsC.

ormus

i bet the original loft insulation is still in place? it wont allow any heat to rise into the new room.
has the actual roof been properly insulated?
an electric oil filled radiator (dimple) is a cheap simple answer for the present time.

andrew-b

I'd also try bleeding the two rads already there to be sure all air is expelled from them so they are working at their optimum.

Another clue as to whether it needs better insulation is if it gets excessively hot up there in the summer - insulation has the reverse effect of keeping rooms cooler in summer too.

If it needs insulation (obviously you want to be sure first!), to pull down the plasterboardand reinsulate you could DIY pretty easily to keep costs down. Then get a plasterer to put new plasterboard up as well as replaster.

To build in a fire door at the top of the stairs may be a bit trickier as it sounds like it would involve building some stud partitions too. So if it's allowable by building regulations i'd be favouring a fire door at the bottom of the stairs though as it obviously won't eat into the space of the loft room.

Do you know when the loft conversion was done (sounds like it was there when you bought the house?) and do you have any paperwork surrounding it (such as a building regs compliance certificate). If you don't have any paperwork, you could contact building control dept at your local council and see if/when building regs were given for the loft conversion...though you may be opening up a can of worms if none were given!

27col

You first need to check exactly what insulation the loft actually has. Andrew-b is giving good advice, it might only require one or two holes to establish all you need to know about the existing insulation, if any. No heating solution is going to be very effective unless you can prevent the heat from being dissipated into the outside air. As ormus says, it could be that the original roof insulation is preventing any heat from the house getting into the loft. But if, as you say, the loft has a couple of rads, this might not matter much if the heat from the rads can be kept in the loft by means of additional insulation,

andrew-b

With regards to fire safety see : http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/public/buildingwork/projects/workcommonloftconversion/workmorebrloftcon/workmorebrloftconfiresafety