Am I being pedantic with my loft insulation ?

sirmarcus

Hi all,

A local company did my loft insulation last week, which cost me £129-00.

After they left, I got out my long ladders and had a look around the loft. I noticed that they hadn't put any new loft insulation on top of my old insulation around some of the outer edges in the loft area, where the roof height will be at it's lowest.

I have also some board walks above the rafters next to my water tanks. I noticed that they hadn't put any loft insulation below these board walks.

I have now stopped my cheque, complained to the local company and am now waiting for them to contact me on Tuesday to arrange a revisit.

I trust that I am not being pedantic here and my concerns are warranted.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks

Savvy_Spender_South

If you contracted 100% coverage you are bang on.

If you agreed the loft to be brought up to "x" standard, it is sticky becasue they can claim those areas were already up to standard and therefore not done, hence the low final price.

Devil s always in the detail.

Swipe

They left it from the outer edges to prevent condensation. I can't comment on the walk boards but I after doing my loft myself I'd say the missing insulation under the walk boards would make little to no difference. You really should have spoken to them first though before stopping the cheque. Won't that cost you £15?

phill99

They don't go right to the edges as this will stop the through flow of air through the roof space and as Savvy says, this will cause condensation.

The reason they didn't put it under your crawl boards is that loft insulation only works when it is 'fluffed up'. If they put it under the crawl boards, they would have had to squash it and hence it would be completely pointless.

I thinik you have over reacted as they did the job correctly.

sirmarcus

Hi all,

Thanks for your responses so far.

Just to clarify, when I state 'the outer edges in the loft area', I mean that there appears to be a 12 inch gap to the edge of my roof and I can see the old insulation, which is nowhere near the required depth of 270mm, in this 12 inch gap. I agree that I cannot see any old insulation beyond this 12 inch gap, which I assume is classed as the true outer edge.

I am not an expert in this field and any advise is again welcome.

If I am being pedantic, I will just concede and apologise to the company.

rich_jtg

I would say that it depends on the construction of you roof, but you would normally leave a decent gap at the edge to allow airflow - a bit like the diagram on this page.

A bigger gap will make sure that enough air can get into the loft to prevent condensation which could damage the roof timbers.

To be fair, 12" doesn't sound excessive.

WestonDave

The trouble is - because the roof slopes, you will need the thicker insulation to stop further from the edge than the old thin stuff, if you are to maintain an air flow from those edges through your loft. This will not make any significant difference to the overall heat saving, but if you try and stuff more insulation down into those corners, you will really regret it. There are plenty of threads if you search back about people blocking off air flow through their loft and then finding it literally dripping with condensation after a few frosty nights. They may have been a bit shorter than they could have, but they haven't seriously short changed you.

The other thing is that you never insulate under the water tanks so it may well be that because there will be less heat getting into the main airflow in the loft, they have left the insulation out from under the board walks round the tank specifically to allow heat to come up from underneath to warm the boards and thereby prevent the tanks from freezing. Again if these freeze and expand to cause leaks you'll have a much bigger problem than a tiny bit of theoretical heat loss.

brig001

Read this and decide:
http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=5873
5% missing can double the heat loss, so I would get them to do it right.

sirmarcus

Swipe wrote: »

You really should have spoken to them first though before stopping the cheque. Won't that cost you £15?

For info, I spoke to the local company before cancelling my cheque and my bank won't charge me anything for cancelling a cheque. If you are being charged for cancelling cheques, I suggest that you move your account to another bank or buildling society. You will find details on MSE.:)

vaio

I can't see any reason to leave more than a 4" gap for ventilation, sounds like corners were cut to me

Equaliser123

sirmarcus wrote: »

I have now stopped my cheque, complained to the local company and am now waiting for them to contact me on Tuesday to arrange a revisit.

Stopping a cheque in these circumstances is utterly wrong. It may also constitute a criminal offence.

All for liability on their part of miniscule amount.

I think you have too much time on your hands.