Loft insulation advice please

toby_puppy

I live in a mid terraced house, have been in the loft and the insulation that's there is all crumbly, doesnt look up to much.:(

My friend said he could get some loft insulation from Wickes and lay it but I'm wondering what the difference is between doing it yourself and getting experts in?

He is good at DIY and I'm sure he could do it right but do companies use better insulation than you can buy in DIY stores?

What's a typical price for insulating an average style 2 bed terrace? (north wales) I only need a rough price.

thanks

savemoney

Do it yourself easy to do just make sure you are covered with a face mask and no bare skin you can get stuff thats less irritating to the skin. The main difference is obvious price cheaper to do it yourself. Also make sure you stand on joists or use some boards

Cost can vary you can occasional get a roll for £1 rough guess would be around £30 at that price but more likely a lot more as usually costs more than £1. or get a company for around £250

victor2

No need for experts. Just by the thickest material you can and have your friend do it.
Biggest job will be clearing the loft first!
One thing to watch is that you don't bury electrical wiring under the insulation. Modern lighting circuits are usually OK (or so I was told by the "experts" that installed mine), but if you have something like a supply to an immersion heater or electric shower, that may have to be above the insulation or protected from overheating somehow.
Can't help with cost I'm afraid as I got mine for free.:D

spiro

To work out the cost what is the width (left to right inside) and depth (front to back inside) of the house? Most stuff is 370mm wide to fit between the joists (front to back) and over the joists (left to right) and 4-5mtrs long per roll. The more you can put up there the better, some say 15" if you can. Remember if you have water pipes etc in the loft they will need extract lagging if you insulate the loft more to avoid freezing.

toby_puppy

i also wanted to say, parts of the loft are already boarded - ie some of the joists have got wooden panels nailed to them to form a floor area.

does that mean these have to come up to insulate underneath or can this insulation just lie on top of the boards?

TwittersPVFC

I've got someone coming on Monday to price it up from Home Insulation I think, who EDF Energy employ. I'd rather pay £200 and get it done properly than have a go myself and mess it up!

macman

You can't 'mess it up', you just unroll it between the joists. The very worst that can happen is that you put your foot through the ceiling. It's not a pleasant job, and usually quite a dirty one, but it requires absolutely no DIY skills whatsoever.

Pincher

When you say crumbly, do you mean it's a grey fluffy mulch?
I think it's made from shredded newspaper, which was easy to install because they can pump it into the joist space without lifting all the floor boards. If so, you may find that it was done professionally, and you already have 100mm between ceiling and loft floorboard. You can lift a few boards to make sure.

If it's already done under the floorboards, there is no need to replace it. Just roll out the new ones on top of the floorboards,
which reduces the work.

I put in underlay and carpet on the floorboards, so it can be used for storage or as a room when it's not cold. That house is perfectly warm without any more insulation.

If you have access to bare joists, it is an excellent opportunity to do a preventative spray for woodworm. Around £300+VAT.