How can I insulate around my dormer windows?

London_Town

I hope someone may have dealt with this issue before and can perhaps offer some advice please.

My home was built in '93 by Bryants. The upstairs is partially in the eaves, with a front bedroom that has a dormer window, a 2nd bedroom with a dormer at the back and a bathroom with a Velux window.

Since buying the house, I've modernised it, fitting new central heating, new windows and doors and getting both cavity wall insulation and additional loft insulation.

However, while downstairs gets nice and warm, upstairs never seems to retain the heat. Looking at the roof this morning, I had lots of frost on the peaked part, which has lots of insulation under it, but no frost on the roof around the dormer windows and Velux.

My eaves are essentially voids and I don't believe they have any ventilation at all. The roof does, but the "triangles" above both dormers and the roof around them, are, I suspect, just empty spaces.

Is there any way I can insulate these areas without tearing the house apart? Is it possible to have insulation "injected" through the ceiling perhaps?

anotherbaldrick

with dormer type roofs the eaves voids often have access so they can be used as storage . If there is no access it is not a problem to cut some openings and then line the u/s of the roof with slabs of insulation fixed to the rafters . The openings can either be sealed over or made into permanent access panels.
Similarly the ceilings over the dormer windows can be done the same and mineral wool roof insulation folded into and rolled out, with these better to replace the cut out square of plasterboard and get a plasterer to skim it over .
The side cheeks of a dormer more difficult , depending on the depth of the window reveal it could be possible to get some thin insulation board and glue it onto the inside of the existing and decorate over.

London_Town

Thanks anotherbaldrick,

Unfortunately, there's no storage access, but your method sounds possible. When I see my builder after Christmas I'll ask him about this.

I'd love to see a thermal image of my house, as that would prove the eaves are not insulated. Why on earth a major builder like Bryants didn't do this when they built the house, heaven only knows. It would have cost so little to put it in at that stage.

System

London_Town wrote: »

Why on earth a major builder like Bryants didn't do this when they built the house, heaven only knows. It would have cost so little to put it in at that stage.

because they build to the absolute minimum standards all the time and if it's not required they wouldn't install it! every penny is a prisoner!

you need to be careful with the ventilation, you may have a vented roof space so if you are insulating anything you would have to maintain a 50mm air gap - from your description I can't tell if you are talking about just the dormer windows or the whole ceiling in the upstairs...

London_Town

Hi r_sole - love the user name!

Thank you, yes my roof has some ventilation tiles on it, but the eaves around the dormer and velux are not accessible from the loft at all. This is why I don't believe they're vented.

You're also bang on about big developers building to the minimum standard, I imagine that's been happening for many decades. Everything I've been having done to the place is to a far higher standard than when it was originally built. I swear it was snagged by Stevie Wonder too...