Boarding a small section of loft

mdhughes03

Hi!
In an effort to stop renting a garage which we seem to use only for storing our Christmas decs, I want to board a small section of my loft (only about 2m sq) to use as storage instead.

I have done a bit of internet research as I'm a TOTAL novice (read: dimwit) at this and bought chipboard panels and "Loft legs" today. Our house was originally thinly insulated and a few years ago was topped up to 270mm so the insulation goes much higher than the joists in most places-hence the loft legs.

However, just had a thought and would like your opinion-if I'm only boarding a small area like this, would it significantly increase my heating bills/reduce my energy efficiency if I lazily just cut the insulation back to the skinny original layer on the portion I want to board-thereby negating the need for legs and making me feel like it was more stable!

thanks in advance x

elver_man

If it was me I would just board over the area without the loft legs, making sure the insulation isnt so thick below the boards as to put excess pressure on the ceiling below.

If its only 2 sqm it wont make that much difference and you're probably still making a saving over the rental of a garage.

newbutold

We just peeled back the insulation on the area we boarded, still insulation just not as thick as rest of loft. Can't say we have noticed any difference in our bills.

laurel7172

We added lots more insulation to the unboarded areas of our loft a couple of years back.

The warmest room is still my son's, which is under the boards and the skinny insulation. I figure all the boxes of [STRIKE]junk[/STRIKE] beloved family heirlooms/Christmas decorations etc form a much more effective insulation layer than the official stuff. Go ahead and be lazy...it'll be fine.

mdhughes03

Thank you all for your replies...and the gift of a few less hours in the loft -will let you know how I get on.

mdhughes03

Done! Worked a treat and only took us half an hour Thanks again for your reassurance folks

ed110220

laurel7172 wrote: »

We added lots more insulation to the unboarded areas of our loft a couple of years back.

The warmest room is still my son's, which is under the boards and the skinny insulation. I figure all the boxes of [STRIKE]junk[/STRIKE] beloved family heirlooms/Christmas decorations etc form a much more effective insulation layer than the official stuff. Go ahead and be lazy...it'll be fine.

Highly unlikely, what is actually going on is probably that the heatloss elsewhere from the room is lower (say it has less external wall area) or the heat input is greater... After all even the poorest insulated room will be warm if you pour enough heat into it.

You can still insulate under boarded lofts. I put 100 mm of loft insulation between the joists then put insulation boards on top then the usual loft chip boards and it works well.

Ed

laurel7172

Exactly the same external wall area, same (recently chemically flushed) radiator as my room. Same window, even the same thermal blind (different colour!). Same aspect for the longer wall. Unexpected, I grant you, but I eliminated the obvious before reaching that conclusion. And boxes of well-wrapped stuff may not be quite as good a thermal barrier as insulation, but they are several times the depth...