Room in roof insulation, with no discounts - what does it actually cost?

nkkingston

So, we moved into a Victorian terrace back in summer, with an attic room that was converted many, many decades ago. The previous owners put a lovely efficient double glazed window in it, and it's got a sole plug socket, but otherwise it's still got it's "thin layer of plasterboard right next to the brick" original walls. Cold in winter, hot in summer, bad for our energy usage and generally making a pretty poor guest room!

We don't qualify for any government assistance since the ECO scheme was yanked, and I'm struggling to get an idea of how much it'll cost to insulate the room at full cost. I've spoken to a couple of companies, but once they establish we'd be paying for it they're not really interested in coming out, which makes me wonder if it's so expensive no one is willing to pay for it!

If we had it done, there's a lot of additional work that would have to take place, like replastering and decorating, and getting an electrician in to install more plug sockets, but without that first ballpark figure it's hard to decide whether it's even worth considering.

Has anyone had it done, and can give me a rough idea of the cost? I mean, are we talking hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands here?

Sedge123

Depends how much you are willing to do yourself? Perfectly possible to order the insulation (celotex or the like) and then plasterboard over the top before getting it skimmed. If you're willing and able to do this then maybe a few hundred for naterudks plus electrician and plasterer.

nkkingston

Most of what I've found online so far suggested retrofitting insulation was too difficult for a DIYer. Would I just rip the plasterboard off as best as possible and then layer up insulation boards and plaster board? Can you recommend any sites that go through the process? Googling's mostly giving me "you can't do it" and "hire this company to do it if you qualify to have it for free"; same problem as before!

DRP

nkkingston wrote: »

Most of what I've found online so far suggested retrofitting insulation was too difficult for a DIYer. Would I just rip the plasterboard off as best as possible and then layer up insulation boards and plaster board? Can you recommend any sites that go through the process? Googling's mostly giving me "you can't do it" and "hire this company to do it if you qualify to have it for free"; same problem as before!

+1

We have exactly the same issue - an old conversion that is not really fit for purpose.

If anyone can point to a guide for insulating etc I would be grateful. The detailing required at the eaves etc are something I would struggle with if DIYing - and it isn;t something you want to do wrong...

glasgowdan

Have you a photo or three? I am in the middle of doing my own loft room. The room has a small ceiling area, a larger area of 45 degree ceiling and a short 4ft wall at the edges. All the surfaces were just old hardboard with some wool insulation pushed in behind it, and polystyrene tiles glued to the flat ceiling.

I have ripped it all out except the vertical 4ft walls round the edges (left them just to save a bit of work really) and I am redoing it all, and will crawl into the eaves space and ensure the fibreglass wool is packed up against the back of the walls nicely, and the flat eaves floor has a good 300mm of wool on it.

In terms of the main plasterboard work, this loft has a fair amount of awkward cornering to attend to. I have cut up and fitted 70mm insulation boards between the rafters already (which leaves around 50mm air space between the inside of the roof wooden sarking boards and the outside of the insulation). I then filled all cracks and gaps with expanding foam, cut it flush once dry and have taped everything up with foil tape.

I have now started fitting 50mm insulation boards over the bottom of the rafters. This is a much quicker and easier job than above, and leaves you with a much flusher surface with sharper corners to work with.

You need to be careful to mark the position of the rafters on this layer with a marker pen so when it comes to fitting the plasterboards you've got a clue where to put the screws!

All-in I bought 12 x 70mm boards at £22 ( each and 14 x 50mm boards at £16 each. Several rolls of foil tape, £25. Screws, £15. I'll be buying 15 sheets of plasterboards at £5 each, some filling compound and tape, plus I'm going to be doing a fair bit of joinery as I'm building a stud wall to cut the room into a large walk in storage cupboard, but I'll ignore that.

Time-wise I'm very roughly guessing it's about 10 full working days for me from beginning to finishing the decor, but that may be more. Any professionals that come in would be a good bit quicker than this of course.

But the difference I can feel even with only the first 70mm layer fitted and taped up is huge and I'm rather excited about seeing the finished product.

Materials cost around £600. The room is about 15x18ft, 7ft high. A tradesperson would probably charge £1k for materials and 6-7 days labour, at a very rough guess, so likely to be £2500, excluding decorating.

nkkingston

glasgowdan wrote: »

Have you a photo or three? I am in the middle of doing my own loft room. The room has a small ceiling area, a larger area of 45 degree ceiling and a short 4ft wall at the edges. All the surfaces were just old hardboard with some wool insulation pushed in behind it, and polystyrene tiles glued to the flat ceiling.

This sound similar to mine, except we don't have eaves - the low walls are external. Presumably there is a gap between the ceiling and the roof, since the ceiling is flat and the roof isn't, but I don't know how we'd get in there. My main concern is the walls - there's very little between the textured plasterboard and the external wall (or the adjoining walls, but despite having students on both sides the neighbours are pretty quiet; I'm guessing their attics are no warmer so they don't spend a lot of time up there!). It's clear that even when the houses were built the attics were intended to be lived in, but most have had a dormer window added over the years to give a bit more space.

I'll try and sort some photos once we've had a bit of a tidy up, but in the meantime, this isn't my house, but it's one built to the same spec (as are several hundred in our area!)
. There's a door behind the photographer to the landing and stairs, and we've got a wall of cupboards against the other external wall. If we did it ourselves I'd probably leave that side un-insulated until we got around to replacing the cupboards, but if we paid someone I'd probably get them to rip the cupboards out and do the whole lot, and we'd figure out replacing the storage later.

nkkingston

Little bump! (this forum is a busy 'un!)

Doozergirl

Dan, you're in breach of forum rules. No advertising. Your post will be reported and removed. Don't bring up old thread like this again.