Home Improvement Advice for Insulation

Lofts & Roofs Do it Yourself Tips for Insulation

This can be laid quite easily and as the roof and loft are the two main areas of heat loss it is highly recommended. You will lay the insulation on the loft floor. There are two main materials to use when insulating your loft floor, one is granular and the other is mineral fibre blanket.

Granular insulation is bags full of granules which you spread over the floor between the joists, to your required depth. This is good for awkward areas and hard to reach areas. Boarding should be put around the edges of the joists to stop the granules falling into the cavity of the walls. There must be a gap of 1/2 inch between the loft floor and the tile felt or board, to allow ventilation.

Your tradesman should not insulate around the cold water storage astern and central heating expansion tank to prevent the tank freezing in the winter. This can be done with blanket insulation in hard to reach areas.

You can choose 'from inorganic rock fibres' and 'glass fibres', both come in different depth and widths. The width will match the width of area between the joists. Remember to allow for ventilation and not to insulate around the cold water storage cistern and the central heating expansion tank.

Remember when you are insulating the loft area, that it is necessary to install or maintain the ventilation in the loft area.

Roof Insulation

Newer houses that have tiled roofs will be laid on sarking felt which will supply better insulation and better draft and damp proofing. It is possible to fit felt or strips of hardboard beneath roof tiles. The roof and the loft will be the greatest area where you lose heat. If you are lining your roof with felt, black roof felt should be 2mm thick. There should be a gap of about 1/2 inch between the felt and tiles to allow circulation. If you are lining with hardboard it should be 3mm thick, and it will probably need to cut down to size. Screws should be used to fix the board in place rather than nails as they will not dislodge the tiles.

Flat Roofs

If the roof is fairly new it will probably already be insulated between the plasterboard ceiling and the chipboard roof. If this is not the case it can be quite hard to insulate a flat roof. One way is to put an extra roof above the existing one using insulated roofing boards and should be bought pre-felted. This should be done by professionals. The second way is to cut a section of the ceiling across the underside of the roof and insert glass fibre between the joists, make sure lights, wires etc are not disturbed when doing this. Make sure there are gaps for ventilation.