Insulating a room in the eaves

[Lusi83]

Any problem with just pushing mineral wool insulation or those polystrene boards between the joists of a plasterboard wall in a room built in the eaves? Want the simplest, cheapest temporary solution...

Currently have netted up insulation roll (yellow in drawing) between rafters with a 50mm gap behind ..fixed so that there is air flow from the soffit. sloping ceiling bit almost touches rafters -so have that foil bubble wrap stuff between the rafters on the outside of ceiling (blue in drawing).

Untitled

• Lusi83
• 20 Jan 2011
• 1

The 'cupboard' is freezing -and so is the room...
There is little insulation under the floor in the storage cupboard (boarded) - the room underneath is cold too. Also under the bath is open to this cupboard - thinking about covering the end with a board (insulated)?.
End walls are outside ones (I think with cavity wall insulation)

Also inside the room one of the outside walls is batoned and plasterboarded - could I make a small hole in the top and fill with expanding (fire safe) foam? can't seem to get any other access to it...

Any advice/ideas appreciated....

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Re-write your whole thread and make it a bit clearer please, it hardly makes sense!

 

[foxhole]

Agree, the words mucking fuddle come to mind.

 

[Lusi83]

Sorry - Ok I'll try and be clearer - was actually trying to simplify it
Have annotated drawing -hopefully making it clearer ...
First a funny shaped house with an uneven pitched roof - this is one room wide bit that sticks out - a normal sized room downstairs and upstairs was a tiny bathroom (with attic area above) and effectively a second attic storage area .
Bathroom has been extended (by dodgy DIYer) into the storage area -it is a weird shape. And it is freezing in there....

Ideally the whole lot needs to be redone...so just want to do the best I can for now without spending too much or re plasterboarding etc.

So I netted up insulation to the rafters in the 'cupboard', lined the sloping ceiling bit with the foil bubblewrap stuff (gap from sloped part of bathroom ceiling to underside of roof is only approx 5cm) and joined it onto the insulation in attic -with a gap behind to allow air flow (thought it might direct and encourage good airflow -suspect the extension might have interfered with the normal eave to eave flow). Supposedly this made an insulated box around the 'cupboard' and the bathroom...

but it is still cold...and very draughty in the 'cupboard'.

I think I should leave the 'insulated box' as it is...but add to it...

So I was wondering if I could just stuff/net mineral roll or cheap board insulation (where I can- some areas won't be possible) onto the plasterboard walls of the actual bathroom area (worried about waterproof membranes???? -don't know if that would be relevant in this case).

The 'cupboard' floor is partially boarded with the old insulation underneath (like a badly insulated loft space! ) - the downstairs room is cold too - thought I could maybe put some insulation down under the boards to warm up the room downstairs...

It is hard to describe - the bath is kind of built in - against 2 walls and where the bath panel would be is a tongue and groove panel with a tiled top - but the plumbing end is open to the 'cupboard' - If I board this up and seal it (and maybe insulate it?) there will be no ventilation under the bath - will that matter?

Finally as in the diagram there is a strutted plasterboard wall lining on one of the brick walls I know from making a hole in it by accident (where I found shampoo and conditioner that had been boarded up !) it seems to run almost floor to ceiling with no 'noggins' I can't get to this from the attic or 'cupboard' -but could make a small hole in the top and fill it with expanding foam ...unless that is a terrible idea....

Does all this seem acceptable... if not all what bits could I do and what shouldn't I????
Any help/advice greatly appreciated ,,,
Thank you - hoping this is much much clearer -if very long!!!

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• Lusi83
• 22 Jan 2011
• 1

 

[foxhole]

What heat source in the bathroom?

 

[Lusi83]

Sorry for delay - I have visitors at the moment and can't get online until late...

Heated by a Towel rail - approx 2ft wide by 4 ft tall...heated by gas central heating

 

[foxhole]

Would explain lack of warmth , you need an oversized radiator for a loft bathroom even with good insulation will be colder .

 

[Lusi83]

I kind of guessed that might be the case...but not looking to change that just yet ...that is on my 'when I have enough money to rip this out and start again' list...if interested why see brief description below...

The 'cupboard' is very draughty (eg soil down pipe is in wall there) so

Is there any problem with insulating the walls and floor as in diagram? Blocking off the end of the bath and expanding foam in the wall gap ....


It really is a complete bodge
- the layout is badly designed eg a shower waste pipe comes out of the wall on the stairs and back in again - goes all around the room - about 9m long...
it isn't really a simple square box (as in diagram) but made up of sticking out and in areas...most walls supports are codged together with old bits of (some woodworm infested) wood...
I could go on and on (and also bring up other things that I have found in the house - did you know you have put hundreds of carpet tacks in a carpet - especially near a door? - closer together than the nails you would use for securing down a hardboard floor... )

I think what sums it up best is he moved the loo cistern into the eaves (a concealed cistern!) - but didn't change the cistern or make a new overflow outlet - so it overflowed onto the ceiling downstairs - which I didn't know about (cos it was concealed!) until the ceiling came down....and recently discovered the reason for the damp patch on the wall behind the toilet ....the old overflow pipe obviously hasn't been blocked off/removed just filled in on the inside ...and to make it worse the pipe outside has been cut flush to wall ....grrrrrr....
Every time I do any sort of improvement to the house - I just find my self repeating two phrases - 'I don't believe it' and WHY????????

 

[johnlock]

dont block off completly or youlle have condensation probs yuo need air in your soffit

 

[Lusi83]

Good point...actually moved on a bit from situation here - pulled some of the netted insulation down and discovered what I thought was a leaking roof - turns out it was condensation from where the insulation must have been pushed in...rafter insulation has gone and now have continous approx 75cm thick polystrene board insulation on the plasterboard wall - and lots of insulation under the bath...hard to tell cos weather is warmer but seems much less draughty!