What is the best way to top up loft insulation

[Ostreger]

Hi
A long question here, I'm afraid. Thanks in advance to reading / responding!

I have a large loft space which has a layer of fiberglass insulation ~ 5cm, covered with a layer of some kind of paper pellet. This comes to around 2cm below the top of the joists. There's a few random electricity cables around, which appear to have been installed with little regard for anything except the lights they serve. The hot water tank is in the loft, and well insulated, but there are some copper pipes exposed

I would like to top up the insulation and then board the loft so I can store stuff in it. I've a few questions around this.....

- I am planning to top up the insulation rather than remove and replace. Is this the best approach?
- assuming I do top up, there's only ~ 2cm until I hit the top of the joists, so I think I should use more loose material, rather than the glass wool I've seen in DIY stores. Is this the correct approach? My other option is to use glass wool, and that would need to be compressed to get the boards on top
- I'll board at joist level. What do I need to do with the electricity cables? They are recent additions (ie insulated), and I think it should be ok to lay them in the insulation and channel into the joists. Can you tell me if this might cause a fire hazard? SHould I ensure all electricity cables are above the boarding?
- In the bathroom below the loft I have ceiling halogen lights. I think they probably get quite hot. Should I leave these exposed so that air can circulate? I was thinking about creating a breathing space around them using batons, but boarding over them. Any comments?

I'd like to make all of this as easy as possible, as I'll be doing this in limited spare time, and won't have legions of support

Cheers
Sarah

[grahamw01]

Hi Sarah, did you get anywhere with insulating your loft, I'm thinking about doing the same but wasn't sure where to start. I've been looking at some insulation from Wikes and I wanted to put some boards down also. I'm not sure whether I need to leave a gap between the insulation and the boards. Can I just screw the boards to the rafters, and have the boards hold the insulation down

Thanks for any help
Graham

[Deluks]

You can both find all the answers you need by searching in the last couple of pages in this section of the forum (the floor,stairs and loft section)

[breezer]

grahamw01, i hate to tell you this, but Sarah only ever made 3 posts all on the same day, back in 2006, i doubt you will get a reply

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 02:00

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