insulation

[max001]

Hi
Recently moved into house & a single story extension seems to be like a garage! It's freezing cold all the time and feels damp - not nice to be in at all. Want to make it into a useable room - any suggestions? I thought about Novamura on the walls and maybe poly whatsit tiles on the ceiling, but can't find novamura paper anywhere. Wondered if extra insulation (even newspaper?) under the carpet might help as well. HELP!


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[theprinceofdarkness]

You don't mention the extent of the "coldness" or the construction of the building or of the extension, so this is all guess work:-

Because warm air rises, the top of your structure will always lose more heat, then walls/floors, so start here. Ensure that the loft of the main house is insulated to a minimum of depth of 6" with glass fibre (this will pay for itself in 2/3 years in savings in your fuel bills). The flat roof structure is more difficult. My brother bought a house with an extension which he found had no ceiling insulation at all!. So what you do is to hire an ENDOSCOPE from your hire shop ( it is a device that lets you peer into cavities, v. popular with gynaecologists), drill a series of 1/2" diam holes into the facia of the extension and peer inside to inspect the insulation. Again there should be 6" of glass fibre and the cavities should be dry) if there is non, carefully rip of the facia, trying not to disrupt the drip sealed edge( to the gutter), Cut up your glass fibre into say 2' x 2' squares and push it into the cavities between the joists, right up to the house wall, with a suitable piece of wood ( 2" x1" x length of slope + 3 '). When your cavities are well stuffed, make good the facia.

Best of luck

frank

 

[felix]

You can forget about novamura and ceiling tiles for insulation. They're almost useless and those tiles are a major fire hazard. For decent insulation you need a trapped layer of air, the thicker the better. If your walls, floors and ceiling are all solid (quite likely if it was built as a garage) you'll have to add insulation on the inside. This will of course make the room smaller. The more space you're prepared to lose (2", 4", 6") the warmer it will be. As theprinceofdarkness has already pointed out, heat rises so you should spend more on the ceiling than the floor.

Here's another complication. As warm air from the room diffuses into the insulation it cools down and can no longer carry as much water vapour. Result - your insulation eventually becomes waterlogged. It loses effectiveness and things start to rot. To get round this you need either a vapour barrier between the insulation and the room or ventilation between the insulation and the wall/floor/ceiling - or both.

While we're on the subject of damp, does your floor have a damp proof membrane?