Hi I’m hoping I can get some advice on how to improve my insulation situation.
My house is a timber frame kit house approx 25 years old. It is ‘dormer’ type with the upstairs being within the roof. It is a large 6 bed house and difficult to heat.
I have several issues that I need to deal with.
1. Gap between upstairs floor and downstairs ceiling. Where this opens into the loft space behind the knee walls there is no sealing at all.
2. Insulation between internal garage ceiling and upstairs bedroom floor. None exists.
3. Insulation within loft space on top of downstairs ceiling. Currently some insulation there, beams are 200mm deep.
4. Insulation on loft side of kneewalls. Beams are 120mm deep, most have fibreglass rolls pushed inbetween beams.
5. Insulation on pitched part of roof. This gap is 6inch and it has 2inch polystyrene sheets in, laid on the plasterboard with 4inch gap to roof wood panel. Also noticed that some electric cables layed on these sheets have sunk into them.
I have listed these in the order that I think I need to prioritise them (would you agree?). The ‘upper’ loft is well insulated because a firm came in and did it for free last year. The loft spaces are very well ventilated with grills in the soffits.
I have tried researching these issues and have made some headway but will admit some confusion. Mainly to do with condensation issues and when vapour barriers are/aren’t needed.
So, realising this is going to be an epic post (sorry), point 1 first:
If I am right I need to ‘air seal’ all the openings into the loft space from between the downstairs ceiling and upstairs floor. These openings are roughly 350mm by 200mm and I have worked out there are about 106 of these openings.
How best, and cost effective, to do this? I was thinking insulation board and sealing the gaps with expanding foam? How thick insulation board? There’s a guy in the village selling celotex 140mm boards for £45 but I imagine these would be an expensive overkill. Would this board need a vapour barrier? Which side?
If it’s ok I’ll work through the other issues one at a time when I’m happy with what my plans are.
Thanks and Happy New Year.
Paul
My house is a timber frame kit house approx 25 years old. It is ‘dormer’ type with the upstairs being within the roof. It is a large 6 bed house and difficult to heat.
I have several issues that I need to deal with.
1. Gap between upstairs floor and downstairs ceiling. Where this opens into the loft space behind the knee walls there is no sealing at all.
2. Insulation between internal garage ceiling and upstairs bedroom floor. None exists.
3. Insulation within loft space on top of downstairs ceiling. Currently some insulation there, beams are 200mm deep.
4. Insulation on loft side of kneewalls. Beams are 120mm deep, most have fibreglass rolls pushed inbetween beams.
5. Insulation on pitched part of roof. This gap is 6inch and it has 2inch polystyrene sheets in, laid on the plasterboard with 4inch gap to roof wood panel. Also noticed that some electric cables layed on these sheets have sunk into them.
I have listed these in the order that I think I need to prioritise them (would you agree?). The ‘upper’ loft is well insulated because a firm came in and did it for free last year. The loft spaces are very well ventilated with grills in the soffits.
I have tried researching these issues and have made some headway but will admit some confusion. Mainly to do with condensation issues and when vapour barriers are/aren’t needed.
So, realising this is going to be an epic post (sorry), point 1 first:
If I am right I need to ‘air seal’ all the openings into the loft space from between the downstairs ceiling and upstairs floor. These openings are roughly 350mm by 200mm and I have worked out there are about 106 of these openings.
How best, and cost effective, to do this? I was thinking insulation board and sealing the gaps with expanding foam? How thick insulation board? There’s a guy in the village selling celotex 140mm boards for £45 but I imagine these would be an expensive overkill. Would this board need a vapour barrier? Which side?
If it’s ok I’ll work through the other issues one at a time when I’m happy with what my plans are.
Thanks and Happy New Year.
Paul