Re-insulating and flooring loft

[DeeOhh123]

I am in a council home and have some worries about the insulation in the loft. There is a new layer of insulation that has been placed running across the joists rather than between them and the old insulation has been left in underneath aswell (the old layer is the correct way). I would like to re-insulate the loft and lay a floor up there aswell.

There is also a wall of some sort that isn't a dividing wall as far as I can see as there is no access over the other side and there is an actual dividing wall on the other side of it where the end of the house is and besides a section roughly 1'6" wide in the middle where I presume the floo for the gas fire is it only reaches to waist height and stops roughly 3' short of the front and back wall of the house which presents a problem for getting to half of the loft space to re-insulate because of not being able to see the rafters when having to climb over it.

Can anyone give advice as to how to remove and dispose of the old layers of insulation and lay the new one safely and whether or not the part wall thats in the way can be removed (without touching the floo obviously I don't much fancy suffocating myself and my family) whilst not treading on any toes with the council.

 

[Chukka63]

pics would be useful.the current insulation is laid in accordance to todays way of thinking according to building control

 

[DeeOhh123]

will try to get pics tomorrow and I don't get how it's meant to be laid that way as going across the joists defies the point of having it cut to the standard sizes of the gaps between the joists.

 

[mointainwalker]

Your initial insulation would have been laid when standards required as little as 50/100 mm, so there was no problem fitting it between the joists.

Since current standards are much higher and fuel is much more expensive, the amount needed exceeds the height of standard joists and the extra is laid on top.

Laying it perpendicular to the joists avoids lining up all the edges of the rolls and minimises the number of gaps ( with resultant heat-loss ) that you will have.

As for cutting it to standard joist-width, well it's got to be cut to some size, hasn't it and so the standard width is as good as any, but you will also find 60 cm and 120 cm if you wanted to look.

 

[Chukka63]

i hate precut insulation,its a pain in the arse.and how hard is it to cut anyway?.