Hi,
Can any of the subscribers recommend me a good loft insulation for a semi-detached two story family house please.
At the moment I have some old rather scraggy fibreglass material I need to replace.
Been looking at this, any advice would be much appreciated ???
========================================== I have no personal experience with the item you've referenced but it appears that some people are not entirely happy with it. I've just topped up with this:
Both Wickes and B&Q are currently offering 2 rolls for the price of 1 so it's a good price.
Cic.
Rick coughed up some electrons that declared:
Either PIR board (eg celotex - if you have enough ventilation that it doesn't cause condensation problems. Expensive but twice as efficient as rockwool typically, thickness for thickness.
Or sheepswool - the green and un-foul alternative to rockwool. Similar u-values, and last time I checked, similar prices. Not sold in the sheds but easy to find local distributors via google.
That looks like "fad" to me. It may reflect radiant heat but what about conduction? Doubt it will do any harm, but I'd combine it with a layer of wool too.
Cheers
Tim
Rockwool or fibreglass; comes in big rolls. Current standard for lofts is 300mm thick, I believe. You can often pick this up cheaply on eBay
- as I did, using 150mm doubled up.
Regards Richard
Thanks for all the help, will look into these suggestions, much appreciated.
Gary
In message , Tim S writes
But unless you are in a location where the thickness matters, no real benefit.
When I looked last year it seemed to work out about twice the price, given the 2 for one offers you can usually get at the mo in Wickes etc.
Though it is much nicer to install, and use a loft with wool insulation.
In the end I just applied for a grant via my gas supplier and let the installers install stuff - plain old fibre glass with a bit of blown Warmcel (the recycled paper stuff) in a hard to access bit.
Hmm, is my response as well.
I'd suggest investigating how much it would cost to get it installed using one of the grant schemes from your fuel suppliers or local Authority. Given the cost of the insulation, (plus tank jackets, pipe insulation etc.) anyway, plus how horrible a job it can be the overall cost was very competitive
I spent ages last year stapling this stuff to the rafters under the tiles in the hope it would save some more energy. I already have a reasonable thickness of fibreglass on the ceiling. In the frosty weather I checked to see if it made any difference to the time the frost took to clear off the roof and was very disappointed that it was no different from the neighbours. So I would give it nil point.
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This spaceblanket stuff always looks attractive to me, particularly as it leads to a lot less itchy stuff floating about the loft! What niggles slightly in the back of my mind is all the advice I've seen (mostly on this group) about ventilation in loft spaces - Doesn't the plastic wrap essentially make a barrier to vapour dispersal compared with bog-standard fibreglass? Or doesn't it matter really? I guess the same would apply to the silver bubble-wrap that the OP suggested....
========================================= I can't really answer your question about the possible short-comings of 'Space blanket' other than to say that it's made by one of the major players in the field of insulation and they should know what they're doing. We have to trust such people and hope for the best.
Reservations about the bubble-wrap seem to stem from the fact that their performance claims are based on their own non-standard method of testing instead of an available industry standard test. I think that we should be a bit cautious in such circumstances.
If you're contemplating doing your loft I would certainly recommend Space blanket for ease of use. I was dreading doing the job with standard stuff and found space blanket dead easy. I might add some more just for the fun of doing it.
Cic.
I got th impression when I installed some that there are microperforations in the plastic wrap.
Much better IMO than the loose stuff. The slightest exposure gets it right up my nose (and skin, etc....)
The downside is that it is only available in one width. My joists are 24" apart.
Fortunately what I had to run was across the joists.
========================================= Did your professional installers make any provision for avoiding wiring if there is any there? This seems to come up as a problem every time insulation is discussed.
Cic.
Aren't there small perforations in the plastic wrapper (how else would it squash down so much?).
It certainly is much nicer to handle, and nicer to use a loft with it in. but this wasn't really a concern for our last loft we had done as we don't use it for storage or anything.
snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net coughed up some electrons that declared:
On Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:26:32 -0800 (PST), a certain chimpanzee, Rick randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
wrap painted silver. It says it's equivalent to 55mm polystyrene - the jury's still out on that - but even if it is, polystyrene is about as good an insulator as mineral fibre, so you'd be taking out your existing glass fibre and replacing it with something that's no better.
Save your money and fit mineral fibre, the thicker the better. Currently about 300mm is optimum based on the law of diminishing returns, but unless you think energy prices are going to stay still or fall, then this is likely to increase in the future.
They didn't , but then the only wiring is for the lighting circuit, and the load on the cable is such that it won't matter if it covered up.
The chaps who did it were pretty good, did a neat job, no mess. I'm sure if I'd asked them they would have laid the wiring over the top where possible.
========================================= Thanks for the reply. That confirms what I was hoping to hear. I used TLC's calculator and the result suggests that lighting circuit wiring can be ignored unless you're running a cannabis farm in the bedrooms below.
Cic.
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Thanks for all the advice, picked up some Space Blanket, half price from B&Q as suggested
Cheers
Gary
No, it's perfed and porous. The rolls in our local place have a different barrier on each side, so the lower side is moderately impermeable, the upper has holes all over it.
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