insulation but no easy access

[stuart noble]

It's about time I upgraded the insulation in the back extension of my Victorian terraced house, an area 16'x10'. No access from the loft at the front for a normal sized human, and installing a loft hatch in the back bedroom would give me barely 3' height down one edge. No idea how the original 4" of fibreglass was installed unless child labour was employed.

I'm thinking of maybe pushing an 8x1 chipboard sheet across the joists via the limited loft access and hoping that a second sheet would shunt the first one to the back. It should then be relatively easy to slide celotex over the chipboard surface. A bit of a dog's dinner but it's the only way I can see it getting done. Blown vermiculite would have been a solution but it seems nobody uses that any more.

Anyone got any bright ideas?

[Dave Starling]

Perhaps they installed it during a re-roof? Doing that sort of work is ten times worse in summer especially in a confined area wearing a decent mask and paper suit so wait until sept or oct if you can. I'd say its worth bagging up the old stuff and vacuuming up the dust. Otherwise you will be constantly kicking up the horrible itchy stuff into the air. The rolls of white coloured insulation made from plastic bottles is completely itch free and can be installed without wearing any ppe.

Dave.

[Robin]

And why not? Or get a thin bird in! If you can get 8x1 Celotex in then you can get a body in.

I've put insulation between and over the joists in the loft of our "back extension" by crawling around it: 375mm x 500mm hatch and a maximum height between joists and rafters a good deal less than you have. It helps though if you can put down something slippery to slide along (eg old melamine boards) rather than the usual, rough boards. It may also help to have done a bit of caving in one's youth :)

Won't you have problems with air getting under the chipboard and/or between the chipboard and the Celotex?

[stuart noble]

But would I get her out again?

I'm very old and very tall, so I don't think so :)

Is air a problem? I thought the whole idea of insulation was to trap air. You probably didn't mean that though. A long length of mdf skirting might be a good start if I can get it up in the loft. Then I could maybe slide end-jointed lengths of celotex along it on edge.

[Tabby]

Why not use blown insulation, or if you can reach to the back with a rake-like thing, then poured. Polystyrene bead isnt bad to work with.

NT

[Donwill]

What about this?

I've also got an awkward area to insulate in the roof space , I shall be interested in comments, adverse or supportive. Cheers Don

[stuart noble]

Bit of a fire risk I would think. Blown mineral wool would be better, but there are no doubt rules about it only going into cavities. Perhaps there are other loose fill materials out there A 16 foot "rake-like thing" going across the joists doesn't sound promising somehow :)

[stuart noble]

Ah, that's interesting. I wonder if a contractor would have a way of lifting that hose in the video into inaccessible places, possibly some kind of fishing rod arrangement. Not a product I'd fancy using on a d-i-y basis, even if you could get hold of it, which I doubt.

[Tabby]

fair enough. Loose fill loft insulation it is.

nope, its lawful to use it :)

sounds liek a good practical solution. Just some 2 by half with a crosspiece on teh end, with the crosspiece sitting on top of the flat handle so it doesnt catch all the time.

I get the impression you just dont want to do the job.

NT

[Donwill]

The only snag I can see is that it will cover existing cables which would have to be de-rated I suppose. Don

[stuart noble]

But the end of the handle would still catch all the time, and how much would half an inch thickness bend over 16ft? Aly tube maybe?

You're dead right there old sport. I was hoping one of those subsidised insulation firms would sign me up and not notice the lack of access.

[Robin]

Fair enough. I've never done "tall" so it weren't a problem for me.

I had in mind that if the celotex is not fastened down then draughts could get below it, by-passing your expensive insulation.

But from what others and you have since said it looks as if you will be going for blown. Good luck with that. (Lots of people around here have had that done through the free or subsidised loft insulation scheme. Seems to work for them - so long as they don't then want to crawl around installing new cable.)

[Tabby]

ote:

If its going across joists, 16" or so, half inch doesnt bend much. If along joists, the pusher head will sit on the joists, and I'd probably add a 2nd pusher head at 8'. It would surely run better if the leading edges were rounded over. If no router, just flicking it up slightly does the job. You can do that with half inch wood better than you could with ali tube.

If you qualify for a govt grant, great.

NT

[george [dicegeorge]]

Make a bigger access hole. I've got a long thin hole between two joists and I can almost get 4x8 boards up it, a coffin hatch some call it.

[g]

[Dave Liquorice]

Maybe because any draught in the space moves it about into a big heap in one corner. B-)

Make the access from the loft at the front big enough for a "normal human"? 3' of head romm isn't great but is more than enough to crawl about in.

[Robin]

Surveys are free. Eg

[stuart noble]

I think I'd be removing seriously structural timber if I did that

[stuart noble]

Only the "grant" it seems we're all entitled to whereby they lay £50 worth of insulation and charge you £199. I'm a couple of years short of the get it all free band.

[geraldthehamster]

I'm not clear why there wouldn't be enough room in the loft of a 16x10 back extension to work in. How low is your roof pitch? I lived in a terraced house with a back extension slightly smaller than this, and when I lost storage space by converting the main loft, I put a hatch in the rear extension and had no problem kneeling about up there fitting small loft boards.

Possibly I've misunderstood something in your post.

Cheers Richard

[stuart noble]

The hatch would only be used to install the insulation, so I guess I'm reluctant to go to that trouble if there's another way. It's about 3 feet high, tapering down to zero, so a central hatch would at least allow me to do some of it from below. Seems the logical way would be to blow mineral wool via the opening into the main loft, but how practical that would be I'm not sure. Someone should presumably check the eaves air flow, so we'd be back to square one. I might do a trial run and see just how difficult it is to snake myself through the triangular opening from the main loft. I've got plenty of melamine chip to slide about on once I'm in there.