Can someone please settle a friendly (at the moment !) disagreement wit
myself and a work colleague ?
Does boarding out your loft space have any insulation value at all. M rafters already have 150mm of insulation between them and I intend t board on top but a friend of mine in the insulation trade claims tha when making heat loss calculations, boarding has no value whatsoever. Is this true
-- tomahawk_pa38
I'm confused, are you boarding to increase the insulation value? Surely not, it's to make it easier to use the space so why do you care?
Also your friend is almost right, the addition of boarding will have a very small effect. If you really want to know then download a 30day trial of "build-desk" u-value calculator and work it out. You can create the ceiling and then the composite of insulation and rafters and see what effect laying some chipboard over the top makes.
It's a good program and I used it to calculate all the heat losses for my house but the 30day trial (and the wife's 30 day trial) have long since expired so I can't do it for you.
Post the result if you do it just for interest.
Fash
AIUI it obviously must make some improvement... but not much at all.
The 150mm of insulation is a far better insulator than the boards. The added "insulation" from the boards will be trivial compared to the insulation already there. It is really a law of diminishing returns.
Far better, if you can, to add extra insulation before boarding the loft.
Steve
It does and it doesn't.
In terms of its (lack of) conductivity as such,its almost valueless..but in terms of stopping draughts getting into and ruining the insulation..it makes a difference.
Think big sweater on windy day, with and without a windproof later above.
With a windproof inuslant like celotex, it makes no difference, but with rockwool, the difference can be immense.
I boarded mine out and it definitley made a difference on windy days.
And just to keep the wind out builders plastic sheet stapled down over the top would do. But boarding does mean you have easy access and storage space.
Oh sure. I wanted a storage space to put loads of junk up there.
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