Loft Hatch Insulation

[Topref]

What is the best way of insulating the loft hatch door? Mine is the simple type that you lift and push away from the opening. There is no fixed ladder.

[TheOldFellow]

Mine was done 'professionally' by putting a wodge of glass-fibre in a poly-bag and stapling it to the back of the hatch. I've replaced it with a rectangle of Kingspan that I had left over from another job - much better.

R.

[nafuk]

Cut some Kingspan/Celotex/Xtratherm etc. slightly smaller than the door. Glue to the door using no nails etc. (I glued two pieces to give a thickness of about 16 cm). Then cover the edgeswith aluminium tape. You should wear a face mask when sawing this type of rigid insulation because of the dust produced. Rigid insulation can be bought from large B&Qs and Wickes. It is quite expensive.

[Chris J Dixon]

A possibly cheaper way, though needing a bit more work, is to construct a simple 4-walled rectangular structure from hardboard,

3-ply, or whatever off-cuts you have to hand. Use bits of softwood internally at each corner to nail or screw into. Make this as deep as the insulation you require and attach to the hatch with a couple of corner joints or bits of angle (depending upon how the hatch was made, this may not be necessary if it can sit within existing framing). Then simply place the requisite amount of your loft insulation material in the box you have made.

That reminds me that I never got round to doing this in this house. A job for the list.

Chris

[mogga]

We have a pad of insulation fixed to the other side, and on this side we have two clips that hold it tightly shut.

[John]

I find a piece).

Any snag to this idea?

[<me9]

That's exactly what I did with mine. Some 4" thick from some packaging. Fortunately not the crumbly sort. It also stiffened up the (quite thin - 6mm) plywood.

[A.Clews]

Thus spake Topref ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

I just stuffed some rockwool from a spare roll into a bin bag, laid it on top of the hatch door (it was an excellent fit) and taped it down with Duck tape on all four sides and across the top. Nice and neat and did the job nicely. Wear protective clothing while handling the rockwool.

Having recently fitted a loft ladder with a new hatch that opens out(down)wards, I need to insulate my hatch all over again.

[Topref]

Thank You all for your input. Lots of options -