Insulation for old attic room - what options are there Information, help, tips and advice on cavity walls, ceilings and lofts etc....

[specktor]

Hiya, hope someone can guide. We have a 3 floor victorian house with an attic room - under the eves, sloping ceilings and all that.
There is no insulation to speak of (floor or ceiling) and so in the summer the sun beats on the South facing ceiling and turns the room into a dry sauna. In the winter its a freezer. It is my sons bedroom and really needs to get sorted out.
What are the options? - ripping down the plaster to the tiles and filling it in with modern filling? Coating the underside with insulated board / tiles of some sort. As ever - would like this to be a DIY job and easy / cheap if possible. I belive there are no grants for this type of insualtion.
I assume its better to insulate the ceiling before the floor as this is where the heat will be coming in from in the summer and out of in the winter, rather than through the floor.
Any help appreciated, cheers

[Perry525]

Perhaps the first thing you should do is buy an infrared temperature gun. Use it to scan the walls and ceiling to see which is the coldest/hottest.
Then start with the part that looses/gains the most heat.
Most lofts are merely covered with plasterboard - this is easy to rip off and replace.
You need to think in terms of the potential future cost of heating that space and the low cost of plasterboard and closed cell insulation, there is no point in using any thing else than polystyrene as the wind can and does strip the heat from open cell insulation.
Think in terms of five inches of insulation with at least two inches covering the entire inside of the room, fitted tightly together to avoid heat loss/gain. And then covered in plasterboard and skim coated.
Do check the floor as in old houses it is not unknown for there to be holes in the walls between the joists where heat is lost/gained.

[bd3cc]

Current regulations seem to be:
4" celotex type between the rafters,2" celotex on the face of the rafters, with 12.5mm plasterboard fixed through the celotex into the rafters.
This is for newbuild, but should sole your problem
HTH

[specktor]

Hi - thanks for your responces..... is there any way of insulating the room WITHOUT ripping off the ceiling (lathe and plaster). Is it possible to buy some "thin-ish" boards of some sort and stick them on top?
Cheers

[bd3cc]

Cant think of any thinnish boards, Celotex type is th emost efficient and 4" + 2" is the current norm. Any other type will be even thicker.