Attic Insulation

Up Donegal

I moved into my new house in 2007. It is a storey-and-a-half detached house. However, the attic and roof insulation does not seem to be doing what it should i.e. keeping the house warm in winter and cool in the summer. In fact it does just the opposite. At present, the attic has 150mm fibreglass roll-on insulation between the ceiling joists and 100mm aeroboard insulation behind the partitions between the rooms and the attic space. In the winter, the upstairs rooms are a lot colder than the rest of the house and are very difficult to heat up, and in the summer, the upstairs rooms are roasting. In warm weather, I have to leave the upstairs windows open otherwise the heat there would be unbearable. I have looked at websites of firms who carry out attic insulation. Some of it is spray-on foam which is applied, leaving a space under the roofing felt to allow ventilation of the roof timbers; other firms supply reflective material which has to be attached to the rafters and others recommend foam/aeroboard type slabs which are placed between the rafters. Can anyone give me any advise about this problem, perhaps somebody who might have had a similar problem and how they dealt with it?

BryanF

Research air-tightness

P_Cash

BryanF wrote: »

Research air-tightness

He still needs to insulate, u can be as airtight as a balloon, but without addressing the insulation issue he won't be in much better position.

sydthebeat

P_Cash wrote: »

He still needs to insulate, u can be as airtight as a balloon, but without addressing the insulation issue he won't be in much better position.

His insulation levels are currently ok for 2007 standards. The reason the dormer rooms are getting cold is due to air infiltration, not poor insulation.

Dormers are notorious for this.

Deal with the air infiltration first, then increase insulation levels. In my opinion spray foam type insulation here Can deal with both problems.

Calahonda52

There is an argument which says that denser insulation in the slope of dormer roofs is better at addressing the solar gain with is a decrement delay issue.
http://www.greenspec.co.uk/building-design/decrement-delay/

Op: as you have no further interest in the GAA footy this year, also read this which deals with A/T and insulation
https://www.nsai.ie/S-R-54-2014-Code-of-Practice.aspx
Up the Dubs

MicktheMan

P_Cash wrote: »

He still needs to insulate, u can be as airtight as a balloon, but without addressing the insulation issue he won't be in much better position.

Au contraire, in our temperate but windy climate, air tightness trumps additional insulation every time.