A house with absolutely no insulation in the attic.

gebbel

We purchased a house that was built in 2002, a regular 2-storey mid-terrace 3 bed house. When we first viewed the place, the tenants who were there said that they found it cold at night upstairs. First thing I did when we got the keys was went up to the attic. Shocked to find absolutely no insulation up there. Couldn't believe my eyes. Anyway I'm looking for advice on what thickness and what exact material to get. I will buy it and get a handyman to put it up there. I've no problem buying extra as surely over-insulating is better than the opposite.

Many thanks.

winnie the schtink

do your homework on this,you may be eligible for a grant to get this work done

roy rodgers

Be careful in getting a handyman. I seen a house before that a handyman done the insulation and never put ventilation in let's say parts of the roof had to be replaced.

Dtp1979

I love attics with no insulation

gebbel

The handyman I trust. His work is very tidy. I would just like to be able to guide him.

Dardania

This is the grant in question: http://www.seai.ie/Grants/Better_energy_homes/

This is the tech spec for how to do it: http://www.seai.ie/Grants/Better_energy_homes/contractor/Code-of-Practice-and-Technical-Specification-V7.pdf - even if you don't avail of the grant, it's a solid spec to follow

MicktheMan

gebbel wrote: »

Shocked to find absolutely no insulation up there.

Was this not highlighted during the survey?

gebbel

MicktheMan wrote: »

Was this not highlighted during the survey?

The BER cert was a D2 rating so it was clear that improvements are needed but nobody told us there was zilch insulation in the attic.

Dardania

In fairness - attic insultation is usually a low cost, high impact improvement...

OP: if you put either the MPRN (from your electricity account) or your BER number here, you can download the BER advisory report, which gives all the recommendations. Maybe see if there's anything else you can do at the same time?:

https://ndber.seai.ie/pass/ber/search.aspx

moonshadow

Hi gebbel,
insulation is cheap based on return values, ideally you need 300mm .
150 mm between the joists and an additional 150 mm going the opposite way across the first layer.
Please make sure if you have ceiling extractor (shower/bathroom)vents that they are actually going outside and not just to roof space, also you eave ventilation (along the lower ceiling roof angle) is let breath... Ie don't wedge the insulation so as to block it.
You won't know yourself when it's done!

hatchman

moonshadow wrote:

Hi gebbel, insulation is cheap based on return values, ideally you need 300mm . 150 mm between the joists and an additional 150 mm going the opposite way across the first layer. Please make sure if you have ceiling extractor (shower/bathroom)vents that they are actually going outside and not just to roof space, also you eave ventilation (along the lower ceiling roof angle) is let breath... Ie don't wedge the insulation so as to block it. You won't know yourself when it's done!

Just on the eave ventilation should there be some vents near the ridge of the roof for air entering at eave level to escape near ridge level ? See on american diy shows they always have vents further up the roof too. Would make sense rather than letting a lot of cold air in and for it to have no where to escape with moisture it picks up.

moonshadow

It would be nice, but in Ireland the norm is for soffit vents ie. The vents you see in the soffite as you look up from ground level, sometimes if ventilation is not adequate the roof felt may "sweat/or condense moisture" which is not ideal and ultimately drips down onto insulation.

Sleeper12

Your attic is the cheapest part of the house to insulate so I wouldn't get too stressed. It's something that you can do yourself or get someone in to do it. You'll have change out of 500 euro. If done properly you'll save 20 of heat. If doing it yourself make sure you don't go all the way into the eaves. Your attic needs to breathe.

hatchman

moonshadow wrote: »

It would be nice, but in Ireland the norm is for soffit vents ie. The vents you see in the soffite as you look up from ground level, sometimes if ventilation is not adequate the roof felt may "sweat/or condense moisture" which is not ideal and ultimately drips down onto insulation.

How does having only vents at the eaves help rid the attic of excess moisture ? It seems standards and indeed physics maybe different in Ireland. I have a house with only soffit vents and am no expert but only interested why we differ from most other countries with roof ventilation. Seems odd that everyone says never block the soffit vents with insulation because attic needs ventilation but never a mention of how the attic should exhausts the air taken in.

Sleeper12

hatchman wrote:

How does having only vents at the eaves help rid the attic of excess moisture ? It seems standards and indeed physics maybe different in Ireland. I have a house with only soffit vents and am no expert but only interested why we differ from most other countries with roof ventilation. Seems odd that everyone says never block the soffit vents with insulation because attic needs ventilation but never a mention of how the attic should exhausts the air taken in.

The vents are there to allow fresh air in the attic. This helps stopping condensation building up. The term insulating the attic is misleading. You are actually insulating the attic floor or the ceiling below the attic. You don't actually insulate the attic itself. The attic is deliberately left cold.

hatchman

Sleeper12 wrote: »

The vents are there to allow fresh air in the attic. This helps stopping condensation building up. The term insulating the attic is misleading. You are actually insulating the attic floor or the ceiling below the attic. You don't actually insulate the attic itself. The attic is deliberately left cold.

I understand the bit about insulating the ceiling, what I am unsure about is when letting in fresh air through the vents on soffit where and how does the warmer air and moisture escape ? Does the moisture rich warm air go out the soffit vents too ? That would seem to defy the laws of physics warm air rises, surely we should all have ridge vents too ? To create a path for unwanted moisture to escape.

Sleeper12

hatchman wrote:

I understand the bit about insulating the ceiling, what I am unsure about is when letting in fresh air through the vents on soffit where and how does the warmer air and moisture escape ? Does the moisture rich warm air go out the soffit vents too ? That would seem to defy the laws of physics warm air rises, surely we should all have ridge vents too ? To create a path for unwanted moisture to escape.

I'm afraid that you are over thinking this. If vents were shut & heat built up & then you opened the vents I could see what you are talking about. These vents are open all the time so you don't get the inbalance you are talking about.

Dardania

cross ventilation across the attic due to windage I think does it

Also hot air rises, (in centre), condenses when it hits the underside of tiles, and the moist air will drop to the soffits...