Insulation..

me4many

I have a kitchen (extension) on my house.... build as part of the original house 20+ years ago. It's about 12x18 feet single story with a sloped tiled roof..It's the coldest room in the house. There is no access door to the space between the ceiling and the outside roof from inside . There is some insulation in there but probably minimum (20+ years old)

I would like to know if this space can be insulated and if so how is it done...

Thanks..

If there is enough head height then drop the ceilings and add insulation to the void.

Otherwise your going to have to go in from the top and take the tiles off.

10-10-20

You could also just cut a hatch and access it from there.

Tippbhoy1

How do you know there’s insulation in there if there is no access? You also call it an extension, but is part of the original house?

Cut a hole in the ceiling, put insulation in. Seal it up again or better put a hatch in. Also you should put a small vent in the roof if it’s not there already, or maybe from the soffit. Something that gives the space ventilation.

If it’s actually an extension I think you’d want to assess the width of the wall and is it double leaf, with insulation, single block or cavity block. If the latter two you’d probably want to slab out the place with insulated board but that mightn’t make sense if there’s a kitchen in situ

me4many

There are a few recessed lights in the ceiling.I took down one of the fittings and could feel some fibreglass in there.

I called it an extension because I can't think of another name for it. The house is a square two story building and the kitchen is a single story unit with its own roof but the whole lot built at the same time..It's double block with insulation between the blocks.

As the roof is sloped I thought cutting a hole in the ceiling wouldn't work..

Tippbhoy1

Ok I get you now. So the ceiling is vaulted? Be tricky to get insulation in there one would think, you could cut in loads of hatches and try stuff in different angles but don’t think it would ever work 100%. Possibly best put insulated board on all the ceiling and re plaster. Only guessing though I’ve no hands on experience of that.

10-10-20

Roughly what slope is the roof?

15 degrees?, or more like 30?

MicktheMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121353049#Comment_121353049

There are a few recessed lights in the ceiling

Different tac to other posts above but have you considered that your main issue may be heat loss by convection (aka draughts or lack of airtightness) rather than lack of insulation. If it is then adding insulation will have minimum effect, if any.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121355638#Comment_121355638

If so adding a false ceiling offers the opportunity to add vapour membranes and airtightness tape. Would also help protect the roof from condensation.

listermint

If it was me. I'd take the ceiling down entirely. Insulation board the whole thing to your most affordable spec and tape all joints. Then plasterboard again.

It's the best method without all the dicking around with holes and waffles. And you'll know exactly what's up there.

Do it right. Do it once. You can do the tearing down and insulation taping etc yourself to save costs.

phormium

Those recessed lights can be a terror too for letting in draughts, I'm just in process of changing all the ones in my hall to led sealed units which don't need the ventilation above, there is an awful draught down through them on a windy night.

DublinDilbert

I had one that sounds very similar. I cut an access hatch in the middle of the ceiling, got up with an additional roll of insulation and ran a second layer over the full extension. Use a sweeping brush to get it into the corners, but leave room for ventilation above.

When I got down I screwed back up the plaster board hatch I cut. Then I over-boarded the whole ceiling and had it plastered with the room. Worked out great between the extra insulation and additional plaster board.