On 8 Oct, 12:38, David in Normandy wrote:
What "loft" insulation material would the experts recommend for my
needs?

The only heating in the house consists of a wood burning stove in the
living room downstairs. It struggles to heat the one room. Upstairs is
currently not used, but has a few electric heaters on the few occasions
anyone is up there. Above that is a very large loft space.

I want to lift the floorboards above the living room and put some
insulation between the floorboards and living room ceiling. There is
only around 4 inch gap. The joists are not evenly spaced.

The aim is to help keep the heat in the living room below. It gets very
cold in the room in Winter. There is no insulation anywhere in the house
at the moment, so heat just vanishes. Due to a large mezzanine type
opening between the upstairs and the vast loft, there is just wide open
space between the floorboards above the living room and the slate roof.

The house is very old (two hundred years +) with exposed beams, built in
stone (two or three feet thick).

At some point in the future the roof and loft will need insulating
properly, but the immediate need is just to insulate the living room
ceiling.

Suggestions for insulation material?

--
David in Normandy.
(The free MicroPlanet Gravity newsreader is great for eliminating
rubbish and cross-posts)

Dear David
I agree with Nafuk. Get yourself a foam gun - some cartriges AND some
acetone cleaner for the gun. Buy seconds of an unsulation such as
Kingspan TP10 (all their urethane stuff is basically the same product
with differnt names) - there is a good seconds place in N Wales but I
doubt it would be worth it traipsing over to Normandy with it stuck to
the top of the car! If you are sure that it is exactly a 4" gap then -
you could go for 4" of insulation but I doubt with lath and plaster
and the vagaries of timber dimensions that this is the case and you
would be better off with 2" at the bottom of the void and 1" at the
top. there will be a slight air gap which will do no harm. Remember to
put on a vapour check on the underside of the GF to stop condensation
(unless it is well vented - as it sounds) into the first floor. If the
walls are stone - then consideration could be given to lining the
inside with 2" of TP10 as well. I have sucessfully just done this in
an old Welsh random stone wall 2' thick. I used the plastic washers
and s/s nails they supply for external insulation on the inside and
stuck on plasterboard with plaster board adhesive and more of the
nails before pinking it - worked a treat. only risk is if there is
water penetration from the outside as I ignored the Kinspan advice to
batten out as I did not want to lose 4" plus of room
Chris