We live in a two storey Edwardian semi which has the kitchen at the
back in a single story extension.
The kitchen is much harder to heat than the rest of the house because
it has 3 external walls and virtually no insulation.
The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to this
loft space to lay traditional insulation.
I suppose I could take some tiles off the roof but that would be quite
a big job.
Is there some insulation I could blow into the space that would
improve the situation?

"johnboy" wrote in message
...
We live in a two storey Edwardian semi which has the kitchen at the
back in a single story extension.
The kitchen is much harder to heat than the rest of the house
because
it has 3 external walls and virtually no insulation.
The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to this
loft space to lay traditional insulation.
I suppose I could take some tiles off the roof but that would be
quite
a big job.
Is there some insulation I could blow into the space that would
improve the situation?

Why not cut a trap door - not only can you insulate easier and cheaper
than blowing in, you can also access lighting wires etc in the future.

AWEM

On Nov 30, 11:19*am, johnboy wrote:
We live in a two storey Edwardian semi which has the kitchen at the
back in a single story extension.
The kitchen is much harder to heat than the rest of the house because
it has 3 external walls and virtually no insulation.
The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to this
loft space to lay traditional insulation.
I suppose I could take some tiles off the roof but that would be quite
a big job.
Is there some insulation I could blow into the space that would
improve the situation?

Yes:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Insulation

Adding a trap door isnt too hard, though in this case it might be not
a lot of use.


NT

Andrew Mawson wrote:
"johnboy" wrote in message
...
We live in a two storey Edwardian semi which has the kitchen at the
back in a single story extension.
The kitchen is much harder to heat than the rest of the house because
it has 3 external walls and virtually no insulation.
The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to this
loft space to lay traditional insulation.
I suppose I could take some tiles off the roof but that would be
quite a big job.
Is there some insulation I could blow into the space that would
improve the situation?

Why not cut a trap door - not only can you insulate easier and cheaper
than blowing in, you can also access lighting wires etc in the future.

In addition to the lighting wiring I am guessing that the cables for the
sockets and cooker are already up in this loft space. Covering these cables
in insulation may make them overheat so just blowing insulation in may cause
problems as it is impossible to do so without covering the cables.

--
Adam

On 30/11/10 11:19, johnboy wrote:
We live in a two storey Edwardian semi which has the kitchen at the
back in a single story extension.
The kitchen is much harder to heat than the rest of the house because
it has 3 external walls and virtually no insulation.
The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to this
loft space to lay traditional insulation.
I suppose I could take some tiles off the roof but that would be quite
a big job.
Is there some insulation I could blow into the space that would
improve the situation?
above a kitchen there's the problem of condensation
as warm moist air rises and cools...
have you enough height to lose a bit,
stick kingspan to the ceiling from underneath?
[g]

On Nov 30, 11:19*am, johnboy wrote:

The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to this
loft space to lay traditional insulation.

Make an entrance. Not too hard: padsaw, plasterboard. Then use
insulation in narrow strips, laid out flat in the kitchen and pushed
into place with a soft broom. There's no space to unroll a roll up
there.

OTOH, you've more wall area than roof and you really need to get some
Cellotex in there before it will ever be "warm".

Make absolutely certain that you insulate any pipes in that loft well.
By that I mean the black closed-cell rubbery stuff (armaflex,
preferably the 25mm stuff).

Otherwise like a neighbour you may come home to water pouring out from
under the bargeboard for several hours (could not contact them and
could not risk turning the road stopcock off).

If your walls are very damp solid brick, suffering wind driven rain,
with a wet verge roof of tiles on rotted felt on mortar, then Celotex
between treated battens is often not so good. The wood will rot and
anything but stainless screws will split horizontal mortar courses
(got a wall to repoint from just that next year). A better solution
can be bonding 40mm Marmox to the wall with Keraflex, it is only
2/3rds as good as Celotex and even more costly - but you stick it on
like buttered toast, no mucking about with battens.

If your walls are reasonably dry, that is to say the roof on the lean-
to is good, then Celotex between treated battens works very well. Even
40mm Celotex is eye-popping going from "impossibly cold to no heating
required". I would not use rockwool on solid double brick having seen
it turn into a sodden mass in 6 months from interstitial condensation
whereupon its insulation value was zero and it froze the pipes in the
wall through direct conduction whilst it was being stripped out last
winter. Celotex (& Marmox) are closed cell foams, Marmox is aimed at
shower/bath/kitchen/wet-room areas.

If you are electric heating, realise too little will just not work
because you can not build up the thermal mass which takes 4-5 days.
Same goes for GCH - if the radiator is undersized or not zoned to come
on more often then you will not get enough thermal charging because
once it cools off it has no chance of getting back up to temperature.
Sometimes a bigger aluminium radiator (or even better the old cast
iron) can help to get more heat output in a given (limited) space.
Failing that a 700W oil radiator can help, or an on-demand electric
fan heater like Dimplex FX20V/VE/VL, or an underplinth electric-fan-
but-wet-radiator system.

On 30/11/2010 14:29, Andy Dingley wrote:
On Nov 30, 11:19 am, wrote:

The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to this
loft space to lay traditional insulation.

Make an entrance. Not too hard: padsaw, plasterboard. Then use
insulation in narrow strips, laid out flat in the kitchen and pushed
into place with a soft broom. There's no space to unroll a roll up
there.

OTOH, you've more wall area than roof and you really need to get some
Cellotex in there before it will ever be "warm".

IME whatever you "push" has a tendency to snag on every little
obstruction, particularly with a lath and plaster ceiling. 50mm Celotex
is the easiest because an 8ft strip is rigid enough to cope with a bit
of shoving and you can position it to leave space round cables. Not
always easy to get a good fit if you can't get to the whole length of
the joist to measure the width. Hopefully the joist distances will be
uniform

On Nov 30, 1:09*pm, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:
Andrew Mawson wrote:
"johnboy" wrote in message
....
We live in a two storey Edwardian semi which has the kitchen at the
back in a single story extension.
The kitchen is much harder to heat than the rest of the house because
it has 3 external walls and virtually no insulation.
The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to this
loft space to lay traditional insulation.
I suppose I could take some tiles off the roof but that would be
quite a big job.
Is there some insulation I could blow into the space that would
improve the situation?

Why not cut a trap door - not only can you insulate easier and cheaper
than blowing in, you can also access lighting wires etc in the future.

In addition to the lighting wiring I am guessing that the cables for the
sockets and cooker are already up in this loft space. Covering these cables
in insulation may make them overheat so just blowing insulation in may cause
problems as it is impossible to do so without covering the cables.

usually the cable lies on the plasterboard, so no problem.


NT

Tabby wrote:
On Nov 30, 1:09 pm, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:
Andrew Mawson wrote:
"johnboy" wrote in message
...
We live in a two storey Edwardian semi which has the kitchen at the
back in a single story extension.
The kitchen is much harder to heat than the rest of the house
because it has 3 external walls and virtually no insulation.
The kitchen roof slopes at an angle but there is no entrance to
this loft space to lay traditional insulation.
I suppose I could take some tiles off the roof but that would be
quite a big job.
Is there some insulation I could blow into the space that would
improve the situation?

Why not cut a trap door - not only can you insulate easier and
cheaper than blowing in, you can also access lighting wires etc in
the future.

In addition to the lighting wiring I am guessing that the cables for
the sockets and cooker are already up in this loft space. Covering
these cables in insulation may make them overheat so just blowing
insulation in may cause problems as it is impossible to do so
without covering the cables.

usually the cable lies on the plasterboard, so no problem.


NT

If the cable is lying in contact with the plasterboard then the OP is
limited to100mm of loft insulation.
If the cable is already lying on top of some insulation then the OP cannot
just go throwing more insulation on top.

--
Adam