Home Improvement Blog

Posts Tagged ‘attic room’

Attic rooms can have an advantage over those in other parts of the home; because of the shape of the area and the effect of large windows, they often have a feeling of light and space difficult to achieve elsewhere. But this unique position at the top of the house can also create a problem, because of the temperature of the room. To prevent this area being freezing cold in winter and unbearably hot in summer, you need to  insulate your roof.

There may well already be some sort of insulating material laid between the ceiling joists. This is the best left in place, which means you will either have to extend the present heating system into the loft or provide an extra, separate source of heat for this area. You should also install roof insulation to conserve warmth in water and provide a surface which will reflect the powerful rays of the sun in summer, since plain black roof tiles will absorb the heat and pass it through to the attic room. There are three ways of doing this; you can fix a layer of glass fibre or expanded polystyrene between the rafters and cover this with aluminium or foil-backed plasterboard nailed to the underside of the rafters; you can tape aluminum foil between the rafters and fix insulating board on top; or you can fix aluminium or foil-backed plasterboard and cover this with specially made insulating tiles which you can decorate.

It is a good idea to have the new windows or skylights double-glazed for extra protection; but make sure you comply with the Building Regulations concerning ventilation if you install windows which will not open.

Hare are some Power Tools you might consider in Home Planning.

Heating
It is unlikely the heating system installed to cope with the original size of your home will stand the additional burden of heating the loft without showing considerable strain and you will probably have to provide a separate system. In addition you may appreciate a totally separate system if the loft will get only occasional use. Some of the methods of space heating would be suitable in the loft, such as gas-fired warm air or electric ceiling panels. Read the rest of this entry »