How To Insulate An Attic

2023 Author: Douglas Hoggarth | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 20:16

But the best material for warming the attic is fiberboard (fiberboard). It is an excellent thermal insulation material. After all, a 12 mm thick slab is equivalent in thermal performance to a 4.5 cm thick board or a one brick wall. Fiberboard has also proven to be good sound insulators that are not destroyed by pests.

Insulation of ceilings, walls and floors of fiberboard does not require any auxiliary materials or time consuming. Fiberboard is a light, soft and brittle cardboard that has different thicknesses and strengths. The slab is easy to cut with a boot knife. It does not deform due to changes in humidity and temperature. It is good to glue the wallpaper on the front side. Even without an underlayer of newsprint, they easily adhere to fiberboard.

Upholstery of wooden walls with fiberboard is also easy. These works can be done by one person. A slab measuring 250 x 122 cm is nailed with 15-16 nails. The length of the nails should exceed 3.5 cm. Thin duralumin (aluminum) plates 1.5 x 1.5 cm in size are placed under the nail heads. The nails should be staggered. Plates with nail heads are slightly heated.

It is a little more difficult to upholster the ceiling. To do this, the plates are carefully lifted and applied to the place, propped up with two T-shaped wooden supports from below and, as before, are nailed down with nails equipped with aluminum heads. Wear protective goggles when covering the headlining.

If you want to insulate the plastered walls of fiberboard, then use PVA glue, glue mastics or bustilate. When upholstering the ceilings and walls of fiberboard, at the same time, you can make hidden electrical wiring. For this, the wires are hidden in the grooves. These grooves must be pre-cut or marked when nailing boards.

When insulating the floor, two layers of roofing tar or roofing material are laid on the subfloor. Then the fiberboard of the following grades is laid: PT-100 or M-20. A clean floor can now be laid over the slabs.

Carpet is another way to insulate the floor with fiberboard. After all, fiberboard is often covered with rooms in hotels or corridors. Carpets can be embossed or smooth. The surface of the coating is impregnated with a special compound. This allows you to wipe such a coating with a damp cloth (even with the use of detergents). With such cleaning, the original color and appearance of the coating is completely restored. The impregnation provides another advantage: dust and small debris can be easily removed with a vacuum cleaner. In addition, the coating provides good thermal insulation.

The floor begins to be insulated by removing the baseboards. After that, fiberboard of the PT-100 or M-20 brand is applied to the floor and then nailed. A carpet is glued over the tiles. To do this, use the Bustilat glue or its analogue. Before gluing, the carpet should be kept unfolded in a warm and dry room for 1-2 weeks. The carpet also shrinks and smoothes over this time.

To save glue, the slabs are spread with intersecting stripes in increments of 20 cm.

The roll of coating, as it is glued, is unrolled and pressed on top with clean dry boards. In warm seasons, the glue dries completely within 24 hours.

Between individual pieces of carpet, the joints are made using the so-called pruning method. The edges of the pieces, which overlap each other with an overlap of several centimeters, are cut with a boot knife. In this case, you need to use a long metal ruler. Press it to the joint and, firmly pressing on the knife, slide it along the ruler. After that, the trims are removed and the joint is glued. At the joints, the width of the adhesive strip is usually 10 cm on both sides. After the glue has dried, you can nail down the skirting boards.

The term "cold roof" sounds unattractive and denotes an attic space that lacks thermal protection. Due to the lack of such protection, approximately 25-30% of the heat of the house escapes from the space under the roof through the uninsulated roof. A significant part of the energy for heating in the attic without adequate locomotive protection is wasted. Thermal insulation made of high quality mineral wool slabs can significantly reduce the energy costs of heating a building.

Rectangular insulating boards are easy to process yourself. Wedge-shaped or rectangular insulation boards are quite durable. Thanks to this, they do not delaminate during cutting. And this is very important when adjusting the plates. Even if the intervals between the rafter legs are different, they can be filled exactly to size. To do this, wedge-shaped insulating plates are aligned diagonally. The seams between the plates are subsequently sealed.

When working with mineral wool slabs, there is no need to fix the slabs with overlays or nails. Several types of materials are used to insulate the roof. When choosing these materials, they use a simple rule: the thinner the rafter legs, the higher-quality thermal insulation should be used.

Adequate clearance must be maintained between the roof covering and the thermal insulation material. This gap will provide adequate air circulation. The minimum gap between the outer edge of the rafter legs and the thermal insulation material should be 2-4 cm. For this, in practice, plates are used that have only a certain thickness. If the rafter legs do not reach the thickness of the mineral wool slabs, then they are increased with appropriate overlays to the desired thickness.

Therefore, the thickness of the insulating material should be slightly less than the rafter sinuses, which are located under the very roof of the roof. So, if the mineral wool slabs are installed flush with the rafters, then a fairly wide layer of air will remain between the insulating material and the roofing. To set the desired width of the slabs, you need to shift the wedges diagonally relative to each other. With such a maneuver, it is possible to ensure that the slabs in width will exactly coincide with the width of the rafter sinuses. On the surface of the inner side of the roof, it is necessary to equip a layer of vapor barrier. This layer will prevent moisture from entering the house through the insulation material.

Before buying thermal insulation material, ask what class of fire resistance such material has. After all, the thermal insulation material must certainly belong to non-combustible materials. As a result, the material will prevent the spread of fire to roof trusses.