Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[tunnie]

At the end of the house, we have a conservatory. It has the usual issues of hot in the summer, cold in winter.

Now in an ideal world, I would bash the thing down and do it right with a full beans extension like MarksDTM has done. My issue is with Little Miss T being 18 months old, a Wedding next year and other things, I don't have £15-30k kicking around.  To top it off this is not a long term house, maybe 3 or 4 years more and we may look at getting something bigger if we can.

Another option was more heaters, but that's like using a blow torch to stop a colander leaking water. A battle you will never win...

So I stumbled across few sites offering insulation. Looks fairly straight forward, using something like super quilt:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/ybs-superquilt-multilayer-insulation-1-5-x-10m/68120

You line the roof with this, fix batterns then Plasterboard it.

 

This appeals greatly as one side of the conservatory is the garage wall, so doing this, plus plastering the current brick exposed wall would really make it feel more linked to the house.

These image sums it up almost exactly what I am considering....

http://res.cloudinary.com/conservatory-roof-insulation/image/upload/v1424270388/insulation-process/3.jpg

http://inceil.co.uk/images/home/example-6.jpg

Has anyone done this?

It does not look *that* hard? Insulate up top, not sure what its held up with first, but then just put some batterns up and board over it?

Any ideas cost wise? At approx guess I'd say the conservatory is 15ft Wide and 10feet long.

Looks like DIY or employing a joiner would be far cheaper way and sourcing materials myself. Rather than external company doing everything.

Thoughts?

[05omegav6]

What does doing that add in weight terms to the roof

Be better off painting the top with solar reflective paint... or replacing the glass with some Scandinavian ultra efficient glass

Of course flattening it and starting fresh would make more sense

[tunnie]

I'd love to flatten it, but no budget for that.

Well I could flatten it, but no budget to re-build 

Quite a few companies offer it, so assume these roofs can take that weight 

[Marks DTM Calib]

There are a few options about at the moment, by far the best are the replacement light weight roof setups.

What your photos show are a quilt plus some poorly positioned battens then plasterboard, not sure how the roof vents and manages the condensate with that (I imagine you could get damp bits at the bottom edges and plasterboard staining.

An Option I looked at was to counter batten the roof supports with 25mm x 25mm wood and fit 25mm Kingspan (you can get a white backed one instead of silver foil to improve the look from outside or install a vapour barrier of some sort first) in between the battens, over this you place 37.5mm insulated plasterboard.

This method allowed an air space between the polycarbonate and the insulation which with some basic mods can be vented to manage condensate.

Cost estimate DIY, probably about 20-25 per square meter of ceiling space, all depends if you want the plasterboard skimming.

Weight wise it adds very little weight.

[tunnie]

Hi Mark,

Was hoping you would respond 

Yes looking to skim the plasterboard, as well as the brick to make it all look neat.

I'm just trying to picture what you describe...


Is it this:



Or more like this?

[Marks DTM Calib]

First one 

Second one, as per the quilt version, total ignores the condensation facts!

[tunnie]

First one 

Thanks 

Would you say this makes a significant improvement to holding heat and cool in the summer?

[Marks DTM Calib]

It will do, restricts heat in and reduces heat out, maybe 20% improvement on losses?

Trick is to maximise the amount of insulation you fit, this will be dependent on the distance available between the top of the windows and the bottom of the roof bars (there is usually a plastic trim piece of circa 100-200mm runs around the top).

Increase the insulation thickness as much as possible to reduce losses, e.g. if the distance is circa 150mm then use 50mm battens with 50mm insulation between and 37.5mm insulated plasterboard (this is made up of 37.5mm insulation and 12.5mm plasterboard so is 50mm over all).

[tunnie]

It will do, restricts heat in and reduces heat out,

Trick is to maximise the amount of insulation you fit, this will be dependent on the distance available between the top of the windows and the bottom of the roof bars (there is usually a plastic trim piece of circa 100-200mm runs around the top).

Increase the insulation thickness as much as possible to reduce losses, e.g. if the distance is circa 150mm then use 50mm battens with 50mm insulation between and 37.5mm insulated plasterboard (this is made up of 37.5mm insulation and 12.5mm plasterboard so is 50mm over all).

Only 20% improvement than currently all glass roof? 

I'll take some photos of my exact setup at the weekend for your thoughts if that is ok?

Can I ask:

1) Does it need to be done in smaller squares, can you do use the 25mm batterns and follow the current joists in the conservatory roof? Thus giving you longer 'strips' of kingspan?

(section of this kingspan which is the width and length of the window pannel) Or is it better to do it in smaller sections?

2) Can I also ask how this kingspan fits/holds to the batterns? Assume it's only temp, as afterwards the plasterboard will hold it up? Because you need to maintain a gap between the king span and the roof glass? Or can they touch?

Thanks again for all advice, very much appreciated 

[Marks DTM Calib]

Yes, only circa 20% based on:



It may of course be more but is dependent on how well insulted the rest is (as you may be losing 50% of your heat out the roof because the walls and floors are already well insulated..)


You can do it in huge sheets but (2.4m x 1.2m), there needs to be enough batten to support the plasterboard (the insulation weighs nothing!) and the insulation should be cut to be snug, you can bang a bit of expanding foam in and then trim it to secure it if needed.

The battens need to be fixed at 90 degrees to the roof supports and the insulation between them, you have to maintain an air gap between the insulation and the roof 

The battens want to be spaced such that the plasterboard edges meet on a batten .

[tunnie]

Yes understand what you mean on the batterns, reason for asking is huge chunk of the roof is simple straight lean to "strips".

If the battern runs the length of the current "beam" that separates the glass panels, that should give enough support? I think I need to provide photos of my exact setup.

Ohh yeah the floor, that was shit on insulation. It's got same floor boards as rest of the down stairs, but in the conservatory the floor was freezing. So we put underlay and carpet/rugs on top. Which has made it much better. Not ideal, but good enough for now.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Yes understand what you mean on the batterns, reason for asking is huge chunk of the roof is simple straight lean to "strips".

If the battern runs the length of the current "beam" that separates the glass panels, that should give enough support? I think I need to provide photos of my exact setup.

Ohh yeah the floor, that was shit on insulation. It's got same floor boards as rest of the down stairs, but in the conservatory the floor was freezing. So we put underlay and carpet/rugs on top. Which has made it much better. Not ideal, but good enough for now.

Cough COUNTER BATTEN cough

[tunnie]

Yes understand what you mean on the batterns, reason for asking is huge chunk of the roof is simple straight lean to "strips".

If the battern runs the length of the current "beam" that separates the glass panels, that should give enough support? I think I need to provide photos of my exact setup.

Ohh yeah the floor, that was shit on insulation. It's got same floor boards as rest of the down stairs, but in the conservatory the floor was freezing. So we put underlay and carpet/rugs on top. Which has made it much better. Not ideal, but good enough for now.

Cough COUNTER BATTEN cough

Ahh yes. 

[tunnie]

So basically this....



Time to get some quotes I think 

[JasonH]

Someone will shoot me down in flames but I think when looked into this a conservatory has to have at least a partially transparent roof or it needs planning permission.

A friend had a house sale fall though because he'd improved his conservatory and when the house was surveyed he had an "extension"  without planning permission.