Boarded loft and insulation

[WhisperingGrass]

Have a bungalow with a boarded loft (tongue and groove ones from Wickes installed by the previous owner) and insulation underneath. During the recent cold weather my property has been absolutely freezing, so much so that I now have chilblains! Even with the central heating on for many hours every day the temperature in the bungalow rarely went any higher than 8 or 9 degrees C.

I believe the loft was boarded over 20 years ago, and I'm thinking maybe the insulation needs changing or topping up. Would a loft insulation company lift the boards as well as install new insulation, obviously at a greater cost? I think the boards are great for storage but seem to cause more problems than they're worth when work needs to be done in the loft. I'd no doubt have a similar problem when I want to get all the halogen spotlights replaced with new led's. I can't imagine an electrician would want to have to lift a load of heavy boards. I'm actually thinking that if I can find someone to do the insulation I would ask them not to replace the boards after.

I would get up there and give it a go myself but have got a frozen shoulder and can't move my arm or shoulder.

If insulation companies won’t then a handyman / maintenance company will.

regarding the lighting I’m pretty sure the electrician will change them from underneath so it won’t make a difference.

Does it have a suspended or a solid floor?

My parents live in a bungalow with a suspended floor and were told by a builder that that was why it was always cold, common in bungalows, that changing the loft insulation wouldn't help.

I think you would do well to measure the depth of the joists, and the thickness of the existing insulation between them. You should, and easily can, have insulation to the full joist depth. This might be about 100mm

If you want insulation that is deeper, the floor will have to be raised. It can be done with counterbattens or with loft legs. This will reduce headroom.

There used to be a method of laying rigid foam boards on top of the joists, but this stopped being recommended after the Grenfell disaster.

You can raise the boards on stilts and fit extra insulation under them. Or maybe if you are not worried about storage you can just add insulation over the existing boards.

To change the lights you can do that from beneath. There is a tool, a kind of handle with a sucker on. The sucker sticks to the light and then you twist the handle to undo the bulb. Search "downlight removal tool" on google. You should remove them asap as halogens are really expensive !

Normally an installer will cut holes in the boards for halogen lamps because they get very hot and extra ventilation is required, but with LEDs you don't need these.

donttellmehesalive the original bungalow is suspended floors, the large extension at the back (kitchen and sitting room) is concrete floors.

Re replacing the boards (after insulation work). This would surely be beneficial, (in insulation terms), as you would create an airtight sandwich covering the loft, and prevent debris falling on the insulation and compressing it. A downside is that if you ever have an EPC inspection, the inspector may conclude you do not have any loft insulation, as they ‘cannot see it’. This actually happened to me !

Are you sure your heating is working correctly? We had our insulation completely removed prior to installing new stuff when we had that cold snap in December (-12 overnight here). We were still able to heat the house to a reasonable temperature.

Reallybad idea Yes, had a new Worcester Bosch combi installed July 2022, all radiators heating up well.