storing things on top of fiberglass loft insulation?

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

Soldato
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We've just bought our first house (go me!) and the former owner has boarded the loft and put insulation under the board/between the joists AND about 20-30cm of fiberglass insulation on top of the board. We've got stuff to store up there and most of the board surface is covered. Is it alright to store things on top of the fiberglass? I appreciate it will diminish the effectiveness of the insulation a bit.

Thanks!
 
We had the same situation. I dismantled some wardrobes we had from the previous property, laid the wood out over the top and stacked stuff on that. Stuff we planned to bring down occasionally went into plastic bags. Apart from reduced insulation, the stuff gets everywhere so if you're going to be in and out of there a lot, I'd look at a different solution.
 
It's not a great idea. Alright from what perspective? Once you compress fibreglass, it will lose its effectiveness. If it's not covered, you will get more fibres generated when you contact it. If you could bridge over the fibreglass somehow it would be better. Anything you put on it should have hard surfaces otherwise it will pick up fibres.
 
B@Th*nG said:
We've just bought our first house (go me!) and the former owner has boarded the loft and put insulation under the board/between the joists AND about 20-30cm of fiberglass insulation on top of the board.
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Take up the boards, lay risers or posts on the joists then put the fibre and boards back down. I'm not sure you want to be breathing fibreglass when you're up there.
 
What's the point of the extra insulation on top of the boards?

My latest experience of going into the loft was to link up a camera and the dust/insulation particles were very much up in the air with minimal disturbance from us. Shining a torch we could see it everywhere.
The stuff you store in there will be covered in bits of fibreglass and dust if it's anything like my place.
 
Cadder said:
What's the point of the extra insulation on top of the boards?
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I wondered this too.

If the boarding is on stilts then I'd just discard the extra insulation - or put it in other parts of the loft that aren't boarded. If they're not on stilts then it's a bigger job to do it properly. But no point in squeezing the insulation down.
 
You're asking for condensation issues having the board between two layers of insulation. Warm moist air rising from the house will meet the cold board condense and have nowhere to go.

A cold roof design is meant for outside air to vent through and carry moisture away.

Look at the Loftzone product. It's a more advanced version of loft stilts and creates an elevated deck above the insulation whilst leaving a sufficient air gap beneath.
 
OP, how deep is the insulation under the boards do you know?
What kind of house is it? Could this have been some really lazy "free insulation" job they were doing a few years back?

Not sure how much you know about fibreglass and handling it. I don't know much except to put decent money into protecting my lungs and eyes from it when handling it.
 
norm said:
You're asking for condensation issues having the board between two layers of insulation. Warm moist air rising from the house will meet the cold board condense and have nowhere to go.

A cold roof design is meant for outside air to vent through and carry moisture away.

Look at the Loftzone product. It's a more advanced version of loft stilts and creates an elevated deck above the insulation whilst leaving a sufficient air gap beneath.
Click to expand...

Loft stilts / legs do that....depends how much I'll insulation or what size legs you use
 
when we got our grant for insulation/boiler upgrade the approved installers offered me loft insulation ..wel its free innit the goverment are paying. i asked him how he was going to lift the floor in the loft (and incidentally move at the time 20 years of accumalated items) he said no probs he could put it on top.
needless to say i didnt opt for the insulation as i knew when the floor was put in i had it filled with fibre glass between the joists and as said it seemed crazy fitting it on top but he said loads of folk were having it done like that so as not to miss out?????
 
gc123 said:
when we got our grant for insulation/boiler upgrade the approved installers offered me loft insulation ..wel its free innit the goverment are paying. i asked him how he was going to lift the floor in the loft (and incidentally move at the time 20 years of accumalated items) he said no probs he could put it on top.
needless to say i didnt opt for the insulation as i knew when the floor was put in i had it filled with fibre glass between the joists and as said it seemed crazy fitting it on top but he said loads of folk were having it done like that so as not to miss out?????
Click to expand...
I suspect something like this is what has happened here. Though the vendor stated explicitly there was insulation under the boards. I'm going to try for a government voucher as, apparently, they will do roof insulation too and I then I can do away with the fiberglass on the boards entirely. We want to convert to a loft room at some stage anyways so the roof insulation will be useful anyway, though I know we'll need to add a vent the loft then

Thanks for suggestions and health advice all. If the roof insulation doesn't work out I'll look into the loft stilts.
 
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