If you insulate the attic of a private house in accordance with all the rules, you can seriously save on heating costs. To do this with your own hands, you need to understand what the technology of this process is and what material to use.
For many years no one has been insulating roofs with straw or blankets. While the attic is no longer the place where various rubbish is stored in the cold. Today, many private houses are equipped with an attic converted into a living room - an attic. It is complemented by a variety of furniture and household appliances. Therefore, the attic, arranged in this way, must be well insulated and protected from moisture. In addition, if you make high-quality thermal insulation, you can prevent heat loss throughout the house.
How to insulate the attic?
In order to understand how to insulate a cold attic, you do not need additional skills. Now stores provide a wide selection of the most diverse types of insulation, but consider those that are among the buyers considered the most convenient to use and reliable. For example, polystyrene foam, mineral wool, polyurethane foam, as well as expanded clay have such qualities. If you make enough effort, you can do the warming of your attic yourself, without resorting to help from the masters in this matter. Before you heat the attic in the house, you need to choose the perfect material. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages, as well as the nuances of installation. We must not forget that before you start insulating the attic, you need to process all the cracks and joints of the roof with a mortar.
Materials for attic insulation
Many buyers are wondering what is better to insulate the attic of the house. First of all, the material with which you plan to insulate the attic, you need to choose, given what the ceiling is made of. If it is made of wooden beams and the floor is wooden, then you can use light bulk materials, as well as materials that come in rolls and slabs. Thus, it turns out that you can choose from many varieties. But in a situation where the overlap is made of concrete in the form of a slab, then in order to insulate it, dense materials in the slabs are useful or, at worst, bulk, but necessarily heavy, because cement screed can be made on top of them. If you are thinking about the problem, the better to insulate the attic ceiling, then the same bulk, rolled and tiled materials are suitable for this.
There are different types of materials that help insulate the attic.
Types of materials for insulation
- Bulk. These include sawdust, cellulose insulation, algae, foam granules, glass wool, flax processing waste, straw, etc.
- Roll. The most popular among them: mineral wool, glass wool, algae, flax insulation.
- Tiled and matte. Among these materials, one can distinguish foam, straw, algae, mineral wool in the plates.
Before choosing what it is better to insulate the attic of a private house, you need to familiarize yourself with the qualities of the thermal insulation of the material, whether it is available in a certain region, can it suddenly change its properties during temperature changes, is it convenient to install, and then use it, as well, which is also very important how green or natural the material is. For example, if you build a house of wood, and use foam plastic as the attic insulation, then this would be somewhat stupid, since wood is such a material that can breathe, and foam cannot. As a result, dampness will reign in the room, it will be unpleasant to be in it, and the elements from the tree will soon rot and deteriorate. Well, of course, you need to choose a material for insulation based on personal capabilities.
Loft insulation with filling materials
The attic has been insulated with backfill materials for many years, this method is recommended and tested by time. Often they use it when the floors are made of wood, then it is only filled up between the lags.
The technology of how to heat the attic with such materials is as follows. Kraft paper or a layer of any other similar material is laid on wood floors or coated with clay, sprinkled with a material with the property of thermal insulation, a layer that is determined, given the region in which you live. Then the boards spread, they can already be stepped on. The hatch that leads to the attic should also be insulated.
There is a version of the fact that the insulation based on environmentally friendly materials is soon crumpled and compacted, but in fact this is not entirely true, this opinion is too exaggerated. Therefore, you can safely choose the one that you like the most and will suit the price range.
How to insulate the attic with linen?
Consider how to warm the attic with linen coating. If you have the knack and minimal knowledge in the field of physics, then you will succeed. First you need to cover up all the cracks in the wood floor. This can be done through clay, or you can use new, more innovative materials. On top of the clay layer, you need to lay kraft paper or coat the entire floor surface with clay with a layer of at least two centimeters.
Bonfire is a waste material obtained after processing flax. The material is inexpensive in most regions, is resistant to fungi and destructive microorganisms, is quite lightweight and does not begin to rot over time. Mice do not dwell in such material, because they cannot make a hole in it, it immediately crumbles, closing the passage. The bonfire coalesces over time, but it can always be poured on top or exchanged for a new one. The indisputable advantage of flax material is that there is no difficulty in disposing of it, you can only rake it off the attic surface and then burn it, but glass wool, for example, is not endowed with such quality.
We warm the attic with our own hands with the help of flax, pouring it with a layer of 18-35 centimeters. You don’t need to cover anything on top to make it convenient to move around the attic, you can put wooden planks, but you don’t need to cover them with the entire surface, creating a regular floor, you need to give the fire access to the air to give off moisture. It is imperative to make ventilation in the attic, consisting of small windows. Periodically, you need to check the fire, if you notice that it is slightly damp, you need to open the windows to dry the linen material and space.
How to insulate with sawdust?
When wondering how to properly insulate the attic, many people decide to use the old, but proven method - insulation using sawdust. This method is especially suitable for those places where the woodworking industry is located nearby, because there you can just buy sawdust for a very low price or even, if you're lucky, get them for free in unlimited quantities.
At first, as in the method of warming with flax, all floor slots are smeared with clay. You can sprinkle some sand on top. Its function is to fall asleep in the gap in case the clay layer gives a crack. Then everything is sprinkled with slaked lime with carbide. This layer will protect against mouse populations. Sawdust is poured on top with a layer of 20 centimeters. Sawdust is a material that is highly flammable, so it’s best to sprinkle slag over it. Especially in the area around the chimney and other hot elements. In addition to slag, other materials can also be used, for example, flame retardant treatment. There is no need to lay anything on top of the sawdust, in addition to the boards on which you can move around in the future.
How to insulate with straw?
To understand how to heat the attic with straw, the process can be compared to warming with sawdust. Under its layer, you also need to lay craft paper or something similar to it, you can also spread the floor with an clay layer up to five centimeters thick. Then, on top you need to pour straw with a layer of 20-50 centimeters, it all depends on the region of residence and temperature in the winter. To reduce the flammability level of straw, it can be smeared on top again with a clay layer a couple of centimeters thick. To prevent the appearance of mice, you can use the same method as in the method with sawdust, or any other popular proven method.
How to insulate the attic of a private house using roll materials
Roll materials are well suited to insulate the attic, because they can be placed in the interval between the logs up to 18-20 centimeters high. Most often, those materials that are easy to cut, and which take the desired shape, are used.
How to insulate mineral wool?
Minvata is a modern material used to create thermal insulation, it is quite widespread. It is often insulated with attics because it does not ignite, does not rot, and is not subject to the spread of microorganisms and mice, as well as moisture.
At the bottom, a vapor barrier film should always be laid on a wooden floor; its joints are usually glued with specialized adhesive tape, because cotton wool has the ability to absorb moisture, but almost does not release it back.
On top of the film, it is already possible to lay minvata rolls. In the process of carrying out this process, you must prudently put on such clothes with which mineral wool does not get on the skin. Cotton wool accepts its full size over a period of about 15-20 minutes. It does not require that it be covered on top of anything, however, wood boards can be laid out to move around the room. Material with the property of waterproofing, in order to protect mineral wool from leaks, spreads only under the roof itself.
How to warm ladders from algae?
Algae ladders are ideal for insulating attics. Due to the addition of sea salt and iodine to the composition, rodents will not appear in this material, and rot and damage by microorganisms will not occur. Gangways are mats consisting of sea grass zoster. By its thermal insulation, such material is no worse than modern, but unnatural heaters. One of the main advantages of such an insulating material is the environmental component, as well as the fact that the ladders are practically non-flammable, they can only smolder a little, but nothing toxic and dangerous to health is released from them.
Let us consider in more detail how the attic is insulated with the help of sea grass. Algae are not affected by moisture, so you do not need to insulate the floor surface, you can directly lay the stairs on the floor with a layer of a thickness of about 20 centimeters or more. On top you can arrange a wooden floor surface or lay boards for movement in the attic.
Using sea grass as a heat-insulating material is harmless to the health status of the inhabitants of the house, because they provide excellent climatic conditions in the room, as well as useful iodine is released into the air.
Use of flax insulation material
Modern insulation materials from flax are made in rolls, the same as mineral wool. Only their advantage over this material lies in the fact that flax insulation is absolutely environmentally friendly. Flax is a suitable solution for insulating the attic of a house made of wood or a room made of other natural materials.
Before laying linen rolls, you need to deal with the sealing of all cracks in the surface of the floor with clay, another vapor barrier is not required. Flax insulation is laid on top, but it is neatly joined so that there are no cracks.