I’ve seen loft insulation covered with foil, supposed to be less dusty and irritating to skin / lungs / eyes when you lay it. Anyone know what its called?

kingspan

You mean the glassfibre in a bag, not rigid foam…?

yeah, its sealed in a bag, like a sort of huge rolled up sleeping bag, rather than just being a roll of rockwool type stuff that you can see the fibres in.

EDIT aha, i think it might be Spaceblanket.

Yup, Spaceblanket, pretty robust when laying it, I used it below a cold floor wedged and stapled between the joists.

Also consider the recycled bottle insulation. It looks like fibreglass but is green, soft and not itchy. You could sleep on it, no irritation at all. And its probably cheaper. I’ve laid it in my loft.

And the spaceblanket stuff is cheap crap that sinks/compresses easily. As with most things, you get what your pay for. A cheap way of boosting insulation is to lay rockwool/recycled bottles/hemp/whatever and pin old sheets over – the top depth of any open weave insulation does nothing due to draft/wind over the top. The spaceblanket does this – the silver has some effect, but not much after a couple of years of muck and dirt….

And the spaceblanket stuff is cheap crap that sinks/compresses easily.

I found the reverse, it lofted far better than the cheap own brand rubbish I liad first

As with most things, you get what your pay for.

sometimes, in this case yes as it was more expensive the the own brand rubbish

the silver has some effect, but not much after a couple of years of muck and dirt….

where does your muck and dirt come from? mine is still pristine

HTH

Cellotex

As with most things, you get what your pay for.

Take note of this free advice!

I’ve seen loft insulation covered with foil, supposed to be less dusty and irritating to skin overalls / lungs good facemask / eyes goggles when you lay it. Anyone know what its called?

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/ for more info and help.

I used to work at B&Q and the stuff you’re thinking of is Spaceblanket.

Horrible stuff. Had to shift 3x pallets of the stuff by hand, roll by roll onto the racking, and you end up a lovely shade of silver as the silver lining rubbed off onto your hands/face/clothing etc. Not the cheapest though. They also like to burst which means that you’ll get aweful itchy skin wherever you come into contact with the stuff.

I was planning on going for something like this soon as opposed to some itchy open weave stuff but the comments don’t seem great.

Would definitely favour something sealed as the current insulation has a grim black dust over it falling from the ageing roof tiles and felt so would be better if the new stuff shrugs that off.

I’ve seen foil covered board – is that the best solution? Seems expensive though.

What’s best for under boarded loft areas, presumably squishing insulation down reduces its efficiency, so how to maximise insulation in these areas?

Cheers big_n_daft. You may find over time that insulation that lofts well at the start is much more prone to sinking/collapsing. Attics do get mucky over time as well…

I stand by my comments, me having sold many tons of insulation over the years and worked as a sustainable building consultant and having a good few research documents regards insulation. Like most of our building industry – there is serious amounts of BS around.

by space blanket do people mean tri – iso which is often used for loft conversion insulation ?

http://www.triiso.co.uk/

Nope, Triso is a super thin product usually stapled to the sloping underside of the roof. Space blanket is your basic mineral wool insulation, but served up in an orange and silver sheath which makes it easier to handle but doesn’t make it any better as an insulant so you still need 150/200/250/400? whatever you can get in/afford.

Space Blanket ay B&Q

TomB, The likes of B&Q do flooring boards with high density foam bonded to the underside. Or you could use something like kingspan or other rigid foam boards and re-lay the flooring boards over it.
The foam should be ok as the load where it sits on the beams is well distributed.