I have a loft room in the house we’ve recently bought that I need to sort out and as a total novice I’d appreciate some pointers if possible.

The whole room seems to be boarded with flimsy fibre board of some kind. The ceiling then has a layer of polystyrene glued to the board, and the whole room then has thick wallpaper all over. I’d like the walls/ceiling to be plasterboard, and insulated, but I’m not sure of the best way to go about this.

My thoughts are whether to board over what’s there, or pull it all back to the joists and do it from scratch. I’m honestly not a perfectionist when it comes to this type of job and would gladly choose the easier options.

If I board over what’s there, with an insulated plasterboard, this would add around 50mm to every surface which is fine. BUT, I don’t think I’d be able to access the space above the current layers to fill it with some deep insulation as well. IF I pull everything away I could properly insulate above and between the joists before attaching plasterboard.

The walls are going to be built out a bit to create enclosed storage in the eaves section. I’d like not to have to board all of the walls too, but if I board the ceiling then what do I do with the join at the edge, where the new plasterboards would meet the old stuff? The current join is floating, there’s no joist or support behind it, so the edges of the fibreboard meet at an angle, unsupported, and are joined by the wallpaper!

On to the stud walls that I’ll be building to create the closed storage – how would I attach the cls timber framework at the top? I guess I’ll have to channel through the fibreboard on the eaves and fix them to the solid roof framework?

I’ll add some photos and if anyone has ten minutes to offer any tips, which order to do things in and so on it’d be greatly appreciated!

https://postimg.org/gallery/29gq1lnxg/

You’re not short of floor area or height, so forget about insulating between joists. Just run insulation board underneath, either bonded to the plasterboard, or as two layers it will be much simpler and give you better air circulation in the cold space beyond the insulation. Close each and every gap in the insulation with expanding foam/glue, and foil tape the joins.

Hold on just re-read, have you identified the fibreboard? Asbestos?

It’s not asbestos, just that woody type of stuff. I’m sure fibreboard is the wrong name for it!

So you’d advocate removing all the stuff that’s up there just now rather than boarding over it?

It’s not asbestos, just that woody type of stuff. I’m sure fibreboard is the wrong name for it!*

You mean wood? 🙂

* it’s called OSB or Sterling board if it looks like this….

Hardboard? I had a ceiling or two made of it here, in a utility/store area. I’d say there’s more mess but less hassle in dragging out the old walls, but you need a skip and a supply of energy drinks and sweat rags by the time you’ve bagged it all and run up and down three flight to get it there.

If you’re a novice and working on your own, probably easiest would be to use pre-bonded kingspan plasterboard on the walls, screwed straight through the lot to your existing uprights. Do some digging to find the roof timbers and mark them, then use kingspan secured with 2×1 battens for the ceiling, foam and tape the gaps, then secure plasterboard to the battens. A bit more work, but less heavy lifting and juggling props. If you’re pulling out walls or ceilings expect monumental levels of muck and dust. Disposable overalls, good masks, industrial vacs.

Once it’s all boarded, proper plasterer to fix the worst of your bodges and skim.

I’d like to avoid the monumental dust and grime, yes. And I do think it’s hardboard. It’s a room with lots of awkwardly shaped corners and angles, it’s going to be a bloody state! Finding all the supports in itself will be a right pain. But one step at a time!

Have you checked the current polystyrene’s fire resistance ?

Fir me that would be a major deciding factor.

Although do it right do it once would be another major factor.

If blown polystryene has been used then i would want to replace it because that is really awful stuff (when it burns etc). You can get plasterboard with polyerethane or foam backing, i found it useful for my loft, can cut it with a saw a various angles etc. I put polyerethane between the joists, multifoilf over the joists and insulated plasterboard over that mounted on resiliant bar for better noise isolation etc.

I second getting rid of the polystyrene. Absolutely 100% do it if you’ve got any electrics running through it.

If a spark gets in it, it’ll melt and burn quickly through till there’s no polystyrene/roof left). Different/better stuff will char on a flame, but not catch on its own. We’ve inherited a fair bit of Celotex in the loft. Does just that. I think it’s called celotex. Deosn’t burn, anyway, so I’m happy with it.

If you want to see what happens, break a little bit off and try and burn it in the garden.

Some of the newer celotex is class 0 fire performance so can be used anywhere in the roof. Other celotex grades are class 1 so can be used underneath plasterboard.

if the insulation is not up to scratch – I’d be checking the quality of the rest of the structure before doing anything else – its hard to tell from the pics what work has been done

Look on Celotex website for information how to fix plasterboard bonded insulation. I would add caution as others have done about anything fibre based that is old. If in doubt get it tested. Asbestos fibre was still used in the construction industry up to year 2000. Polystyrene under wallpaper was used a lot in the 70s to ‘insulate’ rooms. I’d remove it I were you, maybe don’t use a heat gun though.