Increasingly, when building a private house, owners plan to use the roof space as an attic. It is very important to ensure the comfort of living no worse than on full floors, for this they perform insulation. Before warming the attic, you need to carefully study this issue.
Attic Benefits
An attic floor is a heated room under the roof, while the height of the outer walls should be from 0 to 150 cm. Planning such a floor has the following advantages:
- the possibility of an interesting design of the room;
- reduced cost per square meter of living space;
- additional living space.
Warming Areas
When designing the attic space, you need to think about the thermal protection of the roof and walls. Doing warming the attic with your own hands will significantly save on the stage of construction or repair and completely control the process.
Insulation of the attic roof from the inside can significantly reduce heat loss, as the heated air moves up. Thermal protection of walls can be carried out both inside and out. The choice of method depends on the technology of insulation of the external walls of the entire building. Properly from the point of view of heat engineering to mount the material from the side of cold air.
If necessary, the insulating material is also laid in the ceiling structure. In this case, the insulation plays the role of sound insulation and provides maximum comfort.
Wall insulation
To perform the insulation of the attic floor and guarantee the preservation of temperature during the winter period, the following materials are used:
- Styrofoam;
- extruded polystyrene foam (penoplex);
- mineral wool (glass wool, basalt, slag);
- polyurethane foam (mounting foam).
These materials are most effective for thermal protection. If necessary, thermal insulation can be mounted from the inside of the room, but it is best to mount the material from the outside. Insulating the attic from the inside with your own hands has the following disadvantages:
- reduction of the useful space of the room;
- protection against cold only the internal volume of the building, not including external fences;
- displacement of the dew point (condensation during the cold period) deep into the outer wall structure.
But it is worth noting that this method can be used in any weather, it does not require additional device scaffolding and scaffolding. Work can be performed without special qualifications.
To answer the question of how to properly insulate the attic from the inside, it is necessary to consider the order of laying the layers. It is important to ensure reliable protection of the insulating material from any kind of moisture.
For this, vapor barrier and waterproofing are used. The most important rule when warming walls and any other structures: vapor barrier is always located on the side of warm air, and waterproofing - on the side of the cold. If this condition is not fulfilled, the whole wall cake as a whole will not work correctly and soon, not only cosmetic, but also more serious repairs will be required.
The order of work for all types of thermal insulation does not differ significantly. To ensure reliable thermal insulation, it is best to proceed in the following order:
- cleaning and leveling the base (when using mounting foam, it is recommended to moisten the base with water from a spray bottle to improve adhesion of the polyurethane foam to the surface);
- fixing waterproofing;
- installation of the frame for fixing the insulation (if necessary);
- installation of a heater and its fixing;
- vapor barrier layer;
- interior decoration of the room (for fragile materials, installation of plasterboard sheets will be required).
When using extruded polystyrene foam and polyurethane foam, vapor barrier can be neglected. Polyfoam during installation in rooms with normal humidity conditions also does not need it.
Roof insulation
The technology of attic roof insulation in most cases consists in laying heat-insulating material between the rafters. The following materials are best used:
- mineral wool in the form of hard plates;
- Styrofoam;
- polyurethane foam.
It should be remembered that when working with mineral wool and polyurethane foam, the contractor will need protective clothing. Thermal insulation made of polyurethane foam is held in the design position due to adhesion (adhesion) to the surface. To improve this quality, it is recommended to slightly moisten the roof elements with water before application.
When using mineral wool plates, it is best to assign the pitch of the rafters so that the distance between them in cleanliness is 580 mm. This will simplify the installation process when using standard plates with a width of 600 mm and prevent the appearance of cracks between the insulation and wooden structures.
The joints between the foam and the rafters are filled with mounting foam or sealant. Fastening is carried out using special glue or nails. The adhesive should not contain solvents (alcohol, acetone).
How to warm the attic with your own hands? It is important to observe the following order of roof layers:
- finish;
- crate;
- vapor barrier;
- rafters and insulation between them;
- waterproofing;
- wind protection;
- crate;
- roofing material.
First, the supporting roof structures are mounted, after which the waterproofing and wind protection are laid. After installing the upper battens, they begin to lay the insulation. As wind protection and waterproofing, it is better to use special moisture and windproof membranes.
Laying insulation in the ceiling structure
To prevent increased audibility between floors, it is possible to lay 30-50 cm of insulation in a flooring pie. Installation can be carried out under a coupler or on logs. When using polyurethane foam, a lag installation is always required. When installing the foam under the screed, it is reinforced with additional mesh reinforcement, the diameter of the reinforcement is 4 mm.
Calculation of insulation thickness
Before insulating the attic, it is necessary not only to choose a heat-insulating material, but also its thickness. It depends on the climatic region of construction and on the thermal conductivity of the insulation. It is better to choose materials with a lower value of thermal conductivity: the higher it is, the greater the thickness of the insulating layer will be required. The value for private construction can be taken approximately.
You can perform a full heat engineering calculation using the fairly simple program "Teremok". It is freely available and easy to use. With this application, you can choose the thickness of the insulator or check already accepted.
Proper insulation of the attic from the inside will ensure comfortable living and avoid problems during operation.
It is important to pay attention to all external surfaces to the same extent. Properly selected thermal insulation can last a long time and reliably protect the house from the cold in winter.