Loft Insulation Ibrox
If your heating bills are higher than the neighbours below and you cannot work out why, this is usually the reason. The top flat in a tenement is the only home in the building with cold air directly above the ceiling.
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You are heating a roof the rest of the close is not
Ibrox is largely tenemental, and in a tenement every flat except the top one has a heated home above it. That means their ceiling is losing almost no heat, because the space on the other side is already warm.
The top flat does not have that. Above its ceiling is an unheated roof space and then the weather. In a four storey close it is the one home paying to heat a large cold surface that the other three do not have at all, which is why identical flats in the same building can have noticeably different bills.
It is also why loft insulation does more for a top floor flat than almost any other single measure, and why the same work would achieve nothing two floors down.
What that looks like in practice
Where there is a hatch into a usable roof space above your flat, material is laid across the ceiling joists in the ordinary way, to the same 270mm recommended for a house. The roof itself is common property across the close, but insulation resting on your own ceiling is generally your own business and does not need the agreement of the other owners.
If the roof space has been converted into living accommodation, which happens in some closes, the job changes to room in roof insulation on the slopes instead.
Ibrox housing
- Top floor tenement flats: the main opportunity, and the flats feeling the cold most.
- Flats below the top: a neighbour's floor above rather than a roof, so no loft work applies.
- Converted attic flats: room in roof insulation rather than a loft job.
- Housing association stock: the landlord's responsibility, so ask them first.
Whatever the property, the target is the same: 270mm of mineral wool at ceiling level, laid in two layers because joists are typically 100mm deep, with the eaves left clear so the roof can still ventilate. That depth is guidance for an existing home rather than a legal requirement, and it is the point past which extra material stops paying for itself.
We install loft and roof insulation only. No cavity wall insulation, no underfloor work, and no spray foam, which bonds to the roof timbers and causes problems at sale. Where old material is dry and clean it is topped up rather than removed, which is cheaper and works just as well.
Keeping the roof breathing
Tenement roofs here are pre-1919 for the most part: slate on close-boarded timber sarking, with no modern membrane underneath. They stay dry because air moves through the roof space, carrying away moisture that rises from the flats below.
Insulating the top floor ceiling makes that space colder, and colder air holds less moisture before it condenses on the timbers. The ventilation gap at the eaves therefore has to stay open. Packing it with wool to stop a draught is the commonest mistake in this stock, and on a shared roof the resulting damp becomes a common repair that every owner in the close pays for.
Getting full depth across the ceiling while leaving that air path alone is the whole skill of the job in a tenement.
Other areas we cover near Ibrox
We work right across the city. If your street sits on the boundary, these are the neighbouring pages.
For the citywide picture, including grants and how we price the work, see loft insulation in Glasgow.
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Frequently asked questions
Because you are the only flat in the close with an unheated roof space directly above the ceiling. Every other flat has a warm home above it, so their ceiling loses almost nothing.
Generally yes. Insulation laid on your own ceiling is your own business. Work affecting the roof structure itself is a common repair and does need the agreement your deeds set out.
Not at ceiling level, since your neighbour's flat is above rather than a roof. Your heat loss is through walls, windows and the floor instead.
The same 270mm recommended for a house. The roof above you behaves no differently for being over a flat.
Not if the eaves are left to ventilate. The roof above a tenement stays dry by letting air through, and blocking that path is what causes damp.
Then it is room in roof insulation on the sloping ceilings and dwarf walls rather than material laid on a floor, and it is a larger job.
Book a free Ibrox loft survey
We go into the roof space, tell you what it needs and put a written quote in your hands. No pressure and no obligation.