Renovation of the attic: the best insulation solutions
Christophe Raveau, Chairman of renovation pole Geoxia group, meets all these questions.A comfortable and economical home is a well-insulated house from head to foot. If one wants to reduce its energy consumption and therefore the amount of bills, our first instinct is to change windows. But we err. According to several studies, the first source of heat escape is from the roof (30%), walls (25%), glass (13%), soil .... It is therefore necessary in order to achieve high performance insulation that protects the buildings from external temperature variations in summer and winter, and reduces heating requirements.
Before hiring renovations, it is advisable to perform a heat balance that will identify energy efficiency improvements to achieve.
1 heat loss position in a habitat: the roof. Indeed, we must know that a poorly insulated roof is 30 to 35% of total soaring heat. Renovation work imperatively start with this post. Several solutions are presented for thermal improvement. The most classic and simplest to implement is the interior insulation with installation of a glass wool or rock wool between the rafters then covered with drywall or paneling.
The second and final isolation innovation, the thermal insulation of the roof from the outside. This insulation system consists of polyurethane foam plates attached to the roof rafters and then covered tiles. Ultra powerful, this ITE system keeps the living space of the attic without any disturbance on daily life since the work is done from the outside. Note however that the structure can withstand the load of the insulation.
The attic insulation is no longer limited to glass wool and plasterboard or paneling. Today, there are insulating solutions which also address the air attic asking drywall can absorb impurities circulating. A solution to be adopted in cases of asthma.
The attic insulation must be complete. It must be heat but also sound. Manufacturers today compete in increasingly efficient systems. The plasterboard-sound system consisting of a partially glass wool and gypsum board part. This concept "mass-spring-mass", that is to say, the wall - glass wool - plasterboard, applies at the crawling and walls to process the acoustic comfort of roof in its entirety and decrease by 2 the noise.
After the roof, the second loss position are the walls. And yes, when engaging in work for the renovation and loft insulation, it is best to follow with wall insulation.
Again the thermal insulation can be made from the outside. This type of insulation improves the thermal performance by removing the majority of the thermal bridges (places in the wall where there is a breakdown of insulation Ex. Intersection between an intermediate floor and exterior walls). It ensures the homogeneity of the structure and ensures the sustainability of the building and embellished the facade.
Two kinds of wall insulation from the outside are proposed: the insulation under plaster or insulation in ventilated cladding.
- The first solution is a complex based on polystyrene plates glued or screwed to the wall before being covered with a frame and a coating. The insulation under coating is the most economical and the most frequently used but polystyrene being somewhat months insulating than glass wool, simply play on the thickness of the plates to achieve the same thermal resistance.
- Thermal insulation in ventilated cladding is to fix a frame on the wall that can be a glass wool insulation. Then a rain landed to prevent water infiltration. Then, a wood siding, PVC or fiber cement is placed on the suitable support and an air gap is thus arranged.
You now have all the keys to insulate your attic but also throughout the house.
