An open-joisted garage that was as cold as outside, and taking the heat out of the rooms around it. Insulated between the joists, foil vapour layer, battens and plasterboard: a proper warm ceiling, done by joiners.
A block-built garage in Dunfermline with an open timber ceiling: joists, a roof above, and nothing between the two. Garages like this are cold in winter and damp-feeling all year, and when there's a room above or a house wall alongside, they pull heat straight out of the living space.
The owners wanted a usable, warm space. That means doing the ceiling properly: insulation, a vapour layer so condensation doesn't form in the roof, and a finished board ceiling.
Mineral wool fitted snugly between every joist across the whole ceiling, with no gaps at the edges or around fittings.
A reflective foil layer fixed across the underside of the joists and taped at the joins. It stops warm, moist air getting up into the cold roof space, and the foil adds to the insulation.
Treated battens across the foil to create a small air gap and a service void for cables, so nothing has to be pushed through the vapour layer.
Boarded and screwed off ready for skimming. Lighting and the door motor worked around, with timber framing started on the walls for the next stage.
Insulation in between every joist.
Foil vapour layer taped and battened, ready for board.
Put insulation in a garage ceiling without a vapour layer and warm, damp air from inside finds its way into the cold roof above and condenses on the timbers. That's how you end up with black mould and rot you can't see. The foil layer and batten gap is the bit that makes it last, and it's the bit that gets skipped.
It's the same thinking we use on room-in-roof insulation and internal walls: warm side sealed, cold side ventilated, joinery finished.
Dunfermline, Rosyth, Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes and the rest of Fife are half an hour over the bridge from our base. Our Fife page · Loft insulation in Fife · Cavity wall insulation in Fife
Garages, conversions, garden rooms and extensions with cold ceilings are all the same job. Free survey, written quote. Call 0800 069 9339.
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