Ceiling insulation?

[fidobsa]

I don't know if my house is typical but it has ceilings constructed from concrete filled clay lintels / beams with hollow clay blocks slotted in to fill the gaps then concrete poured on top. I was wondering if there was any advantage to getting the hollow blocks filled with insulation, something similar to cavity wall insulation in UK? It would be good to have some form of insulation but at the same time I like having the huge expanse of concrete floored loft that could be used as storage, workshop space etc.

[Ribaric]

That is very typical. It gives you a strong and usable loft space but, un-insulated, it's like having your own fridge for a house. I doubt filling the gaps will help much, the cold will merely bridge between the filled sections. I see only two choices... Either lay down the normal fibre blanket material and lose the loft space as a practicable floor area, or put down high-impact polystyrene blocks and cover them with chipboard panels. The latter will be a lot of work and much more expensive. If you find a third option, do let me know please.

[fidobsa]

There is a third option but it is even more work than your second one. In my cottage in Scotland I put suspended ceilings in a couple of rooms, with insulation between that and the original ceiling. This had the added advantage that the lower ceiling height stopped the heat from rising so far in the winter. I'm not sure how the insulation would operate here in summer though, it depends on how much heat from the sun comes through the walls and how much comes from the roof space. If it mostly comes through the windows and walls the insulation could make the place hotter.

[brianmcc]

I have used an insulation backed plasterboard in the past and found it excellent. There are many different manufactures of this type of product, I think it was called cosy board or therma board and comes in different thickness. 30mm, 50mm, 75mm etc.
You can fix it directly to your concrete ceiling with Easi-Fix Metal Mushroom Fixing Heads.
Let me know if you decide to use this type of product and if it can be sourced in Croatia, I will need to do the same with my apartment ceilings next year.
Rgds
Brianmcc

[Ribaric]

I spot a weakness with the third way (hehe) . If you insulate inside the house then you will get an advantage but the mass provided by the bricks/cement etc will still be cold. This means the indoor temperature will fluctuate at an uncomfortable rate. The idea is to insulate from outside (difficult in an apartment though) so that you slowly warm the mass within the insulation which then, like the oceans, acts as a natural regulator. If I switch my heating off in winter, it takes a few days to start getting cold.

[swordfish]

It has definately got to be insulated floating floor so you heat your thermal mass for your best ambient temperature.

[fidobsa]

Apr 21, 2016 19:14:08 GMT 1 Ribaric said:

I spot a weakness with the third way (hehe) . If you insulate inside the house then you will get an advantage but the mass provided by the bricks/cement etc will still be cold. This means the indoor temperature will fluctuate at an uncomfortable rate. The idea is to insulate from outside (difficult in an apartment though) so that you slowly warm the mass within the insulation which then, like the oceans, acts as a natural regulator. If I switch my heating off in winter, it takes a few days to start getting cold.

I think I prefer the idea of being able to warm the place up quickly if I've been away for part of the winter. When I retire officially and get a UK state pension I'm hoping to sell my house in UK and buy something on the Croatia coast. As it is a bit warmer in winter at the coast I would probably go there for a couple of months each year. In the summer it would probably mostly be for holiday lets. Perhaps I could do a combination of methods, insulate some rooms outside and some inside.