Loft problems

[joddle]

Recently a pipe to my boiler which is located in the loft area froze due to the tenant turning the heating off while he went away for a few days. Could have been a lot worse as all that happened was a pipe joint pushed apart and separated and so was pretty easy to fix.
Whilst in the loft it was noticed that it was a bit damp up there - the roof was re-felted several years ago and four vents in put in the tiles to supposedly stop any condensation but is seems in the coldest weather it is not quite enough.
With the boiler issue in mind I am thinking of adding insulation between the roof beams themselves to make the space in the loft more insulated and help reduce the likelihood of condensation and also help protect the boiler - I see adverts for spray foam and also for fibre boards - the cheap aluminium sheet looks a bit of a con so I presume best avoided. What would others recommend?

 

[HERTS P&D]

DON'T SPRAY FOAM THE RAFTERS!!!

Do not insulate between the rafters.

Just make sure you have 270mm loft insulation on the loft floor and make sure your expansion tank is not pumping over.

Andy

 

[joddle]

Thats very emphatic - is there a reason not to insulate between the rafters? Also if I do not then I suppose I could biuld a mini room to house the boiler from insulating boards and have an electric tube heater on a thermostat in there to prevent it getting down to zero to close to the tubes etc!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Insulating between the rafters is an inappropriate response to this problem, without doing it properly ie ensuring the gap between the insulation and the underside of the felt is properly ventilated will eventually lead to all kinds of problems with condensation and rotting timbers.

Spray foaming the underside of the tiles is about the worst thing you can do to a roof, it ought to be banned and and anyone doing it should be arrested for criminal damage! There are dozens of threads in here about why you should not spray foam the lot too.

Does the boiler not have frost protection? ie that it will operate to prevent freezing up which should overun any other settings (ie thermostats) in the house? If it does and the pipes are well lagged then this problem should not occur. The tenant just needs a little education. A downside of installing a water system of any kind in the loft!

 

[joddle]

Does the boiler not have frost protection? ie that it will operate to prevent freezing up which should overun any other settings (ie thermostats) in the house? If it does and the pipes are well lagged then this problem should not occur. The tenant just needs a little education. A downside of installing a water system of any kind in the loft!

If it has not I will instruct the plumber who isnalled it to ensure there is one ASAP - however if the property is empty for a while then perhaps some form of electric heater might be advisable as a back up. I had thought of building a small cupboard around the boiler with a 150w tube heater and thermostat inside set to activate at about 5degC - is that worthwhle so you think?

 

[mointainwalker]

A good idea IMO as long as it can be easily dismantled by a gas-engineer who needs to service/repair but not sure how far that would protect pipes in/out of boiler and in loft-space.