ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the main insulation products that are widely used when converting a loft. It describes some other products that are readily available. It presents minimum, good practice and advanced thermal standards for typical constructions, using the main insulation products. The typical constructions include an external wall, separating wall, flat roof and pitched roof. There is a wide variety of insulation materials on the market, produced by numerous manufacturers. Polyurethane insulation products are made by reacting a liquid polyol component with a liquid polymeric isocyanate, Methylene Diphenyl di-Isocyanate component in the presence of a blowing agent and other additives. Expanded polystyrene is produced by expansion of beads using pentane as a blowing agent. Phenolic foams offer a range of thermal conductivity performance. The closed-cell type offers very low thermal conductivity resulting from a closed-cell structure, extremely small cell diameter and low thermal conductivity gas permanently encapsulated in cells.
