Silver coloured panels over rafters in loft

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of help.

The loft of our 1960s house is quite low and can't be converted into a room, but I'd like to make the loft a warm one anyway (to keep more heat in and the loft less cold in winter & less hot in summer), with insulation in between the rafters (perhaps also over the top of them).

What I'm wondering about though is what the panels are that are fitted on top of the rafters, i.e. on the outside, underneath the concrete roof tiles? They're silver coloured, almost a bit looking like the plasterboard you get with silver backing on it (not shiny though). It won't be a type of insulation, as I'm sure in the 60s they didn't really bother much with that.

I know normally you need to keep a space in between your insulation and the roof tiles, but in this case you can't see the tiles. If it was, say, sheets of plywood that I can see, then I would assume an air gap would also be needed in between it and the insulation. What about in this instance though?

Thanks for your help!

 

No print and hard to touch, Caveman. I'm attaching a picture.

 

I think you're spot on, joiner1959. That's what it looks like (though surely they wouldn't have used plasterboard?! then again it was the 60's...)

Thanks very much for the advice. I was assuming that I'd need to leave some airspace and make sure that the air can flow "up and over", from eave to eave. Is that correct? I'd have to lower the head space in the loft (shame - it's a squeeze already), so that the air can flow around the timber at the ridge...