To maximise our whole house fabric improvement, we concluded our ground floor pitched roof had to go….

Welcome to the next stage of our home retrofit journey! If you've ever lived in a draughty, damp house, you’ll know how uncomfortable it can be, not to mention ever rising energy bills. In these images, we’ll take you through another major step we took to improve our home’s warmth, efficiency and comfort: upgrading our ground floor extension roof.

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Our 1930s home had a failing single storey pitched roof which let heat escape and caused cold spots. Instead of patching up the problem, we followed a Fabric First Approach, a way of making buildings more energy-efficient by improving insulation and airtightness before thinking about new heating systems or renewables.

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​​The had to replace the pitched roof, WHY?:

To ensure a continuous insulation layer- from the main house ridge down through the first floor eaves, down the face of the first floor walls, across a new warm roof and down the face of the ground floor extension walls, to overlap with the insulation between the ground floor joists.

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If we renovated the pitched roof there would be areas of inaccessible uninsulated external walls. This would defeat the purpose of our deep domestic retrofit and be against the fabric first principles.

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We’ll show you how we:

• Stripped the covering off to assess the existing roof construction and structure

• Identified and locate weak points in insulation and airtightness

• Removed the old roof and prepared for its replacement

• Ensured a continuous insulation layer to keep heat in and the cold out

 

Our process was to first:

• Assess the existing construction & clarify the junction between each fabric element (external walls/roof)

• Carry out removals, make alterations, upgrades & essential repairs

• Prepare the existing structure for the installation of a new thermally compliant ‘warm’ flat roof.

 

By taking these steps, we’ve not only reduced energy waste and lowered our heating bills, but also created a healthier, more comfortable home, one that’s no longer damp or draughty.

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This is just one part of our whole house retrofit, and we’re excited to share our progress with you! Whether you’re thinking about improving your own home or just curious about how retrofitting works, these images will give you a practical insight into what’s involved. Let’s get started!