Ceiling Insulation Removal & Replacement

When it has stopped doing its job or when it is a contamination problem. Material that has compressed over thirty or forty years performs at well under what it was rated for, and laying new batts over the top does not recover that, it just buries it. Rodent or bird activity is the other common reason, and so is a roof leak, because insulation holds water long after the roof has been fixed and stays damp under new material. Where the existing material is sound, in reasonable condition and simply not deep enough, topping up is genuinely the right answer and we will say so.

With vacuum extraction to a sealed unit outside, and containment at the access point. Decades of settled material carries a lot of fine dust, and the moment a roof space is disturbed that dust wants to come down through the manhole into whatever room it opens onto. So the hatch area is sealed and protected before anything moves, the extraction line runs from the space to the truck, and the material never travels through the house in bags. The path from the access point to the door gets covered as well. It is most of the setup time on the job and it is the difference between a clean removal and a fortnight of cleaning.

Work stops. In houses of a certain age, bonded sheeting turns up in roof spaces, around flues and in eaves, and disturbing it is exactly what must not happen. The check for it comes before anything is moved rather than after something has been found the hard way. If it is there, removal is licensed work carried out by a licensed asbestos removalist, and that is not us. What we do is identify it, stop, and tell you plainly what has been found and what has to happen next. Once that work is done and the space is clear, the insulation job can proceed normally.

Usually not. With containment set up properly and extraction running to a unit outside, the work stays in the roof space and the access area, and most people stay home through it. There are reasons you might choose to be out, and we will say so if one applies to your house, such as a particularly awkward access point in the middle of a living area or a household where someone is sensitive to dust. If asbestos is identified, that is a different situation entirely and is handled under the removalist's requirements, not ours.

It goes to a facility licensed to take it, and you get the record. Contaminated material is handled and disposed of differently from material that is simply old and compressed, so what happens depends on what comes out. The part worth insisting on, whoever does the work, is the documentation at the end. It is the only evidence of where the material went, and a removal with no disposal record leaves you with nothing to show for it. Nothing goes into a skip on the nature strip and nothing gets left in a corner of the roof space.