FAQ · Heat, comfort & your home
Verandas, patios and pergolas — can we insulate those at the same time?
Usually not worth it on an open-sided one. The heat leaves sideways to the outside air, not down through a ceiling. But an enclosed veranda, or one sharing a roof cavity with the insulated house, is genuinely worth doing.
I get asked this on most quotes, and most sales people will jump at the chance to sell you a bit more “stuff”. I’d rather run you through the two questions that actually decide it, so you don’t spend money for little or no benefit. Below: when a veranda is worth including with your ceiling insulation, why mould on the veranda ceiling is the clearest signal you’ll ever get, and why a newly insulated house can make the bit next door feel worse.
First, what can even be insulated
If there’s no lined ceiling, there’s nothing to fill.
When I talk about insulating a veranda or patio, I mean an area that either shares the same roof space as the main house, or already has a ceiling lining in placethat we can retro-fit behind. That’s the whole starting point.
An open pergola with bare rafters and a sheet of iron over the top has no cavity at all — there is literally nowhere for insulation to go. A patio with a flat sheet roof and no ceiling underneath is the same. If someone has quoted you to insulate one of those, that’s worth a second look and a phone call to me before you sign anything.
And even where there isa lined ceiling, an open-sided veranda is still an outdoor space. Heat under there escapes out the open sides and rises out over the eaves. Insulating above it doesn’t change what you feel standing under it, because the ceiling was never the main path the heat was taking. That’s the honest answer, even though it’s the one that sells less.
The two-question test
Two questions decide it, and you can answer both yourself.
Closing a veranda in on three sides changes its behaviour completely. It traps the airflow and stops the heat rising out and away over the eaves the way it does on an open one. At that point it’s behaving like a room, and it gains from a ceiling the same way a room does. Plenty of old Queenslanders have had the front veranda built in at some stage, and a lot of patios have been closed in with sliders or louvres over the years — if that’s yours, the answer here is yes.
This one gives itself away. Stand under it and look up. If you can see straight clean lines running through the mould where the roof timbers sit above, you’ve found your answer — the timber is insulating that strip, keeping it warmer, and the mould can’t take hold there. Every other part of the ceiling goes cold, moisture condenses on it, and the mould feeds on that. Insulate that ceiling and you take the cold strips away. Clean the existing mould off afterwards and it generally stays gone. The same mechanism is at work when mould keeps coming back on a ceiling inside the house.
If the answer to both is no, there will most likely be very little benefit — keep your money. If the answer to either is yes, it’s worth including.
The exception worth knowing
Insulating the house can push heat into the bit you left out.
Here’s the part that catches people. When we insulate your main ceiling, we hold the house’s heat in the house and the roof’s heat up in the roof. The result is a roof cavity that runs hotter than it did before. That’s not a problem on its own — a hotter, drier roof space is less inviting for rats and other critters.
But that extra heat has to go somewhere, and it will come through into any attached or shared roof cavity you didn’t insulate — verandas and patios included. If it’s an area the family actually uses, that’s a solid reason to do it at the same time. It’s the same effect people notice in the garage after the house is insulated.
The old Queenslanders are the clearest case of all. A bull-nose veranda roof is rolled iron and can’t be lifted, so the only way in is a manhole cut in the veranda ceiling and cellulose pumped into the cavity from underneath. On a house like that, insulating the main roof and skipping the enclosed front veranda is half a job — the heat coming in through the veranda simply rises into the house and sits trapped under your brand-new ceiling insulation.
“Most sales people will jump at the chance to sell you more stuff. On an open pergola there’s nothing to insulate and I’ll say so. On a built-in front veranda, leaving it out makes the rest of the job worse. Same visit, opposite answer.”
The practical reason to decide on the day
The same little patio costs roughly double if we come back for it.
If it’s a borderline call, the money usually settles it. Adding a small patio area of around 20 square metres while we’re already on site, with the truck set up and the hose run out, normally lands around $400–$600. Ask us back another day for that same small area and it can be $800–$1,000, because you’re now paying for an entire separate trip rather than an extra half-hour on one already booked.
Those are indicative figures for a straightforward small area, not a quote — the real number depends on access, the roof type and what’s above the ceiling. I’ll price the veranda separately on your quote so you can see exactly what it adds and decide with the numbers in front of you. If the two-question test came back no, I’ll tell you that too and leave it off.
Low roofs, no access — how we get into a veranda cavity.
An enclosed veranda is usually the awkward bit of the house: low, tight, often with no manhole and a roof you can't lift. These two clips are real South East Queensland jobs showing how we fill exactly that kind of cavity. Both run right here on the page.
Read the transcript
Okay, we're just on a cathedral roof here — sorry about the chainsaw in the background — but we've got our flat pipe here. We just lifted that sheet there; you can see it's got a bit of cellulose on it still. We've pumped back this way, the full length of the pipe, so we don't have to lift any of those sheets. Now we've just lifted this sheet here, which is another two or three sheets past the end of that pipe where it got to. I can lift this up and have a look.
Read the transcript
You can see I've got about half the flat pipe left underneath there. I've been pulling it back, and you can see how it comes back out onto the top of the old stuff as I pull it out. I can slide it across sideways because it's full — see how that's pushing it back out from underneath there now? That's how I know that cavity's all filled up. That's the difference between a good contractor and one who just does a bit of a dirty job. Okay, in the next bay — I'm going to blow a bit of air through first, just to make sure it's all clear, and then pump it. Feed the hose in a bit further so it gets all the way up there, and you should see some little wisps of dust coming out up on the eaves. So that's how we do it — filling it up to that height, as opposed to over here where he's only put in 30 or 40 millimetres. On a flat roof like this where you can put more in, there's no reason why the contractor shouldn't have, except that he's just not paid well enough to. So that's again the difference between a cheap job and a good job.
The clips play right here on the page, or open the playlist to watch them all on YouTube and subscribe.
Some of these were filmed a while back. Our methods, safety standards and products have moved on since. For how we work today, see the rest of this page.
Some of these were filmed a while back. Our methods, safety standards and products have moved on since then.
More on verandas, patios and outdoor areas
Verandas, patios and pergolas — can we insulate those at the same time?+
Sometimes, but usually there's no point on an open-sided one. A pergola or an open veranda loses its heat sideways to the outside air, not down through a ceiling, so putting insulation above it changes almost nothing you'd feel standing under it. It's also worth saying that a pergola or open patio with no ceiling lining has nothing to insulate — there's no cavity to fill. Where it does earn its keep is an enclosed or built-in veranda, one that's closed on three or more sides with a lined ceiling, or one that shares a roof cavity with the insulated part of the house. Those two cases are genuinely worth doing, and I'll tell you straight which one you've got.
How do I know if my veranda is worth insulating?+
Two questions sort it out. First: is it enclosed or built in on at least three sides? Closing it in traps the airflow and stops the heat rising out over the eaves, so it starts behaving like a room rather than an outdoor space. Second: do you get mould on the veranda ceiling? If the answer to both is no, there's most likely very little benefit and I'd rather you kept your money. If the answer to either is yes, it's worth including.
Why does mould on the veranda ceiling mean insulation will help?+
Look up at the mould. If you can see straight clean lines running through it where the roof timbers sit above, that tells you the whole story: the timber is insulating that strip of ceiling, keeping it warmer, and the mould can't get going there. Everywhere else the ceiling goes cold, moisture condenses on it, and mould grows. Insulating that ceiling removes the cold strips. Clean the existing mould off after the insulation goes in and it generally stays gone.
Will insulating the main house make my veranda hotter?+
It can make the roof space hotter, yes. Once you insulate the main ceiling you're holding the house's heat in the house and the roof's heat in the roof, so the cavity above runs hotter than it did before. That's not a problem in itself — a hotter, drier roof space is actually less inviting for critters. But if your veranda or patio shares that same roof cavity and is left uninsulated, the extra heat comes through into it. On a veranda that's in common use, that's a good reason to do both at once.
Does it cost more to come back and do the veranda later?+
Quite a bit more, and that's the practical reason to decide now rather than later. Including a small patio area of around 20 square metres while we're already on site normally runs about $400–$600. Ask us back on another day for the same little area and it can be $800–$1,000, because you're paying for a whole separate trip — truck, travel, set-up, the lot. If it's a borderline call, doing it on the day is the cheap way to find out.
My veranda has a bull-nose roof that can't be lifted — can it still be done?+
Yes. A rolled bull-nose veranda roof on an old Queenslander can't be lifted the way tiles or sheets can, so the way in is a manhole cut in the veranda ceiling from underneath, and we pump the cellulose into the cavity through that. On that style of house it isn't optional either: the veranda is enclosed at the front and the heat coming through it just rises into the main house and gets trapped under the new ceiling insulation. Insulating the main roof and skipping that veranda is half a job.
Comfort Zone Franchise
Want to build your own insulation business the right way?
We’ve been doing this since 1986 — making our own cellulose at our Tiaro factory, training installers to do it properly, and building a reputation one roof at a time. Part of that is knowing when to tell a customer no. If you want to run your own Comfort Zone franchise in your area, with real training, real product and a system that actually works, I’d like to talk to you.
Find out how the franchise worksDid this save you a few hundred dollars? Leave us a review.
A quick honest review genuinely helps a small family business, and helps the next person decide. Thank you.
Got photos or a video from the job? Here’s where to send them →
Or call Peter on 0414 586 315 — tell me how your veranda is built and I’ll tell you straight whether it’s worth doing.