Difficult & no-cavity roofs · Brisbane & SE QLD
Roofs batt companies say can’t be insulated. We do them.
We commonly pump cellulose into about a dozen roof profiles batt installers refuse: tile, metal tile, iron, Trimdek, Kliplok, Super-6, wrap-over iron, very low-pitch, A-frame, raked and exposed-beam ceilings. If yours has “no cavity,” that usually just means no cavity for a batt.
I’m Peter Johnson. After 40 years on roofs, most of the jobs I’m told “can’t be done” turn out to be perfectly doable, because we pump cellulose rather than place batts, and because you’re talking to the installer, not a sales rep.
~12 roof profiles
the “too-hard” ones we say yes to
The roofs we commonly insulate
“No cavity” usually means no cavity for a batt.
People ring me every week after being told their roof “can’t be insulated.” Nine times out of ten it can. Because we pump cellulose in as a seamless blanket instead of cutting batts to fit, we get insulation into spaces a batt could never sit in, and these are the dozen or so roof profiles we do all the time.
- Concrete & terracotta tile roofs
- Metal (pressed-steel) tile roofs
- Corrugated iron & Colorbond
- Trimdek, Spandek & Kliplok / Cliplok
- Asbestos, Super-6 & fibro roofs
- Wrap-over iron (no ridge cavity)
- Very low-pitch & near-flat clip-lock
- A-frame & 'snow' roofs
- Raked & skillion ceilings
- Exposed-beam & cathedral ceilings
- Suspended-tile & boxed-in bulkhead ceilings
- Between-floor & internal sound walls
If you can’t see your roof in that list, ask. The list is the everyday ones, not the limit. Send me a photo of the roofline and I’ll tell you honestly whether we can do it. For the sloping ceilings there’s a dedicated raked, cathedral & exposed-beam page, and for the metal-clad homes a steel-frame insulation page.
Inside a very low-pitch cliplock metal roof, the tight cavity a batt company calls “no cavity,” and exactly where we pump cellulose.
Why you keep getting told no
You’re usually talking to a sales rep, not an installer.
Here’s the honest reason a difficult roof gets waved off, and why pumping cellulose changes the answer.
Batts have to be cut to fit and laid by hand, bay by bay. So the moment a roof isn’t a standard flat ceiling cavity (a low-pitch clip-lock, a wrap-over iron, a raked or exposed-beam ceiling) it lands in the too-hard basket. The bloke quoting it has a price list and a trailer of batts, not the rig or the experience to fill an awkward space, so the easiest thing he can say is “sorry, can’t be done.”
We pump rather than place. Cellulose is blown in dry through a 40-metre hose and settles into every cavity as one continuous blanket, into the tight corners, over the top of the joists, into the 40mm space above an exposed beam where a batt would never go. There are no cut edges and no joins, which is the whole point: an R-rating only counts if there are no gaps, and a pumped blanket simply doesn’t leave them.
That’s why the answer changes when you ring us. After 40 years and 6,000-odd cellulose roofs, the “impossible” ones are just Tuesday. We’re also one of very few who make our own cellulose and install it, so we know exactly what the product will and won’t do in a hard roof. Give us the roof and we’ll give you a straight answer, including the rare times the honest answer is no.
Roof materials, the roofer’s guide
What your roof is made of, and how we insulate it.
Thirty-odd years on roofs boiled down into the materials you’ll actually have over your head: what each one looks like, what’s good about it, what to watch, and how we handle it.
Corrugated iron+
Appearance. The classic wavy steel sheet you've seen on Queenslanders for a hundred years, long sheets running from ridge to gutter, fixed down with screws or the old lead-head nails. Older ones are plain galvanised and going a chalky grey; newer ones are usually Colorbond. Look up from inside and you'll see the underside of the sheets, the battens, and often a layer of foil sarking.
Pros. It's the easiest roof in the world for us to work with. There's almost always a roof cavity above the ceiling, the manhole gets us in, and once I'm up there I can pump cellulose right across the whole ceiling as one seamless blanket. Iron sheds water fast, it's light, and if a corner ever needs lifting to get into an awkward spot, a few screws come out and go straight back.
Cons. Iron is a heat-grabber. On a 35-degree afternoon the underside of an un-shaded iron roof can sit well past 60°C and that heat pours straight down through any bare patch of ceiling. It's also the noisiest roof in a downpour. Old galvanised iron rusts at the laps and around the fixings, and if the previous mob walked it carelessly you'll find dented sheets and popped screws.
Our tip. This is where pumped-in cellulose earns its keep: a seamless grey blanket over the whole ceiling, into every corner the heat was getting through, with no cut edges. If your iron is rusty at the laps I'll point it out while I'm up there (it's a free look-around, not a sales pitch; we don't do roof repairs). I'll also note any whirly birds: they're the 'would you like fries with that' of the insulation world and I won't sell you one.
Colorbond® & coated steel+
Appearance. Modern coated-steel sheeting in a factory colour: Surfmist, Woodland Grey, Monument and the rest. Comes corrugated or in the squarer profiles. Crisp, clean lines from the street; from inside it looks like corrugated or Trimdek depending on the profile, usually over battens with sarking.
Pros. Same as iron for us: generally a clean cavity to work in, a manhole to get through, and a ceiling I can carpet with cellulose end to end. The coated finish lasts and the lighter colours reflect more of the summer sun before it ever reaches your insulation.
Cons. Colour matters more than people think. A dark roof in Brisbane soaks up a lot more heat than a pale one, and the NCC actually asks for a bit more ceiling R-value under a dark roof than a light one. It's still steel, so it's still a good conductor and a noisy roof in the rain.
Our tip. If you've gone dark for the look, get the ceiling insulation right. It's doing more work than it would under a pale roof. We typically pump to around R3.0, comfortably over the NCC minimum for our climate zone. There's a proper breakdown on the climate-zone page if you want the numbers.
Trimdek, Spandek & Kliplok / Cliplok+
Appearance. The squarer, flatter steel profiles. Trimdek and Spandek have low, wide ribs; Kliplok (often written Cliplok) is a concealed-fix profile where the sheets clip onto a hidden clip rather than being screwed through the face, so there are no screw heads showing on top. You'll see these on newer homes, sheds, carports and a lot of modern flat-ish extensions.
Pros. Where there's a normal ceiling cavity under them, they're as easy as any other metal roof. We pump cellulose across the ceiling and you're done. Kliplok in particular makes a tidy, weather-tight, low-pitch roof.
Cons. The catch is these profiles are often used on very low-pitch and near-flat roofs with little or no cavity, and that's where a batt mob will tell you 'it can't be insulated.' On a true clip-lock flat roof there may be only a shallow space between the ceiling and the sheet. Lifting a concealed-fix Kliplok sheet is a roofer's job, not something to muck about with.
Our tip. Low-pitch clip-lock is exactly the sort of roof we're known for. If there's a workable cavity we pump it; if access is genuinely tight, we'll talk through lifting a sheet or working from a section of ceiling. The reason another company says it can't be done is usually that you're talking to a sales rep, not an installer. Give me the roof and I'll tell you honestly whether we can do it.
Asbestos, Super-6 & fibro+
Appearance. Older cement-sheet roofing. 'Super 6' is the big-corrugation cement sheet you still see on plenty of mid-century homes and sheds; flat fibro shows up in eaves, gables and some older roofs. It's usually a faded grey, sometimes painted, and the corrugations are deeper and chunkier than steel.
Pros. Cement sheet doesn't conduct heat the way metal does, and where there's a ceiling cavity beneath it we can pump cellulose across the ceiling without ever needing to lift or disturb the sheeting itself. We work from inside, through the manhole. The roof stays sealed.
Cons. If it's pre-1990 it most likely contains asbestos, and that changes how everyone behaves. You do not drill it, cut it, water-blast it or break it. Walking a brittle old Super-6 roof is dangerous in its own right. It can give way underfoot. Disturbing the fibres is the real risk, not the sheet sitting quietly above your ceiling.
Our tip. The good news is we almost never need to touch the sheet. We insulate the ceiling from below, so the asbestos roof stays exactly where it is, undisturbed. If anything up there is broken or weathered I'll flag it and recommend you get a licensed asbestos removalist. That's not our trade and I won't pretend it is. We're serious about safety; this is the same care we take with a brittle roof we have to access.
Slate tile+
Appearance. Real stone tiles, thin, flat, usually a dark grey-blue or grey-green, laid in neat overlapping rows. You'll find them on grander old homes and the occasional heritage cottage. Heavy, handsome and built to last a century or more.
Pros. A genuine slate roof is a beautiful, long-lived thing and the stone itself isn't a great heat conductor. Where there's a normal ceiling cavity, we insulate from inside and never lay a finger on the slate.
Cons. Slate is brittle and expensive to repair. You don't want anyone walking it who doesn't have to, and a cracked slate is a real cost to replace. It's also heavy, so the roof structure is built differently to a tin roof.
Our tip. Again, the answer is we work from the ceiling, not the roof. Pump-in cellulose lets us insulate a slate-roofed home without anyone scrambling around on fragile stone tiles. If access into the cavity is unusual, that's the sort of thing I sort out before quoting, not on the day.
Tile or iron, which is better?
Cement vs terracotta vs metal tile.
The question I get asked most on a tiled home is whether tile or iron is the better roof. The honest answer is that for insulating it barely matters. Both usually give us a roof cavity, and we pump the ceiling from below either way. What matters more is which kind of tile you’ve got, because cement, terracotta and pressed-steel “metal” tiles behave very differently up close.
Concrete (cement) tiles+
Appearance. Heavy, moulded concrete tiles, the most common tile roof on Brisbane homes built from the 70s on. Often a flat or low-profile shape, frequently painted, in greys, terracotta-mimics and browns. From inside you see the underside of the tiles, the battens, and (on a good build) sarking laid under the tiles.
Pros. There's almost always a generous roof cavity under a tiled roof, which makes it lovely for us to pump cellulose across the whole ceiling. Tiles breathe a little, so incidental moisture has somewhere to go. Concrete tiles are cheap to replace one-for-one if one ever cracks.
Cons. The painted surface chalks and fades over the years and the colour washes off into the gutters. Tiles can slip or crack, and an old roof without sarking lets a bit of wind-driven dust and the odd leaf into the cavity. Concrete is heavy.
Our tip. Where there's no sarking and a few tiles have slipped, you may have had dust drifting onto your old batts for years, another reason a sealed, pumped blanket sitting flat on the ceiling beats loose batts that the dust just settles between. If I spot a slipped tile while I'm up there I'll pop it back for you for free.
Terracotta tiles+
Appearance. Fired-clay tiles in that unmistakable warm orange-red (or glazed in other colours). Older, classic, and the colour is baked right through so it doesn't fade like a painted concrete tile. Usually a steeper, more traditional roof shape.
Pros. The colour lasts the life of the tile because it's the clay itself, not a coating. Clay isn't a strong heat conductor, the cavity under a tiled roof is generally roomy, and we pump the ceiling from below without touching the tiles.
Cons. Terracotta is more brittle than concrete and the old ones can be expensive and fiddly to match if you ever need to replace a few. They're heavy, and an unrestored old terracotta roof may have lost its pointing along the ridge.
Our tip. Same play as every tiled roof: we insulate the ceiling, the tiles stay put. If you've got a steep terracotta roof the cavity is usually nice and deep, which means an easy, even cellulose blanket. I'll mention any cracked or slipped tiles I notice, handy to know, even though repairing them isn't our trade.
Metal (pressed-steel) tiles+
Appearance. Lightweight pressed-steel sheets stamped to look like a tile roof from the street, often finished with a stone-chip granular coating (Decramastic / Decrabond is the well-known one). From a distance you'd swear it was tile; up close it's thin profiled steel. Common on certain eras of project home.
Pros. Light, so it's kind to the roof structure, and where there's a ceiling cavity we pump it like any other roof. The stone coating gives it a bit more sun resistance than bare metal.
Cons. It's still steel under the coating, so it conducts heat. The granular coating sheds its stone chips with age and can rust through at the laps. Some metal-tile roofs are built with very little cavity, which is why a batt company will sometimes wave them off, and metal tiles are easy to dent if walked carelessly.
Our tip. Don't be fooled by the tile look. Treat the heat like you would under any metal roof and get a proper seamless ceiling blanket in. A metal-tile roof with a tight cavity is the kind of 'too-hard' job we're set up for. If yours is shedding stone chips into the gutters, that's worth a roofer's eye, but the insulation we'll have sorted from inside.
Pumping cellulose into a very tight metal roof, the kind batt companies say can’t be done. We feed it in from a lifted sheet, so the blanket goes in complete and nobody walks your roof.
“Whether it’s tile or iron over your head, the insulation goes in the ceiling, so you get the same seamless blanket either way, and nobody has to walk your fragile tiles.”
Construction types, how the roof is built
The shape of your roof decides how we get in.
The material is only half the story. How the roof is framed (hip or gable, Queenslander, wrap-over, low-pitch, raked, A-frame, exposed-beam) decides where the cavity is and how we access it.
Hip & gable roofs+
Appearance. The two everyday roof shapes. A gable roof has the flat triangular wall at each end (the classic 'house drawing' shape); a hip roof slopes in on all four sides to a ridge with no flat end wall. Most Brisbane homes are one, the other, or a mix of both.
Pros. Both give you a proper roof cavity above the ceiling, so they're the bread-and-butter pump-in job: manhole, hose, seamless blanket, done in a few hours. A gable end often has daylight coming through, which makes the cavity easy to see and work in.
Cons. The pitch and the cavity height vary a lot, and on a cut-up roof with hips, valleys, dormers and changes of level there are more corners for a batt to miss. The lower the pitch, the tighter the work gets out near the eaves.
Our tip. This is exactly where seamless beats batts: cellulose flows into the hips, the valleys and right out over the top of the joists into the eave corners that batts get cut short of. The more cut-up the roof, the bigger the advantage of a product that doesn't need cutting to fit.
Queenslanders & high-set homes+
Appearance. The iconic timber Queenslander: high-set on stumps, big steep iron roof, wide verandahs, VJ-lined ceilings and often a generous attic-like roof space. High-set brick-and-tile homes of later eras fit the same family: a living level up high with storage or a garage underneath.
Pros. A big steep Queenslander roof usually has a huge, walkable cavity, about the nicest space there is to pump cellulose evenly across a whole ceiling. And because it's up off the ground, we can often insulate underneath the floor too with polyester, which makes a real difference to a draughty old timber floor.
Cons. Old Queenslanders can have a few surprises: no sarking, gaps around the VJ ceilings, the odd patch where someone's been in before, and decades of dust. The steep roof is hot in summer and the timber floor is cold underfoot in winter. Truck access can be tight on an old battle-axe block.
Our tip. Do the ceiling first. It's the single biggest comfort upgrade. Then think about polyester under the floor; we don't pump cellulose under floors (a crawl space and cellulose don't mix), which is exactly why we'll be straight with you about the right product for each part of the house. If access for the truck is awkward, tell me when we book.
Wrap-over iron (no ridge cavity)+
Appearance. A roof where the iron sheets bend up and over the ridge in one continuous wrap, with no separate capping and very little (sometimes no) cavity at the top. You'll see it on some sheds, patios and certain low, modern designs. From inside there's barely any space at the apex.
Pros. Where a wrap-over has a workable space lower down, we can still get cellulose in and do a proper job. These are the roofs that prove the point: 'no cavity' usually means 'no cavity for a batt installer who only knows how to lay batts.'
Cons. The squeeze at the ridge is real. There's nowhere for a batt to sit up the top, and a batt mob will simply tell you it can't be done. The pitch is often shallow, which makes it hot and makes the work harder.
Our tip. We pump rather than place, so we get product into spaces a batt could never reach. Wrap-over iron is one of the roofs we're specifically known for doing. There's a video on the channel of cellulose going into a wrap-over iron roof that batt companies say can't be insulated. Send me a photo of the roofline and I'll tell you straight.
Very low-pitch & near-flat clip-lock+
Appearance. A roof that looks almost flat from the street, a gentle fall just enough to shed water, usually in Kliplok or Trimdek. Common on modern boxy homes, extensions and units. From inside, the gap between your ceiling and the underside of the sheet can be very shallow.
Pros. Even a shallow cavity is enough for us to pump a worthwhile blanket of cellulose where a batt simply won't fit or won't stay put. A near-flat roof is hot, so the insulation pays back fast.
Cons. It's genuinely one of the harder jobs. The lower the pitch, the less room to move and the more careful the access. This is the textbook roof a homeowner gets told 'sorry, can't insulate that.'
Our tip. Low-pitch and near-flat is our specialty, not our excuse. This is me finishing off a very low-pitched roof in the photos, a great example of a more difficult one to insulate, and exactly the kind we say yes to when others say no. We'll work out the access honestly before you commit to anything.
Raked & skillion ceilings+
Appearance. A ceiling that follows the slope of the roof instead of being flat. The plasterboard rises with the rafters. A skillion is a single-slope version. Lovely, airy rooms with a sloping ceiling line and no flat ceiling cavity to crawl through.
Pros. We can pump cellulose up into the slope and fill the cavity between the lining and the roof, so you get a seamless insulated raked ceiling where a batt company would have given up at the front door.
Cons. There's no manhole into a raked ceiling, so we have to make an access point (usually by lifting a sheet or removing a small section) and the cavity behind the lining is often shallow and tight.
Our tip. Raked ceilings are one of the roofs we're known for. We've a dedicated page on raked, cathedral and exposed-beam work if yours is a sloping ceiling.
A-frame & 'snow' roofs+
Appearance. A steeply-pitched roof that runs almost to the ground, the classic A-frame cabin shape, or a steep 'snow' roof built to shed a heavy load. Dramatic from outside; inside it's usually a soaring raked ceiling with the roof line right there.
Pros. A steep pitch gives us a workable depth to pump into along the slope, and the seamless cellulose follows the rake the whole way up. These roofs look impossible to a batt installer and are genuinely doable for us.
Cons. Like any raked roof, there's no flat cavity and no manhole, so access has to be made. The steep angle makes the external work more careful, and every metre of that big sloping ceiling is heat-loading the room below in summer.
Our tip. An A-frame is the poster child for 'roofs others can't do.' We make a neat access point, pump the slope full, and put it back. If you've got an A-frame or a steep cabin roof, it's a conversation worth having rather than assuming it can't be insulated.
Exposed-beam & cathedral ceilings+
Appearance. A ceiling where the timber beams are left on show inside the room and the lining sits on top of them, so the rafters and the roof structure are part of the look. Beautiful, architectural, and a complete headache for anyone trying to lay a batt.
Pros. With the right tool we can get cellulose into the cavity above an exposed-beam ceiling and insulate it properly, something most companies flatly refuse. The result is a warm, quiet cathedral ceiling with the timber beams still on display.
Cons. The cavity above the lining is typically very shallow (often only about 40mm to play with) so there's no room for a batt and you need to know exactly what you're doing to fill it evenly.
Our tip. This is the job that separates installers from sales reps. See the exposed-beam gap below, and our raked & exposed-beam page for the full method.
Suspended-tile & boxed-in / bulkhead ceilings+
Appearance. Suspended-tile is the grid-and-panel ceiling you see in offices, shops and some garages. Boxed-in bulkheads are the dropped sections of ceiling that hide ducting, beams or services, the stepped boxes around the edge of a room or over a kitchen.
Pros. Where there's a space above the panels or inside the bulkhead, we can pump cellulose into it and quieten and insulate areas other trades skip entirely. Good for commercial fit-outs and for killing the racket between floors.
Cons. Every one is different. You have to look before you promise. A boxed-in bulkhead can hide ducting, wiring and the odd surprise, and a suspended grid needs care so you don't dislodge panels.
Our tip. These are case-by-case, and I'd rather see a photo or have a quick look than guess. The point is we don't write a roof off just because it's not a standard ceiling cavity.
The job that separates installers from sales reps
The 40mm exposed-beam gap, and the tool that fills it.
An exposed-beam or cathedral ceiling leaves the timber beams on show inside the room, with the lining sitting on top of them. The cavity above that lining is often only about 40mm deep. There is simply no room for a batt up there, which is exactly why nearly every company will tell you it can’t be insulated.
We fill that 40mm space with cellulose using a special tool built for the job, blowing the fibre in evenly so the whole sloping ceiling becomes one seamless blanket, no gaps, no cold lines following the beams. The room ends up warmer in winter, cooler in summer and noticeably quieter, with the timber beams still on display the way the architect drew them.
One more thing to watch on these and on any raked area: where a wall runs up inside the ceiling space (an in-ceiling wall or a boxed bulkhead), the insulation above it has to be handled deliberately so the cavity isn’t bridged or left hollow. If you know where yours are, point them out on the day; if you don’t, we’ll find them.
What changes the price
The features on your roof that affect the quote.
A quote isn’t just floor area. These are the things I look for when I measure your roof. Most of them are about time and access, and none of them are surprises if we talk about them first.
Downlights
Recessed downlights are the single biggest gap-maker in a ceiling. A lot of them need a clearance gap kept around the fitting, and a batt installer leaving out half a batt around each downlight can cut a ceiling's effective R-value by a long way. We shroud the downlights before we pump so the cellulose stays put and the clearance is kept, but a roof full of downlights takes longer and that affects the quote. Tell me how many you've got.
Manhole access
Where there's a manhole (usually in a hallway, robe or the garage) we go straight up through it, and we shroud it before any product goes in. No manhole, or a roof with no flat cavity (raked, exposed-beam), means we make an access point by lifting a few tiles or sheets and putting them back. Making access takes time, so it shows up in the price.
Chimneys & flues
A chimney or a hot flue needs clearance. Insulation can't be packed hard against a heat source, and the building rules require a gap. We keep the required clearance around chimneys, flues and any hot fittings, which means a bit of careful detailing rather than just blowing the lot in.
Exhaust & static vents
Bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans, range-hood ducting and any static roof vents all need to keep doing their job, so we work around them. Point them out to me so nothing gets buried that's meant to breathe. (Whirly birds are a different story. I won't try to sell you one with a quality insulation job.)
Truck access
Our pump rig travels in a Pantech truck (roughly 3.3m high and 2.4m wide) and feeds a 40-metre hose, so it needs to get reasonably close to the house. A tight battle-axe block, a steep driveway or a long carry from the street all matter. The rig stays in the truck; we don't drag bags of product through your home. If access is awkward, a heads-up when we book saves surprises.
Roof height & fall barriers
A high two-storey, a steep pitch or a roof with no safe edge can mean we need fall protection and extra setup before anyone goes up. Working safely at height is non-negotiable. We'd rather take longer and do it right than cut a corner. Taller, steeper and more cut-up roofs cost a little more for the time and the safety gear.
Bay windows & projections
Bay windows, box gutters, dormers and little roof projections add corners and changes of level, and each one is somewhere a batt would leave a gap. They're no trouble for a pumped blanket, but they add area and detail to the job, so they factor into the measure.
In-ceiling walls & bulkheads
A warning worth heeding: where a wall runs up inside the ceiling space (an in-ceiling wall or a boxed bulkhead) the insulation above it has to be handled deliberately so the wall cavity doesn't get bridged or left hollow. Point these out on the day if you know about them; if you don't, we'll find them, and we'll do them properly.
How we quote. For most homes I can measure off Nearmap and your roof type and give you a proper fixed-price quote within 48 hours, without anyone tramping through your house first. There’s no deposit. You pay when the job’s finished and you’re happy. The price I quote is the price you pay; if I’ve under-measured something, the extra is on me, not on you on the day. I quote to complete the job properly and not have to come back and fix it.
How the install actually runs
Pumped from inside, in a few hours.
The pump rig stays in the truck and feeds a 40-metre hose, so we don’t drag bags through your home. A trained installer goes up through the manhole, or, on a raked, exposed-beam or no-manhole roof, makes a neat access point by lifting a few tiles or sheets and putting them back. We shroud the manhole and downlights first, then pump the cellulose to a measured density so it holds its thickness and you get the settled R-value we quoted.
Your job is done by a Comfort Zone franchise partner, an owner-operator running their own family business to our systems and standards, not a cheap subbie or a hired labourer who moves on to the next job. Every job is photographed and the photos are checked before you’re invoiced, and the before-and-after photos are yours to keep, because most people never see the inside of their own roof. We have a free look around while we’re up there and fix the little stuff for free; it’s not a sales pitch, we don’t do roof repairs.
From our jobs, not a sales pitch
Watch: roofs other companies wouldn't touch
Real job footage — Super Six fibro, wrap-over iron, exposed-beam, cathedral and tight low-pitch roofs, all insulated with pump-in cellulose.
Filmed on real jobs over the years — our methods, safety standards and products have moved on since. Subscribe to the channel for more.
Honest answers
Hard-roof questions I get asked most.
My roof has no cavity. Can it still be insulated?+
Usually, yes. Most of the time "no cavity" means "no cavity for a batt installer who only knows how to lay batts." We pump cellulose rather than place it, so we can fill spaces a batt can never reach: low-pitch clip-lock, wrap-over iron, raked and exposed-beam ceilings included. The reason another company tells you it can't be done is usually that you're talking to a sales rep, not an installer. Send me a photo of the roofline and I'll tell you honestly whether we can do it.
What roof types do you commonly insulate?+
Concrete and terracotta tile, metal (pressed-steel) tile, corrugated iron and Colorbond, Trimdek and Kliplok, asbestos / Super-6 / fibro (insulated from inside, never disturbed), wrap-over iron, very low-pitch and near-flat clip-lock, A-frame and snow roofs, raked and skillion ceilings, exposed-beam and cathedral ceilings, suspended-tile and boxed-in bulkheads, and between-floor and internal sound walls. If you can't see your roof in that list, ask. The list is the everyday ones, not the limit.
Can you insulate an exposed-beam or cathedral ceiling?+
Yes. It's one of the jobs we're known for. The cavity above an exposed-beam ceiling is often only about 40mm deep, so there's no room for a batt and you need the right tool to fill it evenly. We pump cellulose into that shallow space, fill it as a seamless blanket, and leave the timber beams on show inside the room. Most companies refuse these roofs; we do them. There's a dedicated raked, cathedral and exposed-beam page with the full method.
Is it safe to insulate under an asbestos or Super-6 roof?+
Yes, because we almost never need to touch the sheet. We insulate the ceiling from inside, working up through the manhole, so an asbestos or Super-6 roof stays sealed and undisturbed above your ceiling, and an undisturbed sheet is not the risk; disturbed fibres are. We don't drill, cut or break the sheeting. If anything up there is broken or weathered I'll flag it and recommend a licensed asbestos removalist, because that's a specialist trade and not ours.
Do you have to walk on my tile or slate roof to insulate it?+
No. With pump-in cellulose we work from inside the ceiling, so we don't need anyone scrambling about on fragile terracotta or brittle slate tiles. The tiles stay where they are. If access into the cavity is unusual (a raked ceiling, no manhole) we make a neat access point by lifting a small section and putting it back, rather than walking the roof.
Why do other insulation companies say my roof can't be done?+
Almost always because the person you spoke to is a sales rep working from a price list, not an installer who has been on thousands of roofs. Batts have to be cut to fit and laid by hand, so anything that isn't a standard cavity (low-pitch, raked, exposed-beam, wrap-over) is in the too-hard basket for them. We pump rather than place, and after 40 years and 6,000-odd roofs the hard ones are just Tuesday. Give us the roof and we'll give you a straight answer.
We did a roof everyone else said no to? Leave us a review.
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Been told your roof can’t be insulated?
Send me a photo of the roofline and your address, and I’ll tell you straight whether we can do it, and give you a detailed fixed-price quote within 48 hours for most houses. Tile, iron, Super-6, clip-lock, raked or exposed-beam. Servicing Brisbane & SE QLD.
Peter Johnson
Owner / installer · Comfort Zone Insulation Team® · Since 1986
In the trade and want to do the hard roofs yourself? We make cellulose in Tiaro and run exclusive territories, franchise with the family.