Attic insulation grant questions

€2,000 for a detached house, €1,500 for a semi-D or end of terrace, €1,400 for a mid-terrace and €1,100 for an apartment. The higher rate, for certain welfare recipients, HAP and RAS landlords and first-time buyers, is €2,500, €1,900, €1,800 and €1,400.

Typically €300 to €600 for a semi-D, €400 to €700 for a detached house, €200 to €800 for a mid-terrace and €100 to €400 for an apartment, after the standard grant. See the cost guide.

Most attics are done in a day. The wait is SEAI's approval, which has to come before anything is bought or started. A floored attic, or one full of storage, takes longer.

Very little in the rooms below: the work happens in the attic, through the hatch. Clear a path to the hatch, and anything stored up there may need to come down first.

Ask for it in writing: the depth and U-value reached, the walkway, the hatch and the lagging, and what the contractor stands over afterwards. The contractor fills in SEAI's paperwork for your claim.

Homeowners and landlords whose home was built and lived in before 2011 and has an MPRN. The work must be done by a contractor on SEAI's register, and SEAI must approve the grant before you buy materials or start.

Not before the job. After it, a BER assessor rates the home, and that BER is part of your claim.

Attic insulation is one of the cheapest upgrades there is: after the grant a semi-D typically pays €300 to €600, and heat rises, so a thin attic is where a lot of it goes. Only 24% of Irish houses built before 2011 have a roof at SEAI's standard.

Thick enough to reach a U-value of 0.16 W/m²K. That typically takes 300 mm of mineral or glass wool, or about 150 mm of PIR board. See how thick.

Yes, if you own and live in a home built before 2006 and get a qualifying payment such as Fuel Allowance: SEAI's Warmer Homes Scheme pays for it in full. The wait is long: about 24 to 26 months from applying to finished work. See free attic insulation.

One SEAI-registered insulation contractor who covers your area. They look at the attic, price it in writing, do the work and deal with you directly. Nothing is booked until you say yes.

No. We pass your request to one SEAI-registered insulation contractor who covers your area. SEAI decides every grant. atticinsulationgrant.ie is not SEAI or a government body and does not award grants.

Yes, provided your home was built and occupied before 2011 and has never claimed an SEAI attic insulation grant on its MPRN before. If the existing 100 mm mineral wool is dry and in sound condition, the SEAI-registered contractor fits eaves ventilation trays, tops it up at right angles with 200 mm of new quilt to reach 300 mm (0.16 W/m²K), lags the water tank and pipes, and insulates and draught-proofs the hatch.

Once 300 mm of insulation is laid across the ceiling joists, very little heat escapes from the bedrooms below into the roof space, meaning your attic drops close to outdoor freezing temperatures on winter nights. SEAI's technical standards require the contractor to wrap the cold water tank and all attic pipes, while leaving the ceiling directly under the tank uninsulated so rising warmth prevents the base valve from freezing.

You must never screw chipboard or OSB flooring directly onto the ceiling joists over 300 mm of mineral wool: squashing 300 mm quilt down into a 100 mm joist depth halves its thermal resistance and ruins the 0.16 W/m²K U-value. Instead, the contractor fits a raised storage deck on loft legs or rigid PIR stilts above the full 300 mm layer, plus the required walkway from the hatch to the water tank.

In a typical three-bed semi-detached or detached bungalow with a clear loft, two installers finish the whole job in 4 to 6 hours inside a single day—fitting the 50 mm eaves rafter trays, rolling the base and cross-laid 300 mm mineral wool, fitting downlighter hoods, lagging the cold water tank and pipes, fitting the insulated tank walkway and draught-sealing the attic hatch.

Under the standalone Better Energy Homes scheme (where you apply yourself), SEAI pays €800 to €1,500 (€1,000 to €2,000 on the higher welfare/HAP/RAS rate) and a single grant rate covers the roof whether ceiling joists, dormer cheeks or rafters are insulated. The separate €1,500 to €3,000 rafter insulation grant is only paid inside a managed One Stop Shop whole-house upgrade to a B2 BER.

Under SEAI's Domestic Technical Standards, flexible extractor fan ducts running through the cold attic must be insulated so warm moist bathroom air does not condense into water pools inside the pipe, and every recessed ceiling downlighter must be protected with a breathable fire-rated loft hood or swapped for an IC-rated sealed LED unit before the 300 mm quilt is rolled out.

Yes. SEAI's standard makes the contractor insulate and draught-proof the hatch as part of the attic job. See attic hatch insulation and draught-proofing →

Fix insulation board or wool to the top of the hatch to the same standard as the attic, fit a draught strip round the frame, and add catches so it presses shut. See attic hatch insulation and draught-proofing →

Yes. SEAI's standard suggests an insulating hood or box over it where possible. See attic hatch insulation and draught-proofing →

Every BER records the roof's U-value. SEAI publishes the full register; we took the 586,283 certificates for houses built before 2011, leaving out BERs done for grant claims so homes just upgraded don't skew it. See attic insulation by county →

No. SEAI's fixed grants are national. See attic insulation by county →

Only 16% of Dublin's pre-2011 houses show a roof at 0.16, and the median roof U-value is 0.40, the weakest of 26. The register doesn't say why; most Dublin roofs have some insulation, but not enough. See attic insulation by county →

SEAI's median for January to June 2026: €2,700 detached, €2,101 semi-D, €2,200 mid-terrace, €1,515 apartment. See attic insulation cost in ireland →

About €700 detached, €601 semi-D, €800 mid-terrace and €415 for an apartment, at the median. At the higher rate, €201 for a semi-D. See attic insulation cost in ireland →

In SEAI's January to June 2026 figures the mid-terrace median (€2,200) is above the semi-D median (€2,101). SEAI doesn't say why; medians move with the jobs done in that half-year. See attic insulation cost in ireland →

Not always, and SEAI's medians don't say. Ask for a written price with VAT shown. See attic insulation cost in ireland →

Yes. A detached house went from €1,500 to €2,000, a semi-D from €1,300 to €1,500, a mid-terrace from €1,200 to €1,400 and an apartment from €800 to €1,100. See seai attic insulation grant amounts 2026 →

On 2 November 2026 SEAI's insulation grants page still listed the older figures. SEAI's own 2026 median costs PDF and Citizens Information show the new ones. Your SEAI grant offer is the final word. See seai attic insulation grant amounts 2026 →