Time to tackle the cupola

It’s lovely to have the light coming down the centre of the house but the cold draught that comes with it can almost slice your neck off. It measures 1.7m by 1.9m and would take a scaffold to reach it so fitting a Perspex sheet over it from beneath (as done to the one in the bathroom) was out of the question. I suppose getting new double-glazing units for each of the eight triangular panes might be the ideal solution but you can get around it in the loft space and covering it from above with plastic seemed worth trying initially. After testing samples of bubble wrap and sheet plastic I concluded that light grade small (4.2mm) bubble wrap was least intrusive, excluded least light, and should surely offer good insulating properties. Macfarlane Packaging offered the best prices on rolls of the right spec of the right width (1200 mm), even though it meant buying 100m in length (£43.68 including delivery). After a couple of shots at cutting and joining for the triangular sections the cupola now has a tailored ‘hat’, clipped to the edge of the glass panes, with the separate vent at the top of the cupola also insulated with two bubble-wrap covers. All covers easily removable if required, for instance for ventilation in summer.