         
Blog posts by tina
Happy New Year
Before Christmas most of the remaining work on our insulation was completed, and we were able to start living properly in our home again. As well as the insulation work, we had a new British oak floor fitted, to replace the somewhat battered and woodwormed previous floorboards. It looks rather lovely, as do the insulated walls and details around the windows and ceilings. I doubt anyone would notice we've had internal insulation added, unless we pointed it out. We're very keen to find out how much energy the added insulation (and much improved air tightness) is saving - but it's too soon to really know as the builders only left the week before Christmas. However, our heating and hot water energy consumption in the two weeks before and after Christmas was more than a quarter lower this year than last - and clearly this year is much colder! Still, we'll need rather more time to monitor 'after' before we can say how much energy and carbon is being saved. I was speaking to a neighbour with a house of a similar age, and she said they were really having problems keeping the bedrooms in the old part of the house warm enough overnight in this cold weather. Their temperature was dropping to 12C - whereas I don't think our has dropped below 16C (with the rooms generally at 18C when the heating is on). We have bought a couple of temperature data monitors, so should have proper data on this soon.
Week 10: The beginning of the end?
A lot of progress has been made in the past week and a half. All the internal insulation is now installed, there is a first coat of lime plaster on all surfaces, and a final coat on some areas. Insulation has also been added within the mini 'roof' space above our living room box bay window and an area of the living room ceiling which was in poor condition has been replastered. In addition, we have had new wooden double-glazed sash windows installed in the box bay, as it made sense to do this in conjunction with insulating around the window area. Several years ago we had the rest of the sash windows replaced with modern double glazed ones, as they were not in great condition, draughty, prone to condensation etc. At that time we decided against replacing the ones in the bay, due to cost. However, we have had to resort to plastic film over the bay windows in winter to cut down draughts (despite having had them 'professionally' draught proofed) and reduce condensation - which would hardly be a good look in a supposedly eco-renovated property. So new windows it is! They do look very nice and that area of the room is much cosier than it was - even before the radiator has been replaced. Today a man came and created new ceiling cornice to replace what had to be taken down to install the insulation. It looks very good. Another nice period detail which has been retained is a cutaway shape in the walls next to the bay window (see photo, which will explain this better than I can). The main work remaining inside is to put on the final coat of lime plaster in most areas, put the radiators on, add, sand and seal the wooden floor on top of the existing hardboard and other finishing details. Outside, work has started on adding conventional external insulation to the bottom part of the wall, below the damp proof course, where eco-materials weren't suitable. It certainly feels that we're nearing the end, and that by Christmas all of the major work will be complete.
Week 8: Internal wall insulation
We are now half-way through the installation of the Pavatex internal wall insulation. Work has been completed in the dining room, just the living room to go. The insulation is 6cm thick and is installed by screwing onto the wall, using insulated screws to fix it in place. We had wondered how it would look to add this extra thickness internally - but even before plaster has been added on top it looks great. It may be partly psychological - but the room does feel cosier already. Certainly, not having a radiator in the dining room (temporarily removed) hasn't been a problem - the heating drifting in from the hall and kitchen have kept us perfectly warm. Not only that, but since the floor insulation has been finished we no longer have any visiting slugs! Given that it looks like the adding internal insulation isn't going to look 'wrong' in the house, it does make me wonder whether we should have thought more seriously about going for completely internal insulation rather than external insulation on the side wall, and internal on the back and front. However, the external insulation is thicker - 10cm - and we wouldn't have wanted that thickness internally. It will be interesting to look at the costs of the external vs internal insulation when all the bills have come in.
Week 6: Underfloor insulation complete
Our underfloor insulation is now just about complete. It was installed by attaching netting hammocks (as they almost certainly aren't known in the trade) to the floor joists to hold the insulation, and then cutting the hemp batts to fit. The hemp has been installed to the full depth of the joists - so that's 150mm in the living and dining rooms and 100mm in the hallway (where the original joists were retained, as they were in reasonable condition). While the floors were up, the central heating pipes were insulated - they previously had no insulation around them at all! New airbricks are also being installed in several places below the floor level, to ensure adequate ventilation. This should ensure when the floor is next taken up - hopefully not for many, many years - the joists are still in perfect condition. Our internal walls (i.e. front, back plus an overlap with external insulation to eliminate any potential cold spots) are now ready for installing the insulation. Firstly the existing (gypsum) plaster had to removed. Then a layer of lime plaster has been added to make a smooth surface on which to attach the Pavatex insulation. The major reason for removing the original plaster is to ensure problem-free moisture movement within the insulated wall (the insulation system is only guaranteed if conventional plaster is removed). Outside, the roofers have been working on extending the roof to cover the external insulation; the slates look to be a good match, and there's just one half of the verge to be sealed with mortar. Fortunately, despite yesterday's gales, the roof is still attached to the rest of the house - perhaps due to the starring role of the clothes pegs. Our builders have been doing an excellent job of keeping most of the house habitable during the renovation work, but we're now looking forward to the switch away from 'creative destruction' to re-instating our walls and floors.
Week 5: Underfloor insulation arrives
Our underfloor insulation has arrived and is now sitting in a big stack in the dining room. As pictured, a first section has been installed in the front room. It is a hemp batt - not the Warmcell waste paper-based insulation we had thought we might be having. The damp in the walls below our damp proof course has meant that Warmcell isn't suitable. The hemp product is a bit more expensive, but will still give a good insulation result (see http://www.natural-building.co.uk/hemp_natural_insulation.htm for technical details). It'll be good when we have floorboards again, but for the moment we're at the stage of admiring our lovely new joists and other load bearing timbers and imagining how cosy it'll be when the job is finished.
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