Blog posts in November 2009 by tina

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. 

Blog post by tina on Nov. 23, 2009 at 9:38 p.m.

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.

Blog post by tina on Nov. 15, 2009 at 6:24 p.m.

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.

Blog post by tina on Nov. 05, 2009 at 10:45 p.m.

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