Ceiling insulation

[Blair007]

Hey

Was planning on re doing the ceiling insulation in our house, its 20years old and not very effective now. was just going to go down to bunnings and get some basic insulation batts.

anyone got any tips on this before i go ahead, is insulation batts the best way to go or are there better methods.

Hopefully its a cool day in perth when i do this

 

[Scott No Mates]

The higher the R rating the better.

 

[Blair007]

The higher the R rating the better.

Think ill go for r6.0. Someone was telling me about a insulation that comes in bags filled with shredded paper. Done know how effective it is but much easier to install and alot cleaner

 

[bob shovel]

shredded paper will burn your house to the ground.

Get the stuff that isnt itchy! so much better to work with !!!

 

[eek]

What sort of roof is it? Do you have sarking (silver film) in place already? What are you trying to achieve?

Anyways, high value R batts would work best - just be careful around electrical cables, down lights and other penetrations. You'll need a certain amount of clearance and try not to cover your electrical cables.

If you have a sheet metal roof, remove a sheet or two to help cool down the roof space and give you light, otherwise just work up there at night.

 

[nww]

Have put plenty of the fibreglass itchy stuff in IP's but would not put anything
other than tontine or the new wool product they have these days in PPOR

 

[boeman]

Definitely double check your lights and light fittings.

Modern lights don't require as much clearance (LED downlights and such) but better to be safe than sorry. By some shrouds from bunnings to be extra safe.

R6.0... that's pretty large. R4.0 is standard in new Perth homes and achieves the 6 star energy efficiency required for building (along with a couple of other items).

R4.0 will be cheaper, easier to work with and get good results.

Buy a cheapjump suit, wear that, once done go straight outside and remove. Otherwise you end up with fibres absolutely everywhere. Everyone laughs as the blokes in their jocks before/after install but those fibres are nasty.

 

[Paterson00]

Can I jump in with a question here? I can put up on main board if needed...

I have almost settled on my first Oz house since moving here from the UK. Insulation in the UK is designed to keep you warm in the winter... Is it any different here ie is it also to keep the heat out in Summer..? Not an issue in the uk really..

I want to insulate my loft too but rather than do it behind the ceiling I was thinking of seeing if I could take it up to just behind the roof as on my place the roof space is huge so would like to utilise that for storage or maybe even convert it to a couple of rooms.

 

[Xjas]

Before you buy insulation batts get up in the roof and measure the distance between the ceiling joists, batts come in 430 or 580 widths if I remember correctly.
I did my house a couple of years ago, It was a fairly cheap exercise but it was damn hard work.
Putting them up through the man hole was a non event, I found it much easier to pull a sheet of tin off the roof, as a bonus the sheet of tin off allowed some much needed airflow into the roof space.
I put an 25mm thick MDF lay board about a meter long buy 600mm wide in the roof to span the joints so I could kneel on it, and lay on it to get into the tighter spots, made it much easier to avoid putting my foot or knee through the ceiling.
I used Bradford batts and didn't find they made me that itchy, I didn't bother with a sperm suit, it was too hot for that, just gloves.

Safety tips- It gets damn hot in a roof space, especially if there is no sarking under tin/tiles, drink heaps of water and get out of the roof space for frequent breaks, heat stroke is very serious and can kill you in a roof.
20 years isnt that old so I would think the electrical work in your roof should be up to scratch but you should never really assume that it is so be careful anything that may be live.

Roof insulation made a massive difference to my place in both summer and winter but I had none to start with, how much difference new stuff makes will depend on the quality of the original stuff.