Both the office and the main lounge area have exposed beams, and until now, there was nothing between the fibre cement boards of the ceiling and the corrugated iron. Nothing. And in the office, they had installed air conditioning . . . so stupid, it almost hurts.

So, what is the cost in terms of money, time and effort?

First, the easy, quick and cheap way . . .

. . . and not so effective way.

We bought 55mm fibreglass with anticon (short for anti condensation) backing to squeeze in between the ceiling board and the tin, about R1.5. So on Friday, the 10th of March, Toc and I spent 5 hours installing the insulation in the office roof.

Absolutely nothing between the ceiling and the tin, above and Toc in his natural element, below.

and second, the long, expensive, thorough, time consuming but R3 + effective way . . . and why we have not gotten round to doing it before . . .

A Lost weekend in Amsterdam

That was in March, in April the beam in the lounge was reinforced, see here. It was not until last Friday that the insulation in the lounge began to be installed. It also included a brand new ceiling, Swedish sauna style. This meant installing the insulation in between the exposed Oregan rafters with all the complications that entailed. It also meant we now have a very nice ceiling with a very quiet roof. To make life as easy as we could, we bought R3 Rockwool batts, 430mm x 580mm and some of Peter's toys: airgun (with 2hp compressor), large circular saw, ladder, large portable drill, portable repeater saw, clamps etc. And lots of pre cut timber.

The truck delivered the insulation and the ceiling timber late Friday afternoon and we began painting the timber with Organic timber oil. A little later, I picked up Peter and his toys with the pre cut timber in the trailer and hanging over the car.

Early Saturday morning, the Rockwool insulation, above and half the ceiling timber waiting to be oiled, below.

And the other half drying vertically behind the office.

After oiling the remaining ceiling timbers, we work on preparing for them inside, below, Peter and Susanna installing the extenders to the rafters - there was an issue with condensation and allowing enough of a gap above the insulation for the air to remove the moisture.

The pieces of wood between the gaps of the rafters on the outside of the house were drilled and cut, see closeup below (inside, looking out)

These extensions had to be screwed in twice in addition to the nail gun. It is after midday before we can start putting the new ceiling in. Note the exposed beams and the varnished vertical kitchen partition at the top right hand corner, now gone.

Below, insulation and ceiling timber going on, at last. Timber first.

Susanna specialising in cutting and fitting the insulation, I was on the saw - the beast is below;

Peter did everything else . . .

By early Sunday morning . . . the bottom completed bar trimming and the bookcases covered in drop sheets, and the tops of the shelves cleared. Note the top of the back wall is open, the timber between the rafters removed.

Susanna and Peter are putting in angled wall support beams, below.

They also installed heavy duty flywire with small bits of pine over the gaps, no vermin! Closeup, below..

Installing the rafter extensions on the upper half was considerably harder, Susanna getting comfortable with the nail gun.

And after a late lunch, the insulation goes in.

The fillers between the rafters and the extenders allow the insulation to stay in place.

To further reduce the condensation problem, plastic was used in the top half.

Getting later on Sunday, above. Below, Monday and the ceiling fan lead should be here . . .! With all that insulation, we should need the fan anyway.

Getting tedious, really tedious now. Those gaps between the rafters again, view from outside.

The timber was removed, nail gunned to a bench, sawn longitudinally, oiled and put back. Andrew doing just this, below.

While this was going on, Susanna sanded and oiled the rough bits of the ceiling and Peter did the remaining nail gunning.

Final pictures still coming.

3 people working 10 -12 hours a day for 3 days +

Was it worth it?

Ask me later

Andrew, 19/06/06

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