Roof insulation - opinions etc.

MrSparkle · 22-08-2005, 09:42 AM

Well the time has come for me to spend a bit on my investment property!

Thanks to a nice fat tax return, my tennants are going to enjoy better weather inside the house, care of a new reverse cycle aircon unit, and some roof insulation.

Just after some opinions and experiences that people have had with it, how you went about choosing it, if there's anything to beware of, if there's any preferable brand or solution. The house is fairly small with a painted tin roof, and to be honest, it's not particularly resistant to the conditions outside - heats up quick in summer, and loses heat quick in winter.

I guess the first decision I have to make is whether to go for some variety of "Batt"

: or that cellulose fibre stuff.

Thoughts people?

:

EA2BA · 22-08-2005, 09:49 AM

The cellulose fibre stuff (munched up newspaper) is whats in the roof of the house we are renting, seems to do a good job, but if the roof is not sarked and plenty of wind can get through the roof space it tends to blow about a bit and come down through the ceiling fans in the bathrooms, I would therefore suggest bats as a much better alternative.

Bats can also be done yourself, just wear long sleeves tape the gloves to your sleeves as the fibreglass gets into your skin and itches like a pain in the ***.

Casper · 22-08-2005, 10:11 AM

I agree with Dellboy, the fibre works very, very well but if the roof isnt sealed its a mess. Batts seem to work well enough (they are in the house we are in now) and dont leave a mess.

b2tf · 22-08-2005, 11:13 AM

Batts are good, easy to put in (can do it yourself) and as has been said, cellulose fibre can be a real pain.

Sox · 22-08-2005, 11:14 AM

The very best is wool batts, but you'll pay for it.

Rick.

bailey04 · 22-08-2005, 01:06 PM

I just finished putting the insulation in the roof of the house i am building..
According to the builder the best stuff actually has a foil backing and i think fiber on the front (no idea of what it is called i just got the job of sticking it in).. This is suppose to be the best and is pretty expensive. It comes in a roll. So you just roll it out accross the ceiling. Other than that the pretty pink batts are pretty good.

Sourbastard · 22-08-2005, 01:08 PM

Yep, wool batts are the best, and you dont even need gloves or a mask to install them. Ive got fibre in my current house, dont think its as good as the wool is, infact, not even close.

TheSneakiness · 22-08-2005, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bailey04

I just finished putting the insulation in the roof of the house i am building..
According to the builder the best stuff actually has a foil backing and i think fiber on the front (no idea of what it is called i just got the job of sticking it in).. This is suppose to be the best and is pretty expensive. It comes in a roll. So you just roll it out accross the ceiling. Other than that the pretty pink batts are pretty good.

I think you may be referring to Blanket and Foil. When you touch the blanket stuff, do you get real itchy from it?

MrSparkle · 22-08-2005, 01:15 PM

Thanks for the responses chaps, keem em coming!

MITCHAY · 22-08-2005, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSparkle

Well the time has come for me to spend a bit on my investment property!

Thanks to a nice fat tax return, my tennants are going to enjoy better weather inside the house, care of a new reverse cycle aircon unit, and some roof insulation.

Jeez your a top bloke. Good landlords a few and far between lol.

parawolf · 22-08-2005, 02:25 PM

Mate this is a great thread - i'm thinking about doing this to my current residence as I believe the insulation in the roof is horrid at the moment. Doing that and then getting around to re-weatherboarding the house I might even do the walls as well?

Do people put fibre batts in the walls too? Or what else would you use here?

CongoAU2 · 22-08-2005, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by parawolf

Do people put fibre batts in the walls too? Or what else would you use here?

I'm a carpenter, and there are a couple of different thickness bats you can use i think that you use 1.5's in the walls, and 3.0 batts in the ceiling. all new houses are now insulated in the walls and the ceiling.

Stay away from the spray on foam/paper stuff. It is really cr@p, and breaks down over a few years which the batts don't seem to do as much. when you come to replace your insulation the spray on stuff is a to get out aswell.

A day or two in your roof with a bucket scooping your insulation out is not much fun

:

Thornie · 22-08-2005, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dellboy999

The cellulose fibre stuff (munched up newspaper) is whats in the roof of the house we are renting, seems to do a good job, but if the roof is not sarked and plenty of wind can get through the roof space it tends to blow about a bit and come down through the ceiling fans in the bathrooms, I would therefore suggest bats as a much better alternative.

Bats can also be done yourself, just wear long sleeves tape the gloves to your sleeves as the fibreglass gets into your skin and itches like a pain in the ***.

my mum had that stuff installed in her house and it made a 100% differnce in the temputure inside the house. Awsome stuff and ill be doing it in my house when i have the funds available

bailey04 · 22-08-2005, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AUII_SE_Ute

I think you may be referring to Blanket and Foil. When you touch the blanket stuff, do you get real itchy from it?

Yeah got damn itchy from it.. I have no idea what it was called, but the builder said it was great stuff and better than the pink batts..

One hint if you are putting it in yourself.. Don't wear a watch while you do it... All the crap got caught in the band and my wrist has been itchy ever since..

jabba · 22-08-2005, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CongoAU2

Stay away from the spray on foam/paper stuff. It is really cr@p, and breaks down over a few years which the batts don't seem to do as much. when you come to replace your insulation the spray on stuff is a to get out aswell.

A day or two in your roof with a bucket scooping your insulation out is not much fun

:

I am also a carpenter and a drywall plasterer and what Congo said is so true. When you make you decision, Take into account maintenance cost. Such as. If I have to replace a ceiling that is not an insurance claimable, How much will it cost. If you have a cellulose you need to take into account that it needs to be removed and replaced with new cellulose insulation. However if you have a 50/50 polyester/wool Batt it is cheaper the plasterers can remove and replace while there are replacing the ceiling..
also with the Poly/wool batts there are no special tools are required and no special safety equipment is needed for the installer.

jabba · 22-08-2005, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bailey04

Yeah got damn itchy from it.. I have no idea what it was called, but the builder said it was great stuff and better than the pink batts..

One hint if you are putting it in yourself.. Don't wear a watch while you do it... All the crap got caught in the band and my wrist has been itchy ever since..

If it was a grean coloured and densly packed, it's called Rock wool. That sh!t is the worst of the lot for making you ichy.

Laminge · 22-08-2005, 08:53 PM

Screw the Pink Bats mate!

How about getting water, electrcity and gas conected to the house, we are freezing our ***** off here!

EL XR8 · 22-08-2005, 09:11 PM

All insulation s me!!!!!
(I'm a sparky, so thats why!)
The blown in insulation is average, and it does go everywhere, if tyhe roof isn't totally sealed. Good thing with it is, thats its usually cheap, gets put in, in about an hour or so and gets into all the hard to reach spots (usually)

Any insulation batts are going to be btter than blown in stuff, and much better than what they currently have.

Dave

25-08-2005, 11:54 PM

Dont know if it has allready been sugested but to you but one of the best forms of insulation is to screw or nail plywood(thicker the better) to the tops of all your trusses and seal as many gaps as you can, this is exy though. It would pay to have all electrical wiring checked and any additional wiring of circuits installed for future use etc etc before contemplating putting fibreglass batts in as this will definately cut the costs down from your electrical contractor. All sparkys,fridgies,plumbers etc hate fibreglass insulation and will charge you alot more to be itchy and scratchy all day.

Every house is different in its insulation properties in regards to tiles vs steel vs asbestos on the roof, brick vs timber vs fibro for the walls, highset vs lowset, slab vs timber floors, number of windows, direction house faces, elevation of property, low, med, high density zoning ,airflow around house, shade from trees....... the list goes on, so its a bit hard to make comparisons between which insulating material works best due to the number of variables involved. Having been inside hundreds of roof spaces every year for the last ten years i can honestly say that the coolest house I have come across was a double brick and tile lowset home in sunny brisbane with a high pitched roof, the owner had sarking installed under the tiles followed by 12mm ply on the underside of all the trusses, there are whirlysbirds installed but I cant remember if it was 2 or 3, and finally there is pumped in cool or cosy type insulation that covered the bottom of the trusses by a good 50 to 100mm. All up one very cool house. Ive allways wondered if anyone has tried using foam(as in coolroom type) to insulate there house, i know it keeps your beer cold and it is as cheap as anything to pick up,it would be a peice of **** to install ,easily cut easily removed and it doesnt itch.

ps having good insulation will prolong in most cases the life of the air conditioner sa it does not have to work as hard. also in summer if you turn your air con on in the early morning the houes will stay cooler all day as the ac unit does not have to work its guts out all day trying to pull the temp down. A couple of bucks a day is stuff all to pay to run a split system all day in summer.

XA Coupsta · 26-08-2005, 02:56 PM

From my experience I've got that spray in stuff and it's great!

Noticed the difference that afternoon when I came home from work on the day it got installed.

The company we bought it off offers a lifetime warranty - and if any wiring needs to be done (and they need to disturb the product) they said no worries, get the electrician or whoever to move it - give them a call and they come back and fix it all back up.

And they sprayed like an adhesive or resin/glue sort of stuff over the top of it. So I have not had any problems with it blowing around and coming out my exhaust fans.

Again with my experience - its been great. And I didnt have to get in the roof and lay batts!!!

LTD Ute · 26-08-2005, 03:34 PM

Given that it's an investment property, you may want to decide if it's going to be
resold, kept as an investment or used by yourself at a later date.
Sarking and the poly/wool bats are at the top end, cost wise also.
The blow in stuff is cheap, quick and relatively effective and you shouldn't have
too much movement with a tin roof. Top ups are cheap and if you ever want it
removed they just vacuum it out with the same pump they use to put it in.
They are able to blow it into walls providing there is foil on the exterior cladding.
We've just done 40 odd properties for the Office of Housing here in Victoria
and it is cheap, just shop around.
I built my place, so I've got sarking to the roof, foil to external walls, 3.5 wool batts
to the ceiling and 1.5s to ALL external and internal walls. Also helps with noise
insulation as I have 3 teenage girls
Inside temperature is between 18 and 21 degrees without turning on the heater or cooler.

TheSneakiness · 26-08-2005, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bailey04

Yeah got damn itchy from it.. I have no idea what it was called, but the builder said it was great stuff and better than the pink batts..

One hint if you are putting it in yourself.. Don't wear a watch while you do it... All the crap got caught in the band and my wrist has been itchy ever since..

Yeah, this stuff we get at work from Bluescope is a reddish/pink blanket that has little fibreglass strands in it. Start moving it and you get itchy.

ferris01 · 26-08-2005, 07:44 PM

The house we are living in at the moment was purchased with the intent that it would be a rental in a few years. This place had no insulation so we froze the first winter and died in the heat for the first summer. We decided to get bats as they were cheaper with a rating 3, we also install two whirlybirds and they cut holes under the eaves to allow more circulation. We also installed 3 reverse cycle air-conditioners (splits). The insulation alone made a huge difference. So we have been living very well for the last three years.

And at the end of the year I am sure our new tennants will love it as well...

MO · 26-08-2005, 10:30 PM

The batts are good and the wool ones sound like the way to go but as I to am about to go down this road I found out there is a new insulation out called Aircell it comes in rolls and has two outer layers of reflective foil and what looks like bubble wrap in between and has equal if not better rating than batts.
No itchies,easy to install just roll out and join with tape however there is one drawback it costs about 250+ per roll.

For more info check www.air-cell.com.au