Sunday 28 October 2012

Getting warmer

Well, relatively speaking. Eight days after getting the insulation, I'm just about finished doing the inside of the west gable wall. Quite a lot of hours, considering I worked till 10 or 11 every night for those eight days, but it's the small details, particularly around the windows or accommodating the roof slope, that took the most time.

Here's a little before and after fun. First, the living room.
Living room, pre-plastering
Post-plastering.
And now with insulation.
The pink bits are extruded polystyrene, which are considerably denser than the white, expanded polystyrene stuff. The idea was to use this where fittings, like curtain rails, might go, so it'll support the weight better.

Going up a floor, to the bedroom, just above the living room.
Pre-plastering

And insulated
I've to cut blocks out to put some extruded polystyrene in here.

And finally, up another level. Small windows here, but I wanted to preserve the underlying arch form somehow, while making sure it was still well insulated. Filled the gaps above the windows with insulation then overlapped a layer with a fake arch cut in. When it's plastered, it should look nice, with an alcove/reveal 10cm deep.That's 10cm more than there was before!

post-plastering
Insulation finished tonight
There's still the very tip to do, then foam has to be injected between every insulation block, just to be sure, and finally, the whole lot has to be anchored to the wall with special screws. Once that';s done, we're ready to install the wall heating system!

Well, the south facade still has to be insulated, this time with wood fibre insulation. I have a feeling it'll be more difficult to work with. If I can get it ordered and delivered this week, I'll be happy.

6 comments:

  1. looks like a lot of work, but i must say, i liked the rough walls and the pure stone-look more :-)

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  2. Me too! However, I also like to keep warm without emptying my bank account :) We kept one stone wall (Kalkstein) exposed in the living room, as that was insulated from the outside. There'll still be plenty of other old features to look at ;)

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  3. Wall heating system? Is it an alternative to radiators?

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  4. Yep! I really didn't want big rads, so had been looking at all sorts of fancy "skirting board" heaters. We knew that underfloor heating was not an option, due to wood being a poor conductor, but when our friend, Sace, the electrician, showed us this wall heating system, it seemed ideal. Basically, it's like under floor heating, but in the wall, so it means you get very even, radiating heat and can use a low temperature system, like a heat pump. Only drawback is you can't go hammering nails in all over the place, but it should make for a cosy environment, with no cold spots. Once plastered over, the plaster also acts like a heat store. All will be revealed, hopefully in the net few months, as I can at least get the system panels installed once the walls are ready.

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    Replies
    1. Sounds neat. When we were doing ours I remember thinking "Radiators? It's 2008 and we're still bolting huge metal water tanks to the wall?"

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    2. Yeah, I can't stand them any more. Seem like a complete waste of space. I also want to have a wallpaper-free house! :D

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