I Heart Insulation

Hi. My name is Mitch and I love insulation. Today was a good day, it was pretty much all about insulation. The joiners are putting underfloor insulation in the front room and the hallway. (We're finishing the floorboards in those rooms, and without the insulation the floors will look pretty but be cold and drafty.)

We put underfloor insulation in our Cardiff house.  Here's an example of how DIY matches up against professionals.  It took me two months to lift the boards, put in the insulation and then lay the boards again.  And I had help.

It took the joiners less than one day.  And now we have 100 beautiful mm of wool insulation.   I think it's wool.  I need to check.

Scotland has incentives for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient.  We qualify for a 500 pound grant to help improve the house.  We also had a surveyor come to the house today and he certified we qualify for "free" cavity wall insulation.  The energy companies pay the surveyor's company to do the cavity wall insulation.  The government gives the energy company money because they're helping the environment, and we (as the homeowners) don't have any additional cost.  That's social democracy at work right there folks.  (Like it or not.)

Next week the joiners are going to be working on the loft.  The rigid insulation we're putting up there is pricey.  So I spent some time today calling around to get quotes.  See, the thing is, I may have calculated the square meterage incorrectly.  My calculations put us needing around 85 sq meters.  One of the guys did a calculation tonight and came up with 55 meters.  Uh, I may be way off.  I hope so, because the lower figure could save us around 700 GBP.

The loft currently looks like this.  Sorry, it is really dusty up there so the camera catches the particles.  We're keeping the ladder access for now, but doing the hard work to make this into a proper room in the future.

There is more going on than insulation.  On Saturday night, the guys worked late and finished laying the bamboo floor in the new kitchen.  It's going to be covered for the next while so it won't get ruined with the plumbing and plastering that needs to take place.  I got a quick look at it before it went into hiding.  

The floor is covered with ply for the time being.  See the window?  The pipes and steels are hiding behind the wall of plasterboard.

Our plasterer is awesome.  I can't believe how fast he is working.  He works by himself and is doing an excellent job.  Plus his rates are very competitive.  If anyone in the Glasgow needs a plasterer, I would highly recommend him.  The kitchen ceiling was sheeted...maybe yesterday?

And today it is plastered.  (Maybe a little too fast, the electricians were in today and they hadn't cut out for the lights yet!)

I think the plastering (except the loft) will be done by this weekend.  And, uh, based on the position of the wooden latter maybe it's best I don't know how the these hard to reach walls are being skimmed.

The plumbing first fix is still a ways away.  Like maybe two days away, if the plumbers push as hard as they tell me they're going to.  The pipes for the radiators are in, but the boiler, bathrooms and kitchen still needs work.

The understair WC floor has been prepped.  The guys laid a screed to help bridge the weird floor gap between the floorboards from the hall and the cement floor from the larder.

The joiners were laying the subfloor on top of this floor today, in preparation for the tiling.  It brought back memories of me laying the subfloor for the bathroom in Cardiff.  Ugh, I suddenly remembered measuring and cutting and trying to get the board into a room where the walls aren't plumb.  I was relieved to be watching instead of doing on this go round.