[Caroline and Dave]

With all the recent reports of damp houses etc has anyone had insulation put in their house. There seem to be a lot of good houses on the market that have little insulation and I am interested to know if anyone has bought a house and then got it insulated. There are a lot of firms claiming to do this but unless you know someone who has had it done it can be quit an expensive operation for little gain


Dave and Caroline

[pieeater]

I've insulated ours using 'Pink Batts'.The bones of our property are old.It was built on the section from trees milled on the property and is mostly matchboard and scrim.We had to saw the boards in strategic places on the inside and fit insulation that way.Then gib over the top,it is very labour intensive.You can also remove the outer cladding and do it from the outside.Either way it's a major.

[Charlosparky]

I've insulated ours using 'Pink Batts'.The bones of our property are old.It was built on the section from trees milled on the property and is mostly matchboard and scrim.We had to saw the boards in strategic places on the inside and fit insulation that way.Then gib over the top,it is very labour intensive.You can also remove the outer cladding and do it from the outside.Either way it's a major.

I have worked in some newish houses here that have polystyrene sheets about 75mm thick on the outside of the frame and it is then rendered with a 4mm layer to look like stone- and it looks convincing too. I wonder if it is possible to do this after removing cladding from an old house???

[pieeater]

I suppose it may be possible but I think there may be some re-engineering to look at as the cladding is sometimes structural,as are the matchboards.

[richard]

Our house had no insulation in the walls when we bought it. There are now just a couple of walls left, in the dining room, that are uninsulated and they have large windows in so are not worth doing. As we have redecorated I have ripped the gib off, put pink batts in and made good.

It can actually be quicker than ripping off the old wall paper and does a better job although I only bothered doing the outside walls. The batts are about $110 per bale and I used up to 1.5 in the larger rooms Gib starts at $17 for a 2400x1200 sheet. It has definitely made a difference as has the double glazing.

[clg]

We did it to a house in the US, simmilar construction to here. The biggest bang for the buck that you get is in the ceiling, and that is fairly easy to do if you have an attic. You can also add insulation to the floor of the house if you have a crawl space and that also is not that difficult, but it can be hard work depending on how much space you have. Lots of good comments about walls above, we never did that. We decided the cost of the extra heating would be less than insualting the walls would cost and then save us in heating.

Here, we have insualation in the walls and the floor is concrete slab so we don't need anything there. Our ceilings are valuted and covered with wood so we don't have anything to insulate there but I am sure we lose a lot of heat there.

You can insulate all you want but without a good heat source the house will still be cold in winter so keep that in mind. Sun helps but you can't always count on it. If you have centeral heat damp will be much less of a problem. We run a dehumidifier maybe 12 days a year and we have no problems with dapmness other than condesation on the windows, we used to have that it LA though so not really a big deal for us. Our house here is actaully much less damp than our house in LA was but we lived very close to the water there and it was foggy a lot.

[sizzlingbadger]

We were lucky that the house we're in is on a concrete base, has wall insulation despite being built late '70s but the roof insulation wasn't that great. We decided to put more pink batts in the roof space to try and keep the heat in the rooms, after having the fire going it never used to warm up that much.

We've felt a huge improvement now it's all been done, so much so the rooms around the pellet burner also get really warm if the fires on most of the day.

It's definitely worth the hassle getting it done.

[sarahw]

Our (1970's) wooden house got the cedar cladding taken off, insulated with Pink Batts & then re-clad with boards & sprayed with some textured stuff over the boards & painted. It looks OK & it sure beats having to treat the cedar regularly.

It was done before we bought the house so can't comment on wither its better or not, but to be honest I don't know if it makes much difference since there are so many big windows on this place & a very high lounge ceiling.

You can, on the other hand, as friends are doing with an older house, remove the gib inside as they decorate each room, insulate & re-gib before decorating - has given a great modern finish to the interior as well.

If you have a raised floor (which most wooden houses do here) you can have polystyrene under-floor insulation - friends have had that done on an old state house & its now very toasty - its on my list of must-do's as half of our house could be done (other half on concrete).

[Rose]

If you are in Christchurch you can get info on insulation here:

http://www.ccc.govt.nz/Programmes/CleanAir/Showhome/

There are those in NZ who recommend a three-pronged approach to insulation from cold and damp.

1) Batts etc in the walls and ceilings,
2) reflective foil under the floors (you need a crawl space and a staple gun) and
3) plastic matting on the soil under the house to keep the damp out.

Living in a fully insulated apartment in Sweden, I am dreading the cold and damp of NZ homes. I just hate the condensation running down the windows in the mornings, the mouldy shoes in the wardrobes, the chilling draughts.... I will be looking for the BEST insulation in the world!

Rose