Insulation upgrade or add sarking

Hi all

Got a dilemma. Builder is charging $3750 to upgrade from R3.5 to R6. I thought that's a bit rich.

I heard somewhere that I will get better thermal insulating by putting a type of insulating sparking in instead.

Thoughts?

I don't particularly like R6 because it's so dam thick and I can't walk in the roof easily.

Please help

How often do you walk in the roof then ?

I think I'd put up with it, and have the advantage of the better insulation, although I think they're taking you for a ride with the upgrade price.

Hi,

I just got an estimate from a roofer to lift tiles and battens, lay sarking, and relay with ridge capping, of $8000 - $10000. Our place has a ground area of about 100 sq m, and is a standard pitch hip roof. It was an off the top of his head estimate, but he is an experienced guy, and did not overcharge for the job I called him on. So that may give you a benchmark.

You don't say what area your ceiling is, but for a price comparison in batts, see here

http://www.insulationaustralia.com.au/g ... e/pricing/

Cheers

Oh sorry I have 250m2 of living celiling plus 40m2 garage plus 16m2 alfresco but only living I would think

FYI, I paid about $7k all up for Boral terracotta tiles installed with sarking. New townhouse 2 storey 50% tiles top floor and 50% ground floor.

Prob about 100sqm total.

To the OP, a bit pricey, see if they can drop it to $2k. R6 is worth it.

I've been quoted $2630 for the same upgrade, I'm thinking the roof area is around 120sqm.

Ok update.

I've hade a specialist insulation co give me a quote for $3120 to the full house 280m2

This is for R6

I'm going to do this and get a rebate from the builder for the already included R3.5

Firstly where are you?

When we were looking at insulation, and in consultation with a sustainability architect, higher R rated batts are better at keeping heat in, not as good as keeping it out due to heat soak, whereas insulated and reflective sarking is better at keeping heat out, not so good at keeping it in.

Sydney (where I am), you need a balance, further north sarking would be better, and further south higher R batts. We didn't re-do the roof, so the old sarking was left in situ, but if we were to redo the roof, I'd certainly go insulated sarking.

Be also aware that the batts needs to be fitted tightly against each other; any gaps means heat loss/gain, and it does make a difference (electrician did not replace batts properly).

Hi PHL

I'm in Vic.

Our summers are brutal so I'm more thinking that I want the sarking to help during summer.

The trade off is that Vic is considered cold climate so in winter I'm not going to be getting the benefit of the suns rays heating up my ceiling space but will be relying on the effectiveness of the R6 batt to keep the warmth in the house.