Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Apr 14, 2015 7:49 pm Hi, We will be building a new house in north west sydney area and just working what insulation we ask the builder to include. Any advice on what is worth spending the extra money on would be appreciated. The house will be hebel panels, and roof will have sarking. Builder does R3 in ceiling, so we want to increase that to R4. And also insulate garage ceiling. In the walls R2 is standard. Not sure if it's worth increasing to R2.5? (Sales said R2 is max that fits in external wall, but I want to ask again) Should we leave it as R2 in external walls and then get wall wrap (instead of increasing to R2.5) The more insulation the better, but with a limited budget just trying to work out where our money is best used. Thanks! Re: Insulation advice on new build 3Apr 16, 2015 11:26 am You can get R 2.5 batts that fit in a 90mm timber framed wall but they bulge a bit causing a few problems for the gyprockers that's one of the reasons why the sales guys try to steer you away from them. A better option is the R 2.5 HD batts ( I presume the HD stands for high density ) that are denser but the downside is that they are a lot more expensive. R 2 batts plus sisalation would be your better solution as you've already worked out. R 4 for ceilings is what is recommended for Sydney so you have that covered as well. Note that is fine for keeping the heat inside during winter but for summer ( and it gets hot in NW Sydney as you'd be well aware ) I'd look at a foil backed blanket under your roofing rather than just sisalation to help keep the heat off your house. Stewie Re: Insulation advice on new build 4Apr 17, 2015 10:54 am I thought the R2.5 HD batts fit in a 70mm frame, or am I think the R2.0HD fit in a 70mm frame but were in effect close to the similar efficiency of R2.5 ? Owner Building at Jimboomba Woods in Logan City Qld. Blog : http://bandlnewhomebuild.blogspot.com H1 thread : viewtopic.php?f=38&t=68283 . Re: Insulation advice on new build 5Apr 17, 2015 5:04 pm The R 2.5HD batts were designed so that homeowners could improve their insulation in a standard external wall which for large parts of the country ( WA excepted because they are stuck with double brick walls ) means 90mm timber frames and either timber or cement/fibre cladding or brick veneer. They had to be a higher density to fit in the 90mm thick frames while reaching R 2.5. I'm unsure what you could use for a 70mm wall. Stewie ( standing by with a fire extinguisher to repel flame mail from any sandgropers ) Re: Insulation advice on new build 6Apr 21, 2015 11:31 pm Thanks so much for the advice! We will have 90mm frames. But I think we will go with R2 in walls plus sisalation. The roof we will have R4. And we still haven't decided on a colourbond or tile roof yet. If we do colourbond we will have the anticon blanket. And if we do tiles we will get sarking. I have the costing on R4 for the ceiling. I just need to get the costing for the sisalation. Is it worth making sure you have ceiling insulation in the garage? (Cost was about $300 for R3 in garage ceiling, so we thought it would be worth doing) Re: Insulation advice on new build 7Apr 22, 2015 11:37 am The garage is worth doing if you have common walls and ceiling areas to the house particularly as it is only $300. Anything that helps keep your house warm in Winter and cool in Summer. Stewie Getting the permit for your wall because it's going to be pretty tall in some places isn't too hard, but it does mean you have to do a bit more work. If all these steps… 6 21803 |