Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Insulation is it worth upgrading??? 2Apr 17, 2019 1:55 pm Building a modified Madison 39 with Clarendon Homes in Tennyson homeone link: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=79106 Blog Link: https://minandb.wordpress.com/ Re: Insulation is it worth upgrading??? 13Apr 18, 2019 2:41 pm darb74 Bebbsy We have 2.5 in the external walls incl the garage ($1280)and also 2.0 to the internal walls ($1500). Advice we have had is the ceiling is more important to achieve a higher rated insulation than the walls, at least here in SA. Hi Bebbsy, Hey after being onsite a bit when our wall insulation was getting put in, I would question the builder as to why alternating b/w R2.5 and R2.0 from external to internal. I mean this purely from a practical perspective, as it would be difficult to exactly order the correct amount of either so wouldn't just be easier for everyone involved to just go R2.5 everywhere? They're both 90mm thick, the R2.5 will just be denser. The cost different you would think would be fairly minimal? I must admit to not even have thought about that at all, and you’re right, the additional cost should not be that much. I’ll def follow that up. Re: Insulation is it worth upgrading??? 14Jul 15, 2019 10:14 am darb74 I’ve done a tonne of research on this, and for starters once you get to say R4.0 on the ceiling it’s becomes a case of diminishing returns, so going to R5 is good still but not as good as going from R3 to R4 etc. Anyway ceiling insulation is where most of the gains are to made, walls are second. Another really important point is the quality of the installation is critical to the overall effectiveness. I have read that even a 5-10% of gaps reduces the actual effectiveness by up to 50%. So for example, even though our installer for our wall insulation did a great job we were in the house today filling in small gaps to get it even better. We just bought some 18m rolls of Earthwool R2.0 from Bunnings for the fill-in work. We paid around $2k extra to get all internal walls done in addition to the standard externals. We are likely now going with R5 blow-in with R4 perimeter batts. Really useful to not have any downlights if you can avoid them according to our installer.....they create large insulation holes in your ceiling. So we have: - Knauf Earthwool R2.5 HD acoustic batts through all internal & external walls - Knauf Earthwool R4.0 ceiling batts on perimeter of house (coming in about 600mm) - Then R5 blow-in cellulose over the ceiling using the outside batts as a backstop But if you go with ceiling batts I would suggest at least R4 depending on your climate I guess. More importantly make sure you get a.chance to inspect it prior to plaster. Important it isn’t compressed and all gaps are filled. Can I just jump in here a little bit, you mention ceiling insulation is where most gains are to be had, does this still apply for 2-story homes? I'm building a 2-story home in SA, currently getting R2 to walls & R4 to ceilings, wondering if it would be cost effective to upgrade, or would this be sufficient? In fairness nobody gave a crap about the ACCC and the gag clauses continued in the pro forma templates of a few other builders after the ACCC took on Wisdom, and more… 19 73506 Hi I am wanting some opinions about the build of a steel shed I am going to get one about 4.5 x 2.5 m steel shed and the height will be about 2.3-2.4m high The one I am… 0 14449 Hi everyone. I am a single mother with little daughter, living in a small tourist town in WA Australia. I am thinking to install security screens to all the doors and… 0 25065 |