Been blessed with a glorious day for the window fitting for Barn 2 (the first barn we are working on) today so been an early start just finessing the openings ready for Munster to come and slot them in.
After this we are onto plastering, finishing details and second fix…
We recently took delivery of a load of Black Mountain Thermalflex insulation. After long chats with Andrew Evans we decided to try this instead of our originally planned sheep’s wool. One of the deciding factors for us was its greater resistance to slump and its improved sound absorption. The product is more rigid than wool so holds it shape more easily in the roof and stud walls.
On the application side we found it pretty easy to install, coming in a convenient 380 width for our 400 centres studs.
Cutting was easiest with a serrated knife. It was suggested that an electric carving knife is THE best but we found a good old bread knife pretty good. One thing we did find was that the product was much harsher on the eyes than the wool we had used previously… so our recommendation, WEAR GOGGLES, especially if you are working overhead. We all had red irritable eyes for the first day after we put it in…
You can download the ThermalFlex tech sheet and get a bit more information on it. We found the company easy to talk to and very responsive to enquiries. We plan to use them for our rigid board insulating sarking for the roof too.
Oh yeah, check out John’s curved wall using 2 sheets of flexible 6mm plasterboard layered together…
We asked our friends at Traditional Oak to quote for our internal doors, sadly they were out of our price range for this project but thought people would enjoy seeing what they can do… from a project in big budget Londinium.
Due to the height constraints of the building we came up with a somewhat unusual floor makeup. Sound proof dense plasterboard was laid straight on top of the oak beams, followed by 22mm chipboard and then a 40mm screed through which the services run, finished with a top of 18mm chipboard ready to take the carpet.
The result is a structurally solid, acts as a thermal store, and is acoustically isolated.
The studs float on top of the screed at the exact right height. To achieve this we came up with a pegging system. We used a liquid screed from Lidstones the pegs came out and the holes are filled in.
We don’t know if anyone else has come up with such a sandwich construction, most probably, but for us it was the right solution for this build. Another plus was a considerable reduction in the first fix labour, with a combined saving on plumbing (M&M Plumbing) and electrics of a massive £4000 across the whole build. All the cables and pipes are simply clipped to the floor and run into any studs or wall chases; no drilling through beams, feeding cables and pipes, joints or awkward corners.
A lot of old buildings, even those given a clean bill of health by a “surveyor” can have horrors in store. I this case no foundations and floor levels excavated under the stone standings were not picked up by a local well respected one.
Whenever we uncover a sight like this one can’t help being filled with a bit of dread. Usually though there is a cost effective, structurally sound, naturally insulated breathable solution if you can think out of the box a bit, (and sometimes there has to be a little concrete in the mix).
We will do some diagrams/cross-sections of our solutions at a later date… until then here’s a bit of an idea.
See here is Kieran on work trial, getting nicely stuck in.
Excavate to expose foundations and stop damp penetration through the walls from above floor level. Insulate with natural external cork render.
Big thanks to Dave for his digger work. Accurate fast and friendly.
