Link to todays posts Monday, December 17, 2007

Work starting upstairs

The septic tanks and all the various bits of pipework outside etc. have been backfilled and the ground levelled out.

insulationLast week we started work upstairs cleaning and treating the beams and floorboards. All the beams, a-frames, purlins etc. were dusted and swept through to remove any loose muck and dust, then all the exposed timberwork was washed and cleaned with water and sponges to remove any dirt. All the timber was then spayed with a couple of coats of multi-purpose woodworm/beetle treatment. There was a little infestation in places but nothing too much to worry about. It's worth doing as a preventative measure and it helped to bring the wood, which is going to be exposed, back to 'life'.

I've bought loads of insulation to start lining the roofspace. In the past I've just used 100mm or 200mm thick glasswool or rockwool behind the plasterboard, however this time I'm leaving both the purlins and the A-frames exposed and there isn't the room for thick insulation. It's a bit more expensive (about 2 to 3 times more) but I've got a multi-layer thin reflective insulation. In my case it's got 14 layers of insulation, silver reflective sheets and other stuff. It's only about 25mm thick but has the same R-value (insulation) as 200mm glasswool. It's easy to install via a staple gun to the rafters and doesn't have all that horrible dust and fibres of traditional insulation. It is necessary to leave a 2cm air gap between the roof tiles on one side of the insulation and 2cm on the other between the plasterboard.

It all looks very space-age and shiny. I'll have to see how it works out.


|   12:48:01 PM  Use this to link to this item Work starting upstairs   
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These are my experiences of renovation and running a gite business in Brittany, France. A gite is the French equivalent of a country holiday cottage. French culture, language, taxes and bureaucracy. Find out about our gites using the links on the LHS. Stories about the road to this point will be added in due course. Renovation nightmares, builders, stress, etc. Stay tuned.



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