Insulation trial

A good part of today was spent faffing around with offcuts of PIR insulation sheet, generally referred to as Celotex or Kingspan in these parts.

My ultimate aim is insulate our timber framed garage by filling the apertures between the studs and noggins with Celotex/Kingspan. The roof will also need to be insulated and then thin OSB sheet will be used to line the interior.

Once it is suitably insulated and lined, I plan to install a small oil filled radiator to raise the temperature and, hopefully, minimise condensation issues.

All of that is a long way down the road, and today's efforts were to familiarise myself with the product.

Overall it went fairly well and I can confirm that a multitool is perfect for cutting the sheets. A permanent marker and straight edge are a must for marking out, and you need to cut a millimetre, or so, oversize so that the panels can be wedged tightly in to the apertures.

What I can report is that working with offcuts is a pain in the backside.  Two, or even three, pieces of Celotex are needed to fill each aperture, and that means twice or thrice the amount of measuring and cuts needed. It also means that more aluminium foil tape is required to seal the joints.

I appreciate that there will always be offcuts to deal with, but having complete sheets would allow me to work out the most economical way to carry out the job.

This little trial took a few hours and it likely to have virtually no impact on the thermal efficiency of the building. What it did achieve is that I now have a better idea of what I am doing and the likely amount of materials needed.

The only other news for today is that I also managed another circuit of the Three Mile with Hobson. As this is now a near daily event, I'm not sure how much longer I can refer to it as news?