|
 Remember
the picture of that Immersion Heater? Look carefully at the
photo (left). Here we have insulated all of those pipes. In fact
we didn't even question whether pipes wee hot or cold. We did
them all. You could probably save yourself a little bit of money
by lagging only the hot pipes. The pipe insulation is flexible
foam. You buy it from DIY stores. It is not expensive but you
will need a lot of it for a job like this. There are only two
dimensions you need be concerned with - 15m and 22mm diameter.
But measure first! Focus on the areas with the biggest wins -
such as this airing cupboard. Remember you only need a gentle
heat to air your laundry. You don't need to cook it.
Space in the cupboard was restricted around
the shelving. Pipes were also fitted very close to walls making
squeezing the insulation in a bit of a struggle. But boy, is it
worth it! You can cut the foam with a pare of scissors. I did
this a lot to fit the lagging around cupboard shelves and pipe
fittings. You will also need to do some cutting to ease the
lagging around any pipe bends. Remember to NOT lag over any
valve where a screw driver is required to stop the water flow.
Finding these stop valves in a hurry is very important in any
plumbing emergency. You have been warned!
_______________________________________________
We had just such an emergency with the first
month. We were insulating the long pipe runs in the attic when a
pipe joint burst. The joint in question was joined via a
flexible hose and compression joint to a Shower Pump. Sadly the
earlier DIYer had soldered the other end of the joint to a
length of Copper piping. This is a big no-no as the heat weakens
the plastic. The joint was extremely fragile and was ready to
pop with the slightest movement. The incident caused panic at
the time as I was alone in the house. I was lucky enough to have
some plastic sheeting and a large plastic box in the attic left
over from the move. This gave me enough time to switch all the
electricals off in the house and grab a mobile phone and the
Yellow Pages. I had to hold my thumb over the pipe end to stem
the flow of hot water. It was too hot but luckily some bubble
wrap came to my rescue. Even so we had water dripping through a
light fitting and into the bathroom below.
Thankfully the emergency plumber turned up
and figured out how to switch the water off. However, his visit
was very expensive (it was a Saturday night) in more ways than
one. Although very lucky, in that we didn't sustain any
structural damage during he leakage, we recognised that all the
DIY piping had to be removed and replaced by a professional
before any further pipe insulation could be done. Within a week
it was all fixed. Expensive - but what price can you put on
these things? The lesson was learnt. We certainly don't relay
this story to put anyone off. It is not a fault of the
Insulation exercise but it is useful to reflect that you do need
to be careful around amateur pipework and take the following
precautions:
-
Before embarking ensure you have plenty
of water-tight plastic sheeting to hand
-
Bubble wrap as very useful for handling
hot water pipes
-
A 20 gallon plastic container is handy if
you can't hold the leakage
-
Try and make sure you are not alone in
the house
-
Have a mobile phone with you
-
Have some numbers for emergency plumbers
programmed into the phone or keep the Yellow Pages handy
-
Make sure you know where your fuse box is
-
Make sure you know what each fuse on the
fuse box is for
-
If water is going to leak onto any
electrics immediately switch off the power
-
Keep a torch handy in case you need to
power-off the lights
-
Get House insurance!
Having said all of this.... I have insulated
a lot of pipes in my life and never had this happen before. It
was bad luck. I hope it doesn't happen to you. Copper piping
soldered together is very robust. Flexible piping should be
equally robust. Any piping, if properly connected, should be
able to withstand slight movements. Be suspicious of joints
between copper and plastic piping.
__________________________________________________
 Anyway,
we digress. Back to our Airing Cupboard. See the picture -
right. Here we have fitted an extra insulation jacket for the
Immersion Heater. These are available from DIY stores and are
quite common so you can shop around for a bargain. We got ours
for £13 from local DIY store ("Focus DIY"). It comes in a pack
of four panels of red plastic which seals in in the mineral wool
insulation. Open each pack and shake them to let the air inflate
each panel. Carefully maneuver each on around the cylinder
using the instructions on the pack. Do not cover the top of the
heating element. Tie off with the laces supplied. I also used
some tape to make a neat job of the jacket around the top of the
cylinder.
Note that not all cylinders are the same
size. Measure yours first to ensure you get the right one.
However there is not a lot of diversity and the DIY store we
went to only stocked one size. It happened to fit our Immersion
Heater Tank perfectly.
There you go. Job done. It took only a few
minutes to fit the jacket. Fitting pipe insulation is a bit more
time consuming but remember - it took Noah more than half an
hour to build his Ark.
Insulation - Attic Water Tanks
  Why
insulate those water tanks in the attic? Firstly - they are
meant to be! Local Byelaws dictate that all such tanks must be
insulated. The reason? Frost. Uninsulated Tanks and fittings can
freeze and be damaged in winter. The resulting damage could be
expensive. Secondly - it would be nice if you didn't have all
kinds of contaminants floating around in the water. This is
especially important for the hot water tank which must have a
lid.
As we are planning on adding a lot of extra
insulation to the attic then it becomes more important to
insulate the tanks. Since they can no longer rely upon heat
flowing up from the living space underneath then they will need
to endure cold temperatures using internal warmth. Having said
that, it is not recommended that you apply extra loft insulation
underneath these water tanks. The reason is to allow some
residual heat to escape to the underside of the tank. However
you will still need to insulate AROUND the base of the tanks to
stop that heat from spilling out into the attic space itself.
 The
photo's here show the small Tank which is the Header for the Hot
Water system. I purchased a new lid for it (no original lid has
been found). This cost £1.38 + VAT & Delivery from
www.bes.ltd.uk Then I fitted
the insulation jacket. This was also from BES and cost £2.17 (+
VAT & Del). The 50 Gallon Tank is the Header for the Hot Water
system. It too had no lid so we purchased one from BES (£15.26 +
VAT & Del). Finally I fitted the large tank with its own
insulation jacket (BES for £7.80 + VAT & Del). The final view of
the finished tanks is pictured right. The jackets are just
Mineral Wool sealed into plastic bags. You will need to cut then
to fit around any pipes then tie of everything with the plastic
string included in the pack.
There you have it. Job done. Very satisfying.
However, remember to wear gloves and a dust mask around mineral
Wool insulation because it irritates both skin and lungs.
Insulation - Loft Hatch
  The
original loft hatch was nothing more than a 1cm think piece of
ill fitting hard-board. It was also very small. Since we were
planning on getting a lot more loft insulation up there, plus
using the loft for storage, it became clear that something
larger was required. After browsing the web I came up with
www.jupiterblue.co.uk
who sell a variety of plastic loft hatches by mail order. I
chose the largest one I could with the maximum level of
insulation. In this case it was a "PD35" (755mm x 560mm) for
£41.99 (+VAT of 9.36 & Delivery of £11.50). This hatch has a
full 100mm 'plug' of polystyrene and is air-tight to meet the
provisions of the new "Part L" Building Regulations in force in
England.
 It
took a couple of hours work to remove the existing loft hatch
and open up the space to fit the new one. The golden rule here
is that you can do what you like but NEVER cut through a load
bearing joist! The only 'fiddly' aspect of such a job is trying
to get a good fit. In this we were very lucky in that our house
builders had fitted some wood around the old hatch that was
exactly the excess width we need to remove. Once I cut this away
the fit was perfect. I also had to make the hole much longer.
This required repositioning a non-load joist that the builders
had thoughtfully nailed into place. I had to take a hack saw and
cut through the nails at one end before pulling it out. I made
the hole larger and then re-nailed this section of wood back
into place. I took the opportunity to move the entire hatch area
further away from the space frame trusses as this would help us
to get things into and out of the attic (plus it enabled a
fold-up ladder to placed there later). Once you have the right
sized hole the new hatch simply pops into place to be secured by
eight screws. Job done
To finish it off I did mastic around the outside ceiling joint.
We were lucky in that we didn't cause any damage to the ceiling.
It only needed a lick of paint to conceal the newly exposed
areas that had not previously been painted. This is the
advantage of making things BIGGER! Here you see a photo of the
final installation. This was actually a very easy job to do and
an important one. The only disadvantage is that we found the
100mm plug of polystyrene takes up space when open and is highly
vulnerable to getting damaged. We will probably find a cunning
way of propping it open. Otherwise we might recommend a hatch
that pushes up and clear of the opening.
Insulation - Attic
 Ever
wondered what £999 (this included VAT and delivery) worth of
Black Mountain Sheep's Wool Insulation looks like? It arrives on
two pallets (which can easily be moved by one person). Each
pallet had 18 rolls. The total of 36 rolls covers around 55
squared meters. The pallets always come in handy for building
that compost heap you always promised yourself you would build
if only you had a few old pallets! It took a couple of days to
haul this lot into the attic. It isn't heavy just bulky and very
dirty. The rolls are mostly well wrapped in plastic bags but not
all. Everything is covered in a layer of black dust that will
settle around your house whilst you move it. I can only assume
that the place this is made in Wales is co-located with an old
coal pit. The alternative to Black Mountain is Thermafleece but
that is 30% more expensive. Why did we choose sheep's wool? Well
it has vastly lower embodied energy than mineral wool but the
aspect that really swung it is that it can be handled without
gloves and causes no skin irritation. Thus it can be used over
top of the existing mineral wool to 'seal it in'. This should
make the loft a much nicer environment to move around in. Anyone
who has ever spent any time in a loft insulated with exposed
mineral wool will tell you that it gets in your lungs and makes
for an uncomfortable experience.
 The
picture (right) shows the next stage of operations in the attic.
Each one of the seven recessed ceiling lights need to be sealed
into airtight boxes. Each box had to be made up from materials
to hand. I bought some 47mm x 47mm batten as the existing joists
are 94mm deep. A couple of these, cut to length, slot into the
gap between the joists. Screw in good 75mm (size 8) screws
through the joists and into the ends of the battens, Then a
third, longer, length goes over top of the joist so that the
unit is load bearing. Put two of these either side of the light
fitting and smaller lengths along the joists to make the
remaining sides of the box. The battens can be screwed or glued
but make the unit robust enough to take being stood on. Then cut
a section of chip board (or whatever you have to hand) to fit
over top as a lid. I used self-adhesive door seals (visible in
the photo) between lid and box to get a good seal. You will have
to include some holes to allow wires in and out but you can
mastic all round for a good seal.
 You
can screw the lid down but there shouldn't be a need to be too
thorough. Remember that you may need to get to the top of the
light again, one day, for maintenance. This will effect whatever
you put over top of the air-proof box too so think about it!
Next step is to lay the first insulation. At this point
everything should be easy for most DIYers. You have to remember
to lay any electrical wiring over top of the insulation in case
it generates heat. This will also ease maintenance. Whoever laid
the wires in our loft took no notice of this advice so we had to
dig around to find all the wires. Several wires were threaded
underneath walking planks near the base of the inverted A-Frame.
In theory you could unwire these and do the job properly but we
didn't worry. We made the next phase difficult for ourselves as
we wanted to be able to walk over the insulation in places and
have some storage. The normal advice is that extra loft
insulation makes storage impractical. Other advice tells you it
can be done but to more than 40% of the attic should be boarded.
My enquiries lead to no good explanation or advice on the
matter.
 Therefore
we had to use common sense. If your attic is to be lived-in,
rather than used for storage, then Building Regulations require
proper load-bearing joists to be installed. Apart from that we
guess the only limits are the extra weight you add to the attic
joists if 'over-joisting'. Hence, restricting the amount of
over-joisting, to save weight, seems a good idea. We planned to
fit the 40% and bought enough 100mm x 47mm joisting as seemed
sensible. It will be spread evenly through the attic space and
must be screwed to the existing joists using "L" angle-brackets.
The insulation is 100m thick and we will be making two passes to
get the additional 200mm. The first layer will go at
right-angles to the existing joisting then the second layer at
90 degrees again. Hence the two layers of over-joisting will be
angled to match. This provides a strong but lightweight frame.
Remember that all this weight is in the attic so, even if you
screwed everything down firmly, to make the loft floor stiffer,
the house underneath has to hold it all up! Therefore we
preferred a minimalist structure with no attempt to make the
existing ceiling stronger.
 Try
and position the load around the sides of the loft, near the
load-bearing walls, rather than the middle. Do not add
over-joisting over existing pipe-work or obscure access to the
stop-cock valves. (You may need those in a real hurry one day!)
If you (like us) are planning for future installations of Solar
Thermal or Photovoltaic Panels then think about where additional
pipe-work or wiring will go. Provide routes around or through
any raised flooring so that work can be done without having to
rip out all your good work. This may all seem like hard work.
And it is. However, if you call someone in to do some work in
the attic, a few years down the line, then it will all be worth
it as your installers will be able to move around and work
without putting a foot through your ceiling. Just make sure that
the new flooring doesn't get in their way. So keep it to a
minimum. The roof joists are already holding up all your water
tanks so they are quite strong. They also sit upon a rigid box
structure so will take a reasonable static load. If in doubt get
a builder in and talk to your Local Building Control Officer.
 Over-boarding
(as illustrated) is necessary for any areas where you may need
to access. Follow the advice on the pack and do not allow it to
be supported by joists further than 600mm apart. Do as we have
done here and mark the position of all wiring, pipes and ceiling
lights on the top of the boards for future reference. You are
not meant to trap the wires between boards and joists although
this is probably more to do with stopping you from drilling
through them. We cut slots in the over-joists to fit the wires
through. (Do not cut such slots into your ceiling's load bearing
joists!) As long as some air can pass then over-heating should
not be a problem. We also avoided having to thread wires over
joists as much as possible by routing them around the joists
however, sometimes, the available lengths did not allow this. In
areas where access is not likely to be required you can probably
get away with spare furniture board, and the like, whatever you
have lying around. However this stuff is dangerous if you try
and step on it as it is unsecured. This kind of thing is only
good for static storage. |
