Insulation - good deals?

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#1094474 23-Jul-2014 19:59

Uh-oh. My insulation is arriving at 8:00am. It's 4 cubic metres and 7 x 55kg bales, according to the truck driver I've already got my man-cave filled with gear with nowhere to store it, scaffold erected today - some urgent jobs to do before my builders arrive on Monday. My apprentice (21YO son) better not have big plans for the weekend.
I finally got around to installing an auto opener on the roller door on my garage - so it's easily secure, and I can give the builder a remote so they can store gear secure and dry.
I am stoked by the job the scaffolders did today. Extra-wide alu platforms, at perfect level for work on exterior, at remarkably reasonable price. All ticketed and kosher in case OSH visit.

wally22

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#1094545 23-Jul-2014 21:51

PlaceMakers (I work for them) are currently offering 33% off for ceiling and underfloor Pink Batts. The higher rated 2.6 Snugfloor may be worth checking out for your underfloor. I don't have pricing to hand.

Bung

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#1094596 23-Jul-2014 23:20

Fred99: I finally got around to installing an auto opener on the roller door on my garage - so it's easily secure,

If you're retrofitting an opener to a roller door have you fixed the last of the roll to the axle reels? The motor locks the roll but an unsecured roll can be lifted over the top.]

Fred99

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#1095126 24-Jul-2014 18:14

Bung:
Fred99: I finally got around to installing an auto opener on the roller door on my garage - so it's easily secure,

If you're retrofitting an opener to a roller door have you fixed the last of the roll to the axle reels? The motor locks the roll but an unsecured roll can be lifted over the top.]

It's sorted, I had professional expertise at hand (friend in the business). The garage door is the only entrance under the house, so I had to drill through a 150mm thick concrete wall to install a cable release lock, which I epoxy mortared in place. It's a very old roller door - probably installed as a new-fangled feature by the original architect owner in 1962. Made in Aus. Used a Guardian auto unit - the door operates very quietly and is well-sealed.

Fred99

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#1095149 24-Jul-2014 19:18

wally22: PlaceMakers (I work for them) are currently offering 33% off for ceiling and underfloor Pink Batts. The higher rated 2.6 Snugfloor may be worth checking out for your underfloor. I don't have pricing to hand.

I used to dislike Placemakers...
However, over the past couple of months, I've discovered something - they will haggle on price. About 6 weeks ago I was looking for a grunty impact driver. There was one on the shelf for $550 which suited my needs, or a "kit" with drill for about $800. "Too much" I say. "Let's see what we can do then" says tool salesman - taps a few keys and comes back with a price of $360 for the impact driver (with 2 batteries and charger). That was a good deal - as good as I could get on the 'net.
Today I needed a jar of SS screws along with a few other things. Salesman pointed me to item of shelf - $38. "That's outrageous" I say - "dammit - I'll have to stop in at XXXXs to get my 55% discount on the way home" Next minute he writes out a ticket for me to take to the till - $20 incl. (incidentally still dearer than Blacks, but saved me going out of my way to save a few miserable dollars).
This is good. My local Mitre 10 truly sucks. I bought about $2500 worth of Sika products for concrete/foundation repairs at Placemakers. They had a special on - the prices were pretty good. I ran out of a few items (injection nozzles etc) and as my local Mitre 10 (Ferrymead) is much closer, took a copy of the Placemakers itemised invoice, They were very rude about this, absolutely refused to honour their "beat any price by 15%" guarantee, insisted that Placemakers had made a mistake - or that I'd received a "special trade price" not available to the public, and only very reluctantly - after getting a "manager" involved, agreed to meet (but not better by 15%) the price.
I did get them back though. I needed a water-blaster. Another store had exactly the same model on the shelf - and gave me the nod that it was being discounted the next week. A little sneaky, but a copy of the discount leaflet that was supposed to be embargoed until monday morning came my way. Two minutes after opening time at Mitre 10 Monday morning, I was at their service desk with $350 water blaster and competitor's brochure where it was on sale for $199. This time - despite obvious horror and panic calls to "head office" to try and find a way out, I got my 15% off.

DarthKermit

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#1100516 2-Aug-2014 10:51

Bump.

So how's your insulation project going?

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#1100545 2-Aug-2014 11:17

Friend was denied the 15% discount buying a house lot of door fittings because they said it was trade quantity and would only do the 15% on one handle set.

Between that and the made up skus and exclusives it almost never works now.

Also they say that in store pricing isn't advertising despite being covered by the asa.

As for insulation. I just paid the local guy that installs the green bats to do it a month ago in the roof. Is helping with power Consumption but it still is bloody cold under desks etc without a heater directed right at it so I think when the chimney Co. E's down I will get someone to get into the gap with some insulation.

Richard rich.ms

Fred99

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#1100595 2-Aug-2014 12:05

DarthKermit: Bump.

So how's your insulation project going?

We installed half of it last Sunday. The Knauf blanket lived up to the claims of being non-irritating, but of course there are already old pink batts in the roof space, which a truly horrible. Combine this with very limited roof space, dust, and the difficulty in either maneuvering long lengths of blanket into position, or cutting and butting it in some kind of methodical basis, and it would be fair to say that it wasn't a hell of a lot of fun. I have some alterations and EQ repairs to do at the other end of the house - so will wait until I've done that before rolling out the insulation in those areas. I hope that won't be quite so bad - access is a bit better.
Meanwhile, I had builders commence work this week, installing framing timber as "packing" for the new cladding system. For a few reasons, I've needed to work alongside the builders. They are working on rates - not a fixed-price quote. This could have caused some tricky issues, but has worked out perfectly. There are some damned good tradesmen out there. I'm more than happy to continue with the rest of the project to completion on rates - still too many tricky/unknown issues may arise. Weather permitting, we should be ready for pre-cladding council inspection this coming week.
Sub-floor insulation I haven't decided on yet. I'd like the highest R value possible. I should be in the basement now - ripping down the last of the old foil and dumping it in the 6m3 skip while it's here, but I need a day off.

Fred99

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#1101211 3-Aug-2014 17:29

The only (hopefully) easy to install sub-floor insulation I can find is Mammoth (recycled polyester).
This comes in pre-cut widths, down to 370mm. I measured up joist spacing this afternoon, and where I measured it's all between 350 and 360 mm - so this stuff should slot in without cutting. (Sods law says there will be joist spacing where I haven't measured wider than this).
R value (1.9) is a little less than the fibreglass alternatives, but neither Knauf Earthwool or Pink Batts have a narrow enough width to avoid a lot of cutting and wastage.
Expol do have a "black" grade, R1.8 at 360mm - but I'm, guessing it's going to be expensive. I'll find out prices for these products tomorrow.

Has anybody had any experience using the Mammoth product - or can suggest alternatives?

jonathan18

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#1101258 3-Aug-2014 19:37

Fred99: The only (hopefully) easy to install sub-floor insulation I can find is Mammoth (recycled polyester).
This comes in pre-cut widths, down to 370mm. I measured up joist spacing this afternoon, and where I measured it's all between 350 and 360 mm - so this stuff should slot in without cutting. (Sods law says there will be joist spacing where I haven't measured wider than this).
R value (1.9) is a little less than the fibreglass alternatives, but neither Knauf Earthwool or Pink Batts have a narrow enough width to avoid a lot of cutting and wastage.
Expol do have a "black" grade, R1.8 at 360mm - but I'm, guessing it's going to be expensive. I'll find out prices for these products tomorrow.

Has anybody had any experience using the Mammoth product - or can suggest alternatives?

It looks very similar to the product we had installed in our previous and current homes (along with plastic sheeting on the ground), both installs being done by a contractor under the Govt scheme (Energy Smart). It too was made from recycled plastic. Did an excellent job in both places, especially in terms of reducing draft through floorboards (but between both products we definitely had gaps grow between floorboards as the moisture levels dropped).

Prior to having it done at the first house we brought in an insulation expert who had been doing testing for EECA: this polyester was the latest at the time and he highly recommended it, especially compared to polystyrene. Would use it again if I was in the same position.

timmmay

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#1101277 3-Aug-2014 20:17

I have something similar, the same as what johnathan18 has I think, plus the vapour barrier, put in by a scheme. Between them they made a huge difference to reducing the moisture and funny smell in the house, can't say I noticed much difference to warmth though. We do have thick underlay and carpet though, which will have a fair bit of insulation value.

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Stu

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#1101279 3-Aug-2014 20:25

We're going to be installing insulation into a 40ish year old house whilst renovating. Some helpful suggestions here folks. Many thanks!

mattwnz

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#1101281 3-Aug-2014 20:29

BigHammer: We're going to be installing insulation into a 40ish year old house whilst renovating. Some helpful suggestions here folks. Many thanks!

Are you doing it yourself, or getting someone to install it for you. Personally if I was DIYing it, I would install wool or polyester for health reasons. Something like teralana. But if you are installing other stuff make sure you use a really good respirator type mask.

Stu

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#1101289 3-Aug-2014 20:41

DIY. Not our first reno, but the first time we've had to sort insulation as well. At this stage wool and polyester are the options we're looking at, but not finalized anything as yet. Cheers

timmmay

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#1101296 3-Aug-2014 20:52

Ceiling, wall, or floor?

I did loose fill wool, after a couple of years it settled and I put batts over the top, made a big difference. Suggest you go for batts or similar in the ceiling, the thickest you can fit/afford. I have two layers in many places, plus the wool, house stays pretty warm considering it's 100 years old or something crazy like that.

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