Week Thirty-two

Week beginning 9th January 2023

On Sunday we decided to finish fixing the last two rows of purlins on the north facing roof and insulate or seal some of the narrow spaces in the walls.

It’s Monday and we have decided to try and insulate the north elevation, before we head to Edinburgh on Wednesday night for some appointments on Thursday and Friday.

We have no idea how long it will take because, although it is a smaller area, it is more complicated than the roof. We will have to fit the insulation around two windows and we have very little room behind the tarpaulin to work in.

Before we can start fitting the insulation we need to do some preparation – first we need to prime the timber frame around the windows then we need to seal the windows with expanding foam and tape between the window frame and the timber frame of the house.

The priming, foaming and taping was a messy job and we should have worn gloves to save our fingers from the sticky mess.

We also need to cut some OSB to the length of the sides and the top of each window making it 160mm wide. These will be screwed onto the window frame creating an edge for the insulation and a support for the finishing timber when we do the cladding.

We’ve managed to do all that and although it’s dark, we are going to unpack and move some of the Steicoflex into the house so that we can keep it dry. One of the biggest issues when working with Steicoflex in a wet climate, is keeping it dry. Some of it that we were fitting onto the roof got soaked and we have been trying to dry it out but it’s not working.

We have just unpacked and moved two palettes of insulation into the house. It was heavy work but well worth the effort as it will save us time tomorrow.

We are getting started promptly this morning but first we have to tape the join between the ring beam and the timber frame. We had to wait until the frame was dry enough because the tape won’t stick to wet wood.

Much like on the roof we have to fit the Steicoflex between the studs then fit the Steicospecial dry over the studs. This will give us 300mm of insulation on the walls.

We start off by fitting the bales where the studs are centred at 600mm, this means we don’t need to cut the first course and only trim a bit off the length of the second course.

Now that we’ve done that we need to carefully measure the spaces and cut the insulation to fit

It’s a horrible day and we need to work under the cover of the tarpaulins which is a tight space. We also have to move quickly when we bring the insulation from the house to under the tarp so as not to get it too wet. It’s slow work all this moving back and forth but we are plodding on. We decided not to ask for help this time because of the seriously restricted space and the thought that it would be a bit too frustrating.

We have managed to finish this stage a bit quicker than we first thought so we are going to start on the second layer of insulation but before we do that we need to move a palet of it into the house.

It’s too dark to carry on fitting the Steicospecial dry but we are happy to call it a day because we have completed the first row. The Steicospecial dry is a tongue and groove system which gives great airtight and waterproof insulation. One down side of having the groove at the bottom of the first level is that you need to spray expanding foam into the groove so that you have full depth insulation at ground level. It’s a bit awkward and time consuming but well worth it.

It’s going to be a race against time today if we are going to get the insulation fitted up to the trusses but if all goes well it is possible.

Before too long we get up to the level of the windows so we need to screw the OSB around the window frames, only along the top and sides because the window sill goes along the bottom and we need to leave space for that.

We’ve just carried another palet of insulation into the house so that we can carry on with the task. It’s great to free up the space they took up in the car turning area – no need for careful reversing into our drive now.

We have to measure very carefully now so that we can get a neat job around the windows. We’ve made the cut on this board a bit tight so we have to take it down and carry it back into the house for trimming. Obviously this makes the process slower than it could be if it were dry but hey ho, it is Argyll afterall.

It’s dark now and we have got to within 500mm of the top so we are happy to finish here. We need to tidy everthing up now and get ourselves cleaned up and changed before heading south. Overall we are pleased with our efforts and it won’t take long to finish the job when we get back.