Installing Expol underfloor insulation in a villa

While the house is minus front steps, Mr Kiwi took the opportunity to install Expol insulation under the bedroom floor.

Usually this area is difficult to access and only has 2' clearance anyway. Plus it's muddy and full of cobwebs - as well as being criss-crossed with the ducting from our heating system. Not an easy - or a pleasant - job!

Above: The area underneath the bedroom floor doesn't have much clearance, plus there's heating ducting here too. Mr Kiwi has now blocked up the gaps in the weatherboards - there's no more daylight shining through!

The bedroom is south facing and therefore one of the coldest rooms in the house. It also has bare wooden floorboards: they look good, but are pretty darn chilly underfoot in winter! We may Expol more rooms later, but it's not a priority right now.

Expol is made of polystyrene sheets that fit between the floor joists. It comes in 4 different widths and has insulation value of R1.4.

Calculating how much Expol you'll need

The challenge with installing Expol in a villa is that these houses were built in a hurry, generally without plans or building regulations. Consequently, the floor joists were built by eye, rather than with a ruler, and the measurement varies from joist to joist.

In our case, the bedroom joists varied between 300mm and 500mm.

For now, we're just expoling under the bedroom - that's an area of approximately 20 square metres, which requires 4 packs of Expol.

But with the varying joist measurements, we needed to know which size to get.

Mr Kiwi went under the house and measured each joist. From there, he was able to work out how many packs of each size of Expol to get. The 4 packs he purchased were in 3 different widths, so if you're doing this job for a villa it's well worth measuring and calculating before you purchase!

What's more, not all the joists were parallel - many of them tapered. Many of the Expol panels had to be individually trimmed to ensure a snug fit. That's a slow job, and it took Mr Kiwi the whole day to install the insulation under the bedroom.

Home insulation subsidies from the NZ Government

The NZ Government is currently offering householders subsidies for insulating their homes. This is via EECA Energywise.

Alas these subsidies only apply when the insulation is installed professionally: it isn't available for DIY-ers. So no subsidies for us :(


Project cost: $$ (Materials only, for an area of approx. 20 square metres)

PS. I haven't included an "after" photo, as it's now pitch black under the house - it wouldn't be a very exciting photo!!

Picture this

Cheer up your walls

Changing the artwork on your walls is a great way of updating the look of your home, and having pictures which are meaningful provides real fulfillment and enjoyment.

Being a keen photographer, I like to display some of my favourite photos on the walls.

The Warehouse currently has a great range of cost-effective frames in store, some complete with mounting boards (I always use mounts... having the photo sit directly up against the frame doesn't look so good in my view). I bought the wooden ones pictured for $7.99 each (the photos in the frame are my own!).

I use FrogPrints for printing my digital photos. It's so easy, you just upload the photos online, choose the sizes etc. and they mail it to you. I've always found their service to be extremely quick, and most importantly of all the print quality is superb.

Project cost: $

Warming up

Heating system installation

Today is a long-awaited day: heating is being installed in my chilly villa. Hurrah!

Lots of research has gone into choosing the right system, and for anyone contemplating heating their home I'd strongly recommend that you join the Consumer Society to access their online reports on different heating systems. It could save you from making a very costly mistake.

A number of friends have had HRV or DVS systems put in: these raise the temperature by about two degrees, but their primary purpose is to remove the moisture. Humidity is a real problem in the damp Auckland climate, and it's not unusual for clothes, bags and even shoes to turn mouldy. My friends are really pleased with the system, but personally I wanted something with greater heating ability... hey, I'm from Europe, where we heat our houses, and I've found it quite miserable living in a cold house. It's quite common in winter to step outside and for it to be warmer outside than inside!

Our choice was a ducted heat pump system: this is where a heat pump is hidden out of sight and the heat delivered through air ducts in the rooms. In total there are seven such air ducts throughout the house (with two in the larger rooms) and also three air return grilles, as the air circulates. So as well as heating the house, it'll also get rid of the moisture. And dust too, apparently.

Why did we choose a ducted heat pump system?

• Our villa has very high ceilings, and has heat rises, so it made sense for the hot air to enter through the floor, rather than at a higher level.
• The ducted system is visually less intrusive: we didn't want ugly units on our walls.
• Less of a sensation of "being blown at".
• Ability to heat the entire house rather than just a room or two.
• Heat pumps are very cost-efficient to run compared to other heating systems.

What's important is that you end up with the system that's right for you and right for your home.

Choosing a supplier

In total four suppliers came to quote, and the quality of their knowledge and experience varied greatly. I'd strongly recommend that you get a number of people in to quote and you'll soon spot who knows their stuff and who's bluffing. Heat pumps are still relatively new in New Zealand, but really growing in popularity, so there are plenty of companies out there installing them to cash in but without the experience or knowledge. So it's quite likely that they'll recommend an installation that suits them, rather than you.

In the end we chose Climate Control, who've been in the industry for a long time and really knew their stuff. They supply Daikin heat pumps, who are the industry leaders. Plus the sales consultant from Climate Control was the only one who didn't patronise me with "ohhhh, a ducted system is soooo expensive..."!

Project cost: $$$$$$

The installers are here right now, I'll keep you updated with how it all goes...

Giving a cast iron fireplace a new lease of life

Cast iron fireplace renovation - BEFORE

There's an original cast iron fireplace in the bedroom. It doesn't get used and so far Mr Kiwi has used it as shoe storage. So now it's time for a spruce up!

Project cost: $

What you'll need:

• Masking tape.


• Newspapers.


• Dust sheet(s).


• Vacuum cleaner.


• Stiff brush/steel brush/steel wool.


• Stove black paint... all I could find was Plasti-Kote Projekt Paint "Woodstove", which comes in a spray can. Bought from Mitre 10 for $15.96. Otherwise my next stop would have been Dr Flue in Glenfield.
• Surgical gloves or rubber gloves: the spray can leaked through the nozzle as I was spraying and ended up with a very black index finger.

Clean the fireplace well with the brush and/or steel wool, and then vacuum up the debris. Then mask the surrounding areas well.

Before you start using the spray can, here's what it doesn't tell you...

• The spray paint STINKS. It's really bad, and harmful to fish etc. so remove any pets from the room and make sure they stay out.
  
• The paint also kinda lingers in the air and gets onto the surrounding area, so put down newspapers and dust sheets 2 to 3 metres surrounding the area.


• If the fireplace you're renovating is in your bedroom, make sure you have a spare room or somewhere to stay for the night. The paint is so stinky you won't want to sleep in that room that first night.


• Spray any removable parts (e.g. the grille and ash tray thingy) outside of possible.


• Ventilate the room well: open all the windows and doors to get a draft blowing through.


• To help get rid of the fumes, a fan heater can help.

I needed to spray at least 2 or 3 coats in total: as it dried, the corroded areas really seemed to suck up the paint, so these parts may need even more paint.

Links

Here are some websites which had useful hints and tips on renovating antique cast iron fireplaces:

The Victorian Society (UK): http://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/Homeowner/3996/fireplaces.html

The Antique Fireplace Company (UK): http://www.antiquefireplacecompany.co.uk/

Dr Flue (NZ) would have been my next stop for information and products: http://www.drflue.co.nz/

During my internet research I found that it was customary for all the cast iron to be black - as well as the flue/chimney bit on the inside. Mr Kiwi thought it was strange at first that I was even spraying the inside black... it might look like a lot of black right now, but I'm sure the final result will be fine!

New hot water system

Bye bye hot water cylinder, hello continuous hot water!

Last week we waved goodbye to our Parker gas hot water cylinder and had a Rinnai Infinity XR24 installed... for various reasons, it was time to upgrade.

We now have a biiiiig huge empty space in the airing cupboard where the cylinder used to be: hmmmm I can feel a towel and sheet reorganisation coming on!

Mr Kiwi took the cylinder apart: it's lined with a huge amount of copper, so that got sold to the scrap metal merchants and he's going to take me out for dinner with the proceeds. The outer part went into the skip with the other rubbish we cleared out last week.

Project cost: TBC

The verdict

So what's the new hot water system like? Bliss!!! The water pressure in the shower is so strong that it almost blasts you back out through the door! And we now have enough hot water to actually fill up our bath tub. Lovely!

Contractors

• The plumbing and gas fitting was done by Plumbing Magic.


• The electrical work was done by Jon King Electrical.

They all did a great job and come highly recommended.