Hello Insulation

Yesterday we had our roof professionally vacuumed and new insulation put in. It took 4 guys most of the day to clean out the old insulation, vacuum up all the possum poo and dust, remove any debris and to put the new insulation down. But boy was it worth it.

Firstly, we knew we needed to get the roof cleaned out when our initial pest inspection told us that there was a major possum infestation in the roof. He also told us that the roof was thick with possum poo, rats nesting in the old insulation and the old insulation was drenched with years and years of possum wee. The house also had a very musty smell to it on a warm day.

We had the roof rebedded and repointed to stop the possums getting back in followed by a possum removal expert putting in a one way door to get the possum family out. We also put up a possum box in a nearby tree to give them somewhere else to go to.  They left the building so it was on with the roof clean. We didnt want to do it ourselves after the possum man told us in the era our house was built they used to throw arsenic in the roof spaces to deal with rats.

Secondly, insulation has always been really important to us. We have seen at Granny B's house how effective fantastic insulation can be. Her old miners cottage stays at a fairly even temperature during the day, never drops below 15 degrees at night (even when it's 2 degrees outside) and never really gets above 28 degrees in the heat of summer.

We only intend to have ceiling fans at the new house - mainly to keep our electricity usage as low as possible. And obviously dont want to pay through the nose for heating in winter. So insulate we have :-) We decided on polyester batts for a variety of reasons. Mainly because they are so allergy friendly but also because they dont impact on the environment as much and their manufacturers will take them back at the end of their life.

The end result? The house smells much better and today was fairly warm and the house was blissfully much cooler than before. We have high ceilings but even up on ladders painting today it was nowhere close to what we have experienced recently renovating during the heat.

All in all an early success I think :-)