One of the great things we did while renovating the house was thinking of ways to reuse materials. For the bathroom that meant reusing copper pipes. We’ve been reusing old gates and cyclone fencing in our yard to make entrance ways and the like.
But my favourite was reusing polystyrene for insulation. As any of you would know when you buy a new appliance these days, they come jam packed with rubbish, namely plastic and polystyrene. Now the plastic these days tends to be recyclable but what to do with all that polystyrene.
With winter coming and utility costs rising, we are intent on making this house as warm and snug as we can through insulation rather than heating sources.
We’d seen on shows like Grand Designs and in magazines like Sanctuary the tendency to use polystyrene for insulative effects. So any time we had to open our walls while renovating we would fill them back up with our excess polystyrene from the fridge, washing machine, microwave and oven. We would match up or cut to size and then stick to the plasterboard with pva glue.
We have already noticed it reduces the heat to Little B’s room which backs onto another room that gets the full Western afternoon sun. I also like the fact it can help with sound proofing. Mr B’s office has the most polystyrene in its walls and it blocks sound really well.
Next job is to work on under the house!!
A brilliant idea! I wish we could have done this with our recent renovations ... But most of the polystyrene came well after the insulation stage. And now we are just having to fill our bin with it! Although I did keep some for pinning my crochet to when blocking it,
ReplyDelete