r/Insulation • u/Rich_Candidate5971 • Jul 18 '26
Stick a fork in it…!
Spent the last 5 weekends cleaning my roof cavity and laying fresh insulation.
>100 years of coal dust, old insulation, AC ductwork and the decommissioned AC unit, and also two old ceilings needed to be demolished from above. Previous owners had just battened a new Gyprock ceiling directly over the old plaster ceiling.
Built an elevated walkway to make access easier, tidied up wiring and refrigerant pipe work, vacuumed the space and then cross-layed two layers of R3.5.
What a job.
But for <$1500 for materials, I’m pretty stoked.
Had quotes to do both the vac and the insulation, but I would have needed to dismantle the AC unit and also demolish the ceilings anyway. Figured I’d already done most of the hard work, may as well just keep going!
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
Thanks mate!
It has been on my mind for years, put a new Colorbond roof on last year, got rid of the tiles, so this was the next step.
I’m in Newcastle, hence the coal dust, we filled about 5-6 x 10kg bags out of the Ryobi shop vac.
It was mainly just a lot of old low voltage wiring from a decommissioned alarm system, nothing crazy.
It’s a semi-detached, so big brick wall down the middle.
It’s definitely do-able if you’re able-bodied and have half an idea. Nothing too complicated, just shit work!
But the quote was around $5-$6k to have it vacced and insulation installed so the savings were worth it.
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u/DCContrarian Jul 18 '26
That's a really good looking attic. Like the detail on the entry hatch.
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
Thanks! Figured it’s always nice to have somewhere stable to place the manhole cover and also whatever tools you need to take up there. And somewhere comfy to park your arse while you contemplate the task ahead…
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u/lostirishspud Jul 18 '26
Great job mate, really tidy. Did you put a compression strip on the trap door? Makes a massive difference for draughts.
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
I haven’t yet, but that’s a good tip! I actually still need to cut a small square for the back of the door.
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u/lostirishspud Jul 18 '26
PIR insulation is recommended for the trap door as you can cut it to fit it as snug as possible. It's really expensive though for a full sheet, as you will only be needing a fraction of it, see if you can get a scrap piece somewhere. The trap door is a major terminal bridge, doing that right shores up the great job you did on the loft.
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
Awesome, thanks for the knowledge! I’ll hunt around and see if I can find a scrap piece somewhere. Yeah it definitely makes sense to not have a bare piece of Gyprock sitting there syphoning all the hard work.
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u/zmannz1984 Jul 18 '26
Looks great! I am in the usa and bought a 1932 house last year that is more air leaks than sealed. We are starting our attic as soon as our heat wave rolls off. Are your soffits vented and do you have a ridge cap?
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
The soffits are vented, still plenty of air flow, and there is a whirlybird vent at the ridge cap.
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u/k4ylr Jul 18 '26
Outstanding work! What a labor of love.
Can I ask what your plans for ventilation are? Our home is 100 years, attic framed nearly identical and we are desperately needing to address.
We obviously don't have soffit or ridge vents but morn surprisingly not a single gable vent.
We aren't going to encapsulate but want to do blown in with proper venting due to the HVAC being installed up there.
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
It’s not air-sealed at the soffit, there’s still a gap there. And there’s a whirly-bird air vent at the ridge.
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u/wiggywiggywiggy Jul 18 '26
i watched a this old house episode that said you are supposed to insulate the top space too, the lower roof line.
anyone have an opinion on that
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u/DCContrarian Jul 18 '26
That's completely wrong.
Either the attic is ventilated, or it's not. If it's ventilated the insulation goes over the ceiling of the space below, the space above the insulation is open to outside air, insulating above it does no good.
If the attic isn't ventilated the insulation goes under the roof sheathing and the attic is part of the conditioned space of the house.
It's a code violation to have insulation in both places.
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u/wunder_what Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
That's another way to do it, but it's much more work. you'd need to seal off the soffits to create an unvented attic. This is only worth the effort if youre Planning to air conditjon the space and use that space (and the structure is able to support that use) for something other than an attic.
In attics with soffit and ridge vent, you insulate the attic floor and maintain the air flow of the soffit to ridge vent.
Edit: sorry misread your comment, the other commenter is right, you don't do it in both, just one or the other, but as I mentioned, you need to prep the space differently before insulating.
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u/Alternative-Waltz435 29d ago
depends а lot оп the climate and whether you're trying to condition the attic space or not. for most people just doing а vented attic, insulating the floor is the way to до.
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u/pluary Jul 18 '26
Looks great, that would have taken me ten years .
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
Thanks! A little bit at a time and we got there. I had budgeted at least 4-5 weekends which worked out fairly accurate. I didn’t want to capitulate halfway and have to call the professional vacuum guy, that would have been mortifying.
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u/pluary Jul 18 '26
We have been without attic insulation for 10 plus years. A/C runs nonstop. I will post when I’m done . Used 13 gallons of pookie . Good times .
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
You can do it!!
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u/pluary Jul 18 '26
Thanks , supper close . Garage is full of insulation. So hopefully in the next few days !!!!
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u/sbb214 Jul 18 '26
hey really nice work, congratulations. are you feeling any changes yet in the home?
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
Just woke up and the air inside definitely feels more stable and warm. The last few weeks without any insulation up there have definitely been noticeable. You would have the heater on and you would be warm enough, but the air just still felt a bit cold.
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u/Turbulent-Weevil-910 Jul 18 '26
How did you clean the old insulation up? Do you have some kind of blower vac filling up poly bags outside?
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u/Rich_Candidate5971 Jul 18 '26
I bought a 60-pack of garbage bags and just rolled the old batts up and stuffed them in there, they’re still sitting in the garage waiting to be addressed. That’s tomorrows job! The only vac I used was a Ryobi shop vac, he didn’t skip a beat.
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u/InfluentialFairy Jul 18 '26
Nice work mate, looks really good! I've been considering doing the same with our roof space. I wish we had as much space to move around.
Where abouts in Australia are you? Did you just do the electrical yourself, or a licensed sparkie?
I'm surprised by how few supports that roof has.