Resistant render pro board

The Resistant render pro board compared with the multi pro board.  It will be interesting to see what the difference is when we plaster them.

Preparing rooms to plaster

Bedroom 2 getting prepped for plastering.

Family bathroom ready for plaster.

Master bed to be prepped.

Bed 4 ceiling already plastered and walls being prepared.

Bed 3 waiting to be prepared.

Planting

The planting at the front has done well this year.

Priming MgO boards

We are using another type of primer on some of the boards - Magnaprime.  This is not a gritty primer like the DG27 but it does control the suction of the boards.

The first place we are using it is in the ensuite.  Here we are using Tadelakt plaster, which a water proof lime plaster that can be used in wetrooms including showers.  This plaster has a different build up to the lime and clay plaster elsewhere and this is the first coat to go on the magnesium silicate boards.  We will say more about the plaster when we get to it - which hopefully will be in the not too distant future.

The second place is in the family bathroom, underneath the wall tiling.

Elsewhere we are still pressing on with the boarding!

Magnesium silicate board

To date we have been using 9mm Resistant Multi Pro XS board for boarding the internal walls and ceilings. However we were unable to get this last delivery and we had Resistant Multi Pro instead.  The difference between the two is that the XS board has four layers of mesh, while the multi pro only has two layers which gives it extra strength.  The extra strength is important if you were using it as a racking board for example but for us it wasn't critical so we gave the multi-pro board a go.  Whilst these  board are less expensive they have not bee  as easy to work with.  They are much more brittle and tend to crack much more easily.  The corners are particularly prone to breaking and are incredibly difficult to fix and keep in tact!

There are various methods that can be used to cut the boards, the most common is by scoring and snapping.  In some cases this is not possible, for example if you only want to take a small strip off or if you need to cut out a socket.  Other methods can be used, for example hand sawing, or jigsawing.  The board are very hard though and tend to blunt everything amazingly quickly!  One really good way of taking a small about off the board is by using these - blacksmiths files/ rasps.

We tried carpentars rasps but they were forever blunting, but these blacksmiths files stay amazingly sharp and you can be very accurate with them.  They don't look much but trust me they're great!  What is even better is that these ones were being thrown out by a blacksmith, so we are giving them a new lease of life!

Preparing the board for plastering

Preparing the magnesium board before plastering (clay/ lime) involves taping the joints between the boards, securing the tape by putting a thin coat of Gypsum plaster over them.  To get this really smooth and flat we found the best way was to mix up the gypsum so it was quite wet and paint it over the tape.

The next step is to prime the whole lot.  Generally we are using DG27 which is a gritty primer.  This controls the suction of the boards and provides a key for the plaster.  We have started preparing some of the boards, so hopefully some can start to be plastered while we are still finishing boarding in other areas.

Still boarding!

We have been cracking on with boarding recently, trying to get to the end! This is the family bathroom,  now complete.

Insulating the first floor

The rest of the floor that wasn't injected with Warmcel insulation (recycled newspaper), is insulated with the DIY bags of Warmcel.  We tipped these in from above and fluffed them up (dusty stuff!), thickness is 100-150mm.

Boarding on GF ceiling complete

Boarding of the GF ceiling now complete.

Airtightness membrane

The last area to put the airtightness membrane was the wall in the master bedroom.

Now complete!

Insulating some last areas

The sheeps wool is back out today to insulate the last few bits..

Like this wall between the study and the hall.  This wall was meant to be sprayed with warmcel insulation with the rest of the studwork but because we have framed out for a cupboard they were concerned this would be difficult to do.

We had some sheeps wool left over so put this in instead.

Boarding the GF ceiling

Back to boarding the GF ceiling - sort of approaching the end!

With the added challenge of boarding round the chimney!  (The board is Magnesium Silicate board which is A1  non-combustible and suitable for use as a fire board).

Warmcel insulation part 2 - floors

Part of the first floor over the utility room (with the heat pump) we wanted to fully fill with insulation to give as much soundproofing as possible.  The plan was to 'inject' them with warmcel insulation from below (just to be confusing the photo is taken from above!).  When we fitted the ceiling boards on the GF ceiling we let off a strip 400mm wide roughly in the centre of the floor, through which a pipe could be inserted into the floor and the insulation blown in.  We were told to tape up all gaps, even those only 10mm wide, so I assumed the insulation could be blown with some force.  I am not sure this was a correct assumption!  The pipe can not really spray any distance and needs to be able to get right to the ends of the joists, which gets increasingly difficult the further you get from the insertion hole.  The pipe is flexible and so negotiating it around things like the floor struts is not easy when you get a couple of meters away from the hole!  To ensure you reach the end of each joist I think you need to be quite methodical and measure how far in the hose has gone to ensure the insulation has gone right to the end.  We ended up taking up the ply on top of the joists to ensure the insulation had gone right to the end.  I had thought the beauty of this method of insulation was that you didn't need to take up all the first floor again but I am now not sure it is reliable enough just to trust all joists are fully insulated to the end without checking.

When it came to filling the last section of the floor, where the pipe had been inserted, either mesh can be put over the gap, a hole made in it and the last bit filled (similar to the wall insulation).  Or the last bit of ceiling board can be fitted, a small hole cut into it in every joist bay though which the last bit is filled.

We went for the latter as using the mesh was more difficult as one side of the ceiling was hard up against a studwall and so there wasn't a lot to staple the mesh to.

The cut out holes are kept.  A small batten is inserted into the hole and screwed to the ceiling board either side and the hole can then be fixed to the batten.

The holes re-fixed.

Warmcel insulation - to mesh or not to mesh

It was the first day of the putting in the Warmcel (recycled newspaper) insulation today into the internal timber studwork walls and also part of the first floor.  It was sprayed in using two different methods - open spraying (on the left of the image) and meshed (on the right), where they stapled up a fabric scrim first and then sprayed into the void created.

The insulation is sprayed using different size hoses - a smaller one where it is being injected into a contained void and a larger one when it is being open sprayed.

To start with the walls were open sprayed - this picture is a bit blurry as it was very hard to take a good picture because of all the dust...

...which just filled up the room!  Literally everything got covered in a film of newspaper dust.  (I am very glad that we taped over the electrical back boxes!)

At the end it looked like this.

You can see the amount of insulation on the floor banked up against the wall.

The insulation then gets flattened off and the overspray and dust tidied up - this takes nearly as long as applying it!

Completed walls using the open sprayed method - they look neat but were incredibly dusty to do.  We were told that there was no time limit on how long we could leave the insulation exposed as we were concerned it might fall out of the wall.  When they spray it, it is slightly damp so it holds together better and we were worried that when it dried it might fall out of the wall.  Whilst it doesn't fall out of the wall as such, if there is a lot of air movement across the surface of it then it does tend to blow out gradually.

In contrast, the meshed walls have a fabric scrim stapled up first as seen here.  Holes are made in the mesh in each 'bay' of the wall, for example above and below every noggin and between all the studs.  The hose is then inserted into the hole and the void filled up.   There is virtually no mess!  A definite plus compared to the open spray method in my opinion!

Its is worth noting that where we have the thicker walls, the people installing it found it easier to mesh and fill the entire void.  So in places the insulation is about 300mm thick.

Clay plaster in WC

The plaster is pretty much dry in the downstairs WC now, and the colour has lightened up.

Last preparations before the Warmcel insulation

Taping all joints and over electrical back boxes to stop them getting filled with insulation.

Walls ready to be insulated.

The study wall ready.

Magnesium board and cupboard frame in utility room

Magnesium board in the shower in the ensuite.

The frame for the cupboards around the mechanical equipment in the utility room.

Last door linings

Door lining into the master bedroom and cupboard.

More magnesium board

Magnesium board complete on the landing wall of Bedroom 3.

Door linings

We're fitting the upstairs door linings today.