Insulating in sub-zero temperatures
Not a lot to say of this week of work as I only got down and dirty on the one day to do some insulating in sub-zero temperatures, oh the irony.
During the week my evenings were filled with a late duty at work, three lovely nights of putting Izzi to bed and one night post-dentist when I was incapable of anything but curling up on the couch and feeling sorry for myself (it was rather nasty, this wasn’t an instance of man flu but a tale of blood and gore and enough anaesthetic to numb my entire face including my dose and ears).
My Saturday was another day of looking after Izzi and the subsequently the only day I had to do some work was the Sunday.
So Sunday, what’s to say but insulation…. Yes I finished off insulating the old living room floor, well I finished off insulating underneath the living room floor at least.
This was one of those jobs I particularly despise as it involves crawling around in the dust of a soil floor and pinning insulation to the bottom of joists with an electric screwdriver. Yes a dinky electric screwdriver, not a full size electric multi-purpose drill masquerading as a screwdriver but a ickle lickle screwdriver. The reasoning behind such a choice being dictated by the clearance between the bottom of the insulation being fitted to the joists and the soil floor underneath. These clearances were tight and even the mini-Bosch screwdriver I was using was sometimes too long for the job in hand. This limitation had held my back in my previous sub-floor exploits and what should have been a one day job had extended into this second day.
Not only was the job dusty but it was freezing, even though outside it was basking in a balmy 5 degrees, inside if felt like it was sub-zero. This room suffered from being post-old-radiator and pre-new-radiator and it also suffered from no floor and sub-floor vents venting into the entire unfloored room.
Anyway enough of the whinging, at least this time I had a wonderful living room to retire to. The splendour of having an almost complete room to flump into after a couple of hours working in the sub-zero subfloor cannot be underestimated. No longer did I have to find a dusty corner to prop my bum in while balancing a tray of microwave fodder on my knee. All I now had to remember was to pat down my dusty overalls before I slumped onto my couch and enjoyed a tray of microwave fodder (some things have yet to improve) in the luxury of a warm and cozy living room.
Anyway the room took a day to finish, in fact to be perfectly honest the PIR insulation still needed a little fine tuning before I could day it was finished entirely. There was the question of the hole near the vent that would need boxing in (while still allowing venting to the sub-floor), the taping of the joints with foil tape and the extra insulating I would be doing near the external walls.
I had managed to do the entire pinning of insulation to the underneath of the joists scope of works. I had managed to also complete the extra insulation over the sleeper wall in the middle of the room. It may not sound a lot to do in an entire Sunday but apart from lunch and a trip to Screwfix for some washers and a new pair of gloves (I had killed another pair) this had taken almost twelve hours.
Twelve hours, pah, a puny twelve hours, still it was a Sunday and as such a school night… At least next weekend I will get two days of work, hopefully.