W'shop insulation ideas?

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Dogoak

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 24, 2009
2,285
286
Cairngorms
Glad it's been of some help.

I take it you are aware of leaving air ventilation gaps between outer and insulation and then again before your inside lining.
 

Swallow

Native
May 27, 2011
1,545
4
London
One of my inlaws (an architect) built a house that used something based on sheeps wool in the cavity. Wrong time of year but it's sometimes possible to get free fleeces after shearing.

Unfortunately I've seen it too late to suggest a staw bale build.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
One of my inlaws (an architect) built a house that used something based on sheeps wool in the cavity. Wrong time of year but it's sometimes possible to get free fleeces after shearing.

Unfortunately I've seen it too late to suggest a staw bale build.

I went through all that during the planning of it. Straw bales increase the footprint dramatically for a given usable area and I've already lost half my small garden to this build. With the sheep's wool you can't just use it as is, and it's a lot of work to process something like that for a small one-off build; plus the fact that you declare open house to all the moths in the area, during the processing and afterwards if you're not careful.

Again, if I were a younger man undertaking a from-scratch build I would definitely have gone this route or something similar.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
I'll insulate both roof and floor; maintaining 5*C in the UK in a well insulated structure is quite cheap and easy to achieve with a very small amount of heating, something like the low-usage heaters they use in commercial greenhouses. I expect to be using the place pretty much full time as I'm now retired, so it'll only be for periods when I'm not here which is not at all frequent.

I'll also have a woodburner of some description installed so I can't see I'll have much of a problem with it.
 

SiWhite

Nomad
Apr 1, 2007
343
22
45
Deepest North Hampshire
I was about to suggest Sconds and Co but someone beat me to it! I used them for the insulation on my workshop and garden room. I had a mixed load of 50mm and 100mm celotex - the pile was easily taller than me! Just beware that it will come on a rigid artic vehicle, and that you may have fun unloading it! Although it is very light, it catches the wind like nobody's business. I'd definitely rope in a chum to help you, and you may have to pass the boards down from some height and the driver may or may not help.
 

badoosh

Tenderfoot
Mar 22, 2015
79
0
manchester
Keep your eye on gumtree,have a look in the freebies section stuff usually pops up on there that save people going to the tip.
Or try putting an add on freecycle if you have it where you live.
 

gonzo_the_great

Forager
Nov 17, 2014
210
70
Poole, Dorset. UK
If you really want to save money, go and have a look around the local works units. There are often companies that get regular deliveries of items and the packaging is a liability. If you can find one with big sheets of polystyrene, they may be happy to put it to one side, intact for you to collect. And free.
I did this with a local kitchen unit supplier and that lined most of my old prefab garage. Lined with hardboard that just glues to the insulation, it;s still good, 10years on.

For summer, I can't recommend a safari roof enough. (That's what I call it, as that was what land rovers had.) A secondary roof skin with an air gap.
My garage had a simple ply and felt roof, which was murder in the summer. When I added a second roof, as the original leaked, it made the place really pleasant to be in, during even the hottest summer days.
 

Swallow

Native
May 27, 2011
1,545
4
London
With the sheep's wool you can't just use it as is,

I had assumed you could (the sheep doesn't process them).

I had thought that wool was washed carded and spinned though that information is nearly 40 years old and not well remembered.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
I don't pretend to know in detail what's involved in the processing but I'm sure that the fleeces need to be at least cleaned/washed out to rid them of misc. debris and stuff that might not remain stable and rot-free. I seem to remember that they need some kind of physical manipulation to get them wadded up, so to speak.

I once tried to clean up a single fleece in a basic way and that was some heavy, wet and messy work. Like most things it's probably made quite simple if you have experience and are set up for doing it........
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
I washed, teased and sold fleeces. You're right = grunt work that spinners & weavers don't want to do.
I like wool insulation spun up into my clothing.
Fill the walls with pop corn.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
It's an eco thing. It does work as insulation, but it needs so much care in our climate that it's an issue in itself. Mice love nesting in it; it needs treated agin moths and maggots (Thorlan IW, not nice stuff, see hazard sheet http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/aldrich/308382?lang=en&region=GB) and worms, if it gets damp brandling worms love the stuff and they drag in their gut loads of debris and it all slowly degenerates….but it's "eco" isn't it ? :rolleyes: It needs treated with borax and with an insecticide, and it will still soak up moisture so that needs addressed too.

For a shed, even a well built one, that's inherently going to attract damp in our climate, I don't think I'd use wool.
Happy to be proven wrong, but anyone I know who tried it in a 'green' build wished they hadn't.

https://ntenvironmentalwork.net/2011/05/26/problems-with-one-batch-of-wool-insulation/

I reckon it's only being used now because fleece and wool waste is dirt cheap and it sounds ecologically a good thing.

M
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Right. I forget about the "humidity" at your place.
Construction practices here result in a waterproof outer skin that even the wind-driven rain cannot penetrate.
Then there's the vapor barrier beneath the inner wall finish surface = dry from both sides.
You all do the same?

Wet insulation would only result from some catastrophic event.
 

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