Subject: Building Insulation

From: "FLAVIA LENZO" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 11:05:27 +0800

We are presently looking at buying a house and land (in the south-west 
of Western Australia).  It is built of timber, two storey with iron 
roof.  The present owners put down carpet on the bottom storey (covering 
the timber flooring) to reduce coldness coming up through the 
floorboards.  The house is built on a slight slope (facing north) 
therefore the floors of the living areas at the front of the house are 
raised above the ground, about two feet at the highest.

We would prefer to take up the carpet and have the timber floorboards 
exposed - but how do we get around the problem of "insulating"??  Any 
suggestions extremely welcome!

Thanks
Debbie
<[email-masked]>

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From: "Mike Morris" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 17:05:45 GMT+0200

> suggestions extremely welcome!

You might well find that the house gets warmer just by taking up the
carpets!  After all, wood is not too bad at heat storage.  If that
doesn't work, and you can get access to underneath the house you
could well staple some of that plastic-foil type of insulation
(don't know what it's called in your part of the world) under the
building.

If you can't get under the building, can you close it all in? (if it 
is not already closed -- from your description it sounds like the 
underside of the floor is open)  If it is closed you will have a very 
effective dead-air space under the floor, and should not need to 
worry about it too much.

How well insulated is your roof, though?

Mike Morris                     Living in paradise,
[email-masked]         Working in Cyberspace.

Ph: +27-21-788-4171        Cape Town, South Africa        34.40'S 18.30'E