Insulate and Electrify Your Old Canberra Home

During the dead of winter and over the course of three days, we had the pleasure of transforming Canberra's Coldest House. Check out Simone's beautiful property in Monash which went from being Canberra's Coldest to Canberra's most efficient and comfortable home!

According to the National Construction Code, minimum system R values for a typical Canberra brick veneer home with suspended timber floors are as follows: Ceilings R5.1, Walls R2.8, Floors R2.75.

When we undertake a wall insulation installation the very first step is to plug the wall cavity if the house is built on a suspended timber floor.

Insulation is often overlooked but plays a vital role in maintaining a comfortable and energy-efficient home. By preventing heat loss through your walls, insulation helps your heating and cooling systems work more efficiently, reducing energy consumption and costs.

Insulating existing walls doesn’t require demolition. With the right products and techniques, we can effectively insulate brick veneer and double brick walls without disturbing the structure.

When installing insulation, it's crucial to prioritise electrical safety. Engaging a qualified electrician to conduct an inspection ensures that your wiring and components can safely coexist with the insulation.

This often means the maximum amount of power allowed to pass through the circuit is reduced. To change the amount of power on a circuit, we change the size of the fuse that protects it. In newer switchboards this can be a simple case of swapping out the fuse, in older boards it may require an upgrade of the switchboard in order to make the electrics compliant.

When it comes to choosing home insulation the rule of thumb has always been to choose the highest ‘R-value’ that you can afford. R6 batts cost more than R4 and provide better insulation. In the long run, however, the energy savings will far outweigh the initial cost of purchasing the more expensive batts.

There is nothing worse than the curse of draughty floorboards. Not wanting to get out of bed when those first cold wintery mornings start to arrive. The good thing is that it can all be fixed with our high-performance spray foam insulation.

Evaporative cooling vents can be a huge source of draughts and heat loss in winter. Sealing off the vent blades can be tricky, ineffective and quite frankly a pain to attempt! Whilst we’ve seen all kinds of DIY solutions for sealing the vents ranging from clear contact to custom made cushions stuffed into the ducts, by far the best solution is the heatsaver vent cover.