Blocklayers and full fill insulation

Itisnoteasy

I am starting to build a house. I was wondering how have people found trying to get blocklayers to keep the cavity clean and insulation tight when using the full fill insulation. I was planning on using the Xtratherm 150mm full fill.

Any advice would be appreciated and if any one can recommend a good blocklayer in the North Kildare area with the full fill insulation please pm me the details.

Frogeye

our engineer picked up on this during our build . It wasn't a huge problem but he noted it on one of his visits to site.

I believe that if you are using an xtratherm product, an xtherm rep will , at your request, call out to site to give the the block layers a few tips how to install there product correctly...I wasn't aware of this when we built. that might help mitigate the risk of bad install.

bfclancy

Itisnoteasy wrote: »

I am starting to build a house. I was wondering how have people found trying to get blocklayers to keep the cavity clean and insulation tight when using the full fill insulation. I was planning on using the Xtratherm 150mm full fill.

Any advice would be appreciated and if any one can recommend a good blocklayer in the North Kildare area with the full fill insulation please pm me the details.

I was a blocklayer for quite some time and i believe the blocklayer is responsible for keeping the cavity clean and top profile of boards clear from mortar droppings, however, i see this system of insulation as being flawed for may reasons, the vertical junction between boards, especially when cutting is required is never going to be perfect, i assume blocklayer is expected to cut on site with a hand saw, not even the best carpenter will get that cut perfect. how tight are the tolerances when the boards are manufactured, is there much variation in size? potential for damaged boards during transit or storage on site? look at external insulation systems for example and how the gaps between boards are filled with foam, blocklayer has no way of achieving this even if it was in their remit. what are the downside to external insulation, is it cost? this is the way i would build if i were going all block, i went timber frame on my own build.

Lumen

The detailing in this external (? rainscreen?) insulation animation is quite mesmerising. I wonder whether it works out this neatly in practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdsZVhieZrc

Itisnoteasy

Frogeye wrote: »

our engineer picked up on this during our build . It wasn't a huge problem but he noted it on one of his visits to site.

I believe that if you are using an xtratherm product, an xtherm rep will , at your request, call out to site to give the the block layers a few tips how to install there product correctly...I wasn't aware of this when we built. that might help mitigate the risk of bad install.

Is your house easy heat now. Are you happy with its performance?

Frogeye

Yeah happy with it overall but there is more than the insulation to consider. Air tightness is another important thing to consider for energy efficiency and heating

There are pros and cons to every system. People say blown cavity's have gaps, full fill is to hard to install correctly etc etc I think you just need to pick the one that suits you best. Then get the best people you can to do it. If they make an effort to get things done right then you’ll be fine whatever way you go.