colorbond sheets & insulation costs and who to use

November 10, 2011 2:01 AM

hi, i live in south west victoria, Australia. i am about to put a color bond roof on my weather board house, has any one done this lately? I am at a loss, of who to start shopping with for the sheets, hardware needed and the insulation. Which is my other problem i have been told to use sisalation (not right spelling i know) but i have had good reports on foil board, what have others used? i do have fiber blow in insulaion, but some of its damaged due to rain getting in, would it be better to replace this with pink bats or more fiber fill or what? i hope some one can help thanks
posted by the finishing post to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

Built a house in Canberra 30 years ago with a colorbond roof, and I don't imagine things have changed much. First thing: put a layer of insulating batting right under the colorbond, otherwise it will be as noisy as hell in a rainstorm. (BTW, for non-Australians: Colorbond = colour-coated galvanised steel roof sheeting.) ISRT we had a layer of sarking between the steel and the insulation batting. Then you put your main insulating layer above the ceiling in the ordinary way.

We used pink batts, which proved entirely satisfactory. I wouldn't use loose fill of any kind because it tends to blow about in wind. I would be inclined to remove the existing fiber if you can. When buying pink batts get the highest R-rating you can get hold of. We used R4, which were OK in Canberra's severe winters. You don't say exactly where you are but I'd guess that any large building materials supplier ought to be able to get colorbond and pink batts for you.

You don't say how much of the work (if any) you're intending to do yourself. If you're intending to do the insulation yourself, and you haven't handled fibreglass insulation before, cover yourself as completely as possible--overalls, heavy gloves, boots, and tie up the legs of the overalls. Breathing mask. The stuff breaks up with handling and the little fibres get into everything. It itches something awful. I wouldn't recommend trying to do the actual roofing unless you have help and you know exactly what you're doing. The sheets are heavy and need to be cut fairly precisely, particularly if you have a complex roof. This is a job for an expert.

Best of luck with it anyway. We made some mistakes with that house but the roof was one thing we got dead right.
posted by Logophiliac at 7:07 AM on November 10, 2011

And for a supplier try this. Anyone who can supply the steel should have all rhe other hardware as well.
posted by Logophiliac at 7:15 AM on November 10, 2011

Find your local distributor here, or contact one of the six large national distributors near the top of the page. Your distributor will be able to tell you everything you need re tools and hardware, advise you about insulation, and give you installation guides. There's also a bunch of installation tips here.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:19 PM on November 10, 2011

Just a quick note regarding insulation - you can get the loose fill insulation removed easily but hire a professional to do the job - they'll have a huge vacuum on a truck and it'll take an hour or two at most and is worth the cost plus they have insurance.

If it's an old house, you might want to have someone look at the wiring in your roof after the old insulation is gone and before new insulation is put down because there could be horrors lurking up there.

Don't be like us (or rather, my husband) and hire some fly-by-nights to clean out the loose fill who trod on the ancient wiring and sent some of our light fittings live. Although it was probably a good thing because our wiring was so substandard it wasn't funny and the best parts were the Bakelite junctions from the 1920's (speaker wire to light fittings?? Crispy wiring in the kitchen??). $6K later we have a completely re-wired house and new insulation, but it could have been nasty if we'd just thrown up new insulation and left it.
posted by ninazer0 at 2:53 PM on November 10, 2011