Ceiling insulation - doubling up

When you have spent so much time building walls that have amazing insulating capabilities, when you have the slab super insulated and the the windows either double or triple glazed it seems crazy to skimp on ceiling insulation. With that in mind we have decided to double up on our insulation. We have the hempcrete insulation that will keep us warm and toasty in winter and we have decided to add Wavecore Silverbatts under the sarking to reflect the heat away in summer. We are going to have a beautiful living space with a stable temperature.

Great idea I hear you say, and it will be, we just wished we had the product prior to starting the ceiling. Grant has been scrambling around the limited ceiling space attaching the batts. He has started using blue strapping (see below) to hold the batts in place - the plan is that the straps will make it easier to install.

These batts come flat and you make them up on site

The blue strapping for the silver batts, the black formwork is placed
up there for Grant to lie down on the job! - or possibly work

Alan keeping an eye on what Grant is doing

One kilometre of tape- should be enough!

Hempcrete and the box guttering

The first bit of hempcreting we did was underneath the box gutter. It had to be done prior to the plumber coming and fitting the gutter. Grant used hessian under the hemp and OSB to hold it securely as it dried. The OSB was then removed so it could be replaced with MgO boards. The plan was that the hessian would hold the hempcrete in place long enough to set up the boards.  Unfortunately when we tried to place the boards it bowed out and the boards were unable to be secured flat. We realised that our first couple of mixes were too dry and the mix hadn't set. Grant ended up having to remove the hemp and then use some wool insulation (the only part of the renovation that doesn't use hemp-don't tell anybody).
It was disappointing, however you sometimes have to be pragmatic and just get on with it. Once the plan was adjusted and we used the alternative insulation it didn't take long to complete the box gutter.

You can see the hessian, above that is the hempcrete insulation

The hessian and hempcrete was removed

The completed box gutter