The squeal of a pry bar woke me at 8.10am on Monday 25 May, the bank holiday, as Matt took the skirting off the back bedroom wall one nail at a time, reminding himself out loud that he wanted to reuse it. His half-term week had begun, and it was going on the coldest wall in the house.
I wrote in February about the three quotes for insulating the gable wall from the inside: £1,450, £1,980 and £2,300 fitted. That wall is the outer wall of the back bedroom, facing the gennel, and it's the one where the mould lived behind the wardrobe. We'd fixed the gutter, put a fan in the bathroom and moved the wardrobe, and the corner was behaving. The wall itself was still cold to the touch, so Matt took the week and we hired the two jobs we shouldn't do ourselves.
Monday to Friday
On Monday we took the radiator off, which means closing both valves, a bucket, a lot of old towels and a little black water. The skirting came off in one piece. Matt checked the wall with a damp meter and an infrared thermometer to be sure it was dry before sealing it in, and it was.
On Tuesday the electrician came for a morning and moved one socket round the corner onto the side wall, because the boards were about to push everything out by 6 cm. That was £120. The boards are insulated plasterboard, with a 50 mm foam layer bonded to 12.5 mm of plasterboard, and Matt fixed them straight to the brick with long plastic frame fixings, nine to a sheet. He cut them with a fine saw, wearing a dust mask, while I handed him tape. He taped every joint with foil tape and sealed the gaps at the floor and ceiling with foam, because the point is to keep warm room air from reaching a cold surface behind the boards.
On Thursday the plasterer came, the one who did the Artex ceiling last year. He scrimmed the joints and put on the first coat, then came back on Friday morning to finish and trowel it flat. His price was £280. By Friday afternoon I could stand in the room and not feel the wall breathing on me.
Measuring the wrong thing
Matt's saying is "measure twice, swear once". On Friday he did both. The radiator now sits 60 mm further from the wall, so it needed two extension pieces on the pipes, and he'd bought a pair that were 30 mm long. He'd measured the old brackets, not the pipe tails. He measured twice, as promised, but he measured the wrong thing both times. Back to the shop on Saturday morning for the right ones, and the radiator went on a day late. It's off for the summer anyway, so no harm done.
What it cost, and what changed
- Electrician, one socket moved: £120.
- Plasterer, two mornings: £280.
- Materials: £390, which was four sheets of insulated board £236, fixings £32, foil tape £14, foam and sealant £22, battening and a new socket box £12, a new length of skirting £48 and paint £26.
That's £790 altogether, against quotes of £1,450 to £2,300 for a firm to do it. We lost about 6 cm of room, which is what you give up for a warmer wall, and the bed is now 6 cm nearer the door, which my shins have noticed every night. The plaster is still drying out from pink to white, so the skirting goes on and the painting starts in a fortnight or so.
On Tuesday 2 June at 6.45am, with 8°C outside, I put the thermometer on the corner where the mould used to be. It read about 17°C. On cold mornings in February the same spot read around 12°C. That isn't a fair test, because it was a milder morning and the plaster was still giving off damp, and the real test is January. But I'd rather have 17 than 12.
Brew count: 6.
