On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 16:36:04 -0000, "Stephen Gilkes"
wrote:

Hi there

Just about to start insulating my single-skin brick shed with Celotex and
have got a couple of questions:

The Celotex will be fitted to the wall by fixing battens over the Celotex
and then fixed to the wall. What is the best way to attach the battens to
the wall? Should I use screws or masonry nails? If using screws, I need to
put rawl plugs into the brick. What's the best and quickest way to do this?
If I pre-drill all the holes in the brickwork, how can I be sure to line up
the batten with the holes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Am a total newbie to this kind of
thing.

Stephen


I think that a lot depends on what you want to use the shed for and
whether you want to fix things to the battens or to clad it in ply or
something.

If you don't really need to fix anything to it, then you might as well
skip the screws and simply stick the cladding to the wall with
Gripfill. You could then stick a thin ply to the front if you want
to protect it slightly.

If you want something slightly more substantial, then you could do as
you are suggesting. Simply use a long masonry drill and drill through
the Celotex into the wall. You can then remove the sheet and insert
the plugs. Replace the sheet and carefully locate the screws through
the battens and the sheet. The problem with this method is that it
won't support very much if you are trying to do that because the
Celotex will tend to crush if you overtighten the fixings and in any
case mechanically speaking you will have the battens effectively stood
off from the wall on screws by the thickness of the Celotex - it won't
give any support. Therefore it is not going to be a good method if
you are looking to fit heavy shelves.

I insulated my single brick garage using Celotex by first making stud
framing in 75x50mm timber. The rectangular sections produced were
bolted to the floor using Rawlbolts and to the joists using carriage
screws. The rear face of the timber was spaced off from the wall by
about 25mm. The Celotex was cut and friction fitted into the frames
and then the joints taped with foil tape that they supply. Finally,
I clad the framing with 18mm ply. Having the timber framing spaced
off from the wall prevents cold bridging from the wall (although it
does allow some with the floor). An alternative would have been to
bolt the timbers directly to the wall but this would have bridged the
insulation - not necessarily that big a deal in a shed, although you
wouldn't do it in a dwelling. The cladding means that I can fit
light to medium weight things anywere on the walls with no hassle and
for heavier things I have very substantial studs at 600mm intervals.

For the roof I didn't need to fix anything to it, so I used long
drywall screws with large washers to fix the Celotex to the rafters.


..andy

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