The issue of alternative energy sources is relevant today more than ever. In order to pay less for drowning, you need to use it less. And you can heat the room less when it is well insulated. Now there are many ways and various means. Our goal is to achieve maximum results at minimum cost. The optimal solution is reeds! When insulating with reeds, your costs will be: time and labor. Current trends speak of the growing popularity of the material due to its environmental performance and cost. Below we offer step-by-step instructions for harvesting reeds for insulation.

You will need:

The word "reed" means ordinary reed (common reed, Phragmites australis), growing along the banks of reservoirs, in estuaries or in wetlands of meadows. As a rule, high-quality reed grows in floodplains of rivers and lakes. Reed can be called an elite material, since abroad it is an expensive pleasure (transportation and a lack of specialists affect the cost). For our country, reeds are new, but forgotten old, because they are common almost everywhere.

The reeds, so to speak, “fall asleep” with the beginning of autumn, however, they remain upright, the reeds acquire a golden brown color. Leaves fall with the first frost. After that, you can start collecting.

The ideal time for harvesting reeds is winter, when the water comes down and everything is covered with ice.

At this time, fairly strong ice is formed. Of course, you can collect reeds with a special harvester, but we are counting on an economical option, so we are considering manual collection. So, armed with an ordinary scythe or a sickle, we dress warmer and on the ice.

Pruning of stems is carried out at the level of the ice, by moving the plow on the ice at an angle. For the same purposes, you can use a well-honed shovel. Reeds are cut as close as possible to the surface of the ice, since the stem is most durable in the butt, lower part. Reed reeds reach a height of 1.5 - 2 m with a stem thickness of not more than 25 - 30 mm. Mature reeds are suitable for harvesting - light yellow in color. We clean each stalk of excess leaves to get an even straw and dry. Reeds should be stored in exceptionally dry rooms.

Reeds are a renewable resource. Its regular mowing not only does not harm nature, on the contrary, it cleans the external environment. If the reed has survived the winter, it is quite acceptable to collect it in the spring. Usually, dry plants are burned in the spring (although this is prohibited by environmental protection services) so that young ones can quickly grow in their place. But if you find yourself in a place where last year's reeds are still standing, then please mow them, but not on ice.

We form mats from dry reeds. To do this, you can use a homemade installation, as shown in the photo.

It is desirable that the mats are in the air, but under the roof.

We tightly place the reeds in a vertical position and stitch them with a needle, which can be made from any strip of metal, no more than 3 mm thick. The photo shows an aluminum needle. For firmware we use a regular thread for twisting bales. It can be purchased in the markets, in specialized stores.

The resulting mats are approximately 1m ˣ 2m in size. The size depends on the installation and the length of the reeds.

The size of the mats depends on the installation and the length of the reeds.

Now building materials are not at all cheap, so making your garden house warm and cozy in our time is not at all easy. However, you can find a way out of any situation, unless you are lazy. For many years now I make insulation boards from waste material - waste paper. We saw how much paper and cardboard are constantly burned by janitors and employees of shops, shops, and various offices. And valuable raw materials burn in such bonfires, which could be used for good. For example, the same insulation is obtained from waste paper, which is even quite simple to make, and even the elderly and children can do this work. Having become acquainted with the manufacturing technology of insulation, maybe someone wants to make similar plates for themselves. Others could well make decent money on this, open their own small business. Fortunately, I repeat, there is enough raw material, and quite free of charge, and special energy consumption is not required.

How to make home insulation from waste paper with your own hands

So, I will try to describe in detail how I make the insulation myself. First of all, you will have to choose a sufficiently large (with a capacity of 100 ... 200 l) container, preferably a cylindrical shape, the height of which is greater than the diameter. Such requirements are met, for example, by an ordinary barrel (made of plastic, wood, steel). Pour shredded waste paper into the container. I want to say right away that the more you can shred the paper, the more (in terms of volume) you will get a heater from the same mass of waste paper, while spending less effort on mixing. If you do not have time to carefully tear, cut or chop the paper, you can leave fragments of waste paper and larger ones, for example, 5 × 5 cm in size or even more. But then it is necessary to first fill such waste paper with water so that the surface of the latter is two fingers higher than the raw material layer, and leave the waste paper to “infuse” for 1–2 days. After that, water is added to the container at the rate of 18 ... 20 liters of water per 1 kg of waste paper. Further, it is desirable to add hydrophobic additives to the mixture, which to some extent will reduce the ability of the future insulation to be wetted with water. As such an additive, for example, machine oil is suitable, which is first mixed in a separate bowl with water in a ratio of 1:1 (by weight). The amount of oil emulsion should be 0.05 ... 0.1% of the total mass of the contents of the barrel. Then the mass in the container is whipped until a more or less homogeneous suspension is obtained, using a wooden mixer for this. However, it is much easier to do this with an electric drill, inserting three pieces of steel wire with a diameter of 3 ... 4 mm into its cartridge and bending the ends of the segments from the axis of the drill by 35 ... 40 °.

If you want to reduce the ability of the future insulation to ignite, it is necessary to add soda ash to the suspension, which, when heated, releases carbon dioxide (70 ... 100 g of such soda will be required for 200 kg of the mixture).

And finally, if you want your plates to last longer, you need to protect them from fungi (lower spore-forming plants), for which you will have to introduce an antiseptic into the soaked waste paper, which is suitable for boric acid powder (5 ... 10 g of powder per 100 kg of mass) .

After a few days, the contents of the container are beaten again, trying to obtain a homogeneous mass, in which the size of the remaining fragments of waste paper should not exceed 1 ... 2 cm. When the mixture becomes relatively homogeneous, again resort to using a drill. It is most convenient to knock down the mass by inserting a metal bar with a diameter of 5 ... 6 mm into the drill chuck, bent at the end in the form of waves or twisted in the form of a spring with a large pitch of turns. The length of the rod, of course, depends on the depth of the container, since the beater must reach to the bottom. When working with a drill, be patient. After all, the more homogeneous you make the mass, the more you get the finished insulation (by volume). The increase can reach 20% or more. In the absence of a drill, the mass can be whipped with the same shovel, but this, of course, will take much more time.

Now about the molds for casting, which are prepared in advance. For the device of the form (I call it “formwork”) you will need: a mesh (plastic or metal) with cells up to 3 mm in size, two boards and a small number of rails. Collect "formwork" so. The above-mentioned boards are laid on the ground “on edge”, placing them parallel at a distance of about 60 cm from each other. From above, transverse slats of the same thickness, about 1.1 m long, are nailed, trying to ensure that the ends of the slats protruding beyond the boards are of equal length. The distance between the slats is 10 ... 15 cm. We cover the resulting grating with a net and fasten the latter to the slats with pushpins.

Do-it-yourself heater

From slats of the same thickness (4 ... 5 cm), a frame is knitted, the dimensions of which are slightly smaller than the dimensions of the grating. The frame is laid on the grid and in the middle of the frame there is a transverse rail of the same thickness as the frame rails. Thus, we got a "formwork" for two sheets of insulation. You can not knit the frame, but simply fold it from the rails. It remains to mark with a pencil on the rails of the "formwork" a line at a height of 1 ... 1.5 cm in order to control the thickness of the layer of paper pulp when you lay it in the "formwork".

Well, here we come to the final procedure. With a scoop, we lay out the paper mass in the "formwork" (on the grid) in an even layer. Most of the water will immediately drain through the mesh. The thickness of the paper pulp layer is controlled by the pencil line. Having filled the “formwork” with the mass, we smooth the surface of the mass with a flat object, as is done when, for example, concrete is laid.

Of course, it is better to make insulation in dry weather, and in bad weather - under a canopy. At normal temperature, the drying time of the mass is about three days. Insulation boards can be removed from the “formwork” when their surface becomes dry (the boards easily move away from the grid).

If you can't find the mesh, don't worry. Take plastic sheeting of the right size and place it directly on a flat, horizontal piece of ground. Along the edges of the film, install the longitudinal sides of the rails, and between them perpendicularly lay three transverse rails-boards. In this case, the longitudinal sides will have to be reinforced with pegs so that the sides do not spread when the "formwork" is filled with paper pulp. The height of the sides here is at least 5 cm, and the pencil mark on the sides, to which the mass level should be brought up, is placed at a height 3 ... remains in the formwork. The mass will dry for about a week, but if small holes are made in the film (for example, with a hot awl), the result will be almost the same as when using a mesh. It is not necessary to artificially heat the mass in order to speed up the drying, since the insulation acquires the best quality only with the natural evaporation of water.

From 70 kg of any waste paper with good grinding, thorough mixing and natural drying, 0.45 ... 0.5 m³ of insulation is obtained, that is, the density of the insulation is about 150 kg / m. The optimal recommended thickness of the insulation boards is 1…1.5 cm.

In conclusion, I want to say that the insulation boards obtained in this way are not only cheap in themselves, but also more environmentally friendly than manufactured fiberboards, in which rather harmful synthetic resins are used as a binder (at least in fiberboards obtained by a “dry” method). And our plates consist of one paper pulp. So use the warm, fine days of summer and autumn to make insulation that will keep your home warm in winter. I hope that it was not in vain that I pored over this article. Good luck and warmth to you.

All materials of the section "Repair and construction"

Do-it-yourself insulation: myth or reality

Komysh (outline) old but not clogged insulation

I recently faced the problem of warming the house. My house is small, but I don’t want to spend a lot on its insulation. I have been looking for something like this for a long time and finally found it. Reeds - Insulation used by our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. On the river in winter, I cut reeds and began to insulate. At first, I knitted mats with the help of scotch, but then I took a knitting wire and things started to work. My house was built using the frame technology. With my father we built quickly, there was no place to live. Reed is not as combustible as straw and it is easier to get it. The frame was covered with plastic on the outside. Under it, I have a board sewn on and under it, a thin layer, of foam. Without changing anything, I began to strengthen the 10 cm reed mats. For reliable fastening, I glued the mats a little with PVA glue. A feature of this insulation was that it keeps heat well. For greater reliability, I treated it with a wood cleaner so that it was less combustible.

We have such mats in stores. They are made in some kind of state farm. But they are not glued and there is no possibility in them to be treated with liquid from fire.

You ask why I didn’t use polystyrene foam, but I got confused with insulation.

The answer is simple, as mice have always tortured me. In foam they make their moves very well. Mineral wool, oddly enough, I always thought that they would not live in it, but in the greenhouse they made their minks in it.

My photos show how everything is done. It was not very convenient to take pictures during the work. So there are only completed snopiks.

Now it's cold outside, somewhere around -15, but the wall that is made according to this principle is a little cooler than the walls in a brick house without insulation. This is due to the fact that cold air passes through the gaps between the bars. Already closer to the summer I will be engaged in the complete completion of my heater.

I know that this material is also used abroad. I'm interested in this topic.

Cardboard as insulation. Features of kraft paper. Independent production of cellulose boards. Application of ecowool

The topic of our article is paper insulation. No, do not rush to upholster the walls of the house with old Roman newspapers: paper in its pure form is too afraid of moisture, and its density is high for an insulating material.

However, it is still possible to use cellulose for thermal insulation.

Let's hope that there are more civilized ways of warming.

Industrial production and crazy hands

It is worth clarifying right away: the very idea of ​​\u200b\u200busing paper for insulation is not new. Ecowool - one of the fairly popular heaters - consists almost entirely of cellulose and is made from recycled waste paper. We will devote a separate article size to its properties.

However, along with the industrial production of ecowool, insulation with cardboard and paper is also practiced without their additional processing; as an option - insulation boards are made independently. We will also pay attention to this use of cellulose.

No processing

kraft paper

Let's start with an acquaintance with one fairly popular type of pulp products.

Kraft paper is a very durable material that is made from long fibers of sulfate pulp. Raw material - wood; wood chips are boiled in an aqueous solution of sodium sulfide and some other substances.

Curious: the process is extremely technological, since it allows the use of wood of any species. In addition, the chemicals used are recycled and can be reused.

In this capacity, kraft paper is familiar to everyone.

What is the use of thin and dense kraft paper in terms of insulation?

Of course, not as a heat-insulating material.

• The classic design of a frame house is a frame made of timber, sheathed outside and inside with clapboard, OSB or plywood. The space between the outer and inner skins is filled with insulation. Mineral wool, polystyrene foam and other modern materials for insulation are often used as it; the heat-insulating material is protected from blowing and saturation with moisture by special polymer films.

This scheme has two drawbacks:

• The materials used are of artificial origin and often continue to saturate the air in the house for many years with phenolic resins, styrene or fine mineral fibers that irritate the eyes and respiratory organs.
• They are by no means cheap.

Meanwhile, many decades ago, a very simple and incredibly cheap scheme was used for insulation: the space between the inner and outer wall cladding was simply covered with sawdust - free waste from sawmills. Kraft paper served as a vapor barrier and windproof membrane: it kept the sawdust damp and protected the wall from wind blowing.

• The cheapest way to insulate a ceiling or interfloor ceiling is the same sawdust, expanded clay or slag. Bulk insulation. Kraft paper is the cheapest material for laying under insulation, which will prevent it from falling on the head of the owners of the house.

Useful: kraft paper is sold and is more than inexpensive. Its price is from 25 rubles per kilogram. However, it often ends up in waste in the form of paper bags or corrugated cardboard. Bags or fragments of packages that are small in area will not work for the role of wind protection, but as a gasket for filling thermal insulation - easily.

Cardboard

Corrugated cardboard, however, can also be used as an independent heat-insulating material. Of course, cardboard insulation will be obtained only when laid in a thick layer - at least 5 - 10 centimeters.

The cellular structure of the corrugated cardboard should protect the packaged goods, but it will also have to be in the yard in the insulation.

However, the time spent on laying is compensated by the fact that the material will cost exactly the cost of its transportation: any large base will be only too happy to get rid of the packaging material, the removal of which it usually has to pay.

How to use cardboard insulation? The instruction is very simple: it fits tightly inside the wall frame and is sewn up from the inside. It is clear that the outer wall covering should reliably protect the cardboard from precipitation.

There is one nuance associated with styling. To prevent the walls from being blown through, sheets of packaging material are laid layer by layer with offset joints between them. Can be fixed with a stapler.

Advantages and disadvantages

They are common to both kraft paper and its derivatives.

Advantages:

• Cheap, cheap and more cheap. Heating costs will be minimal.
• Environmental friendliness. Paper does not emit harmful substances into the atmosphere.
• Ease of use. As a windscreen, the paper is attached with an ordinary stapler; wall insulation with corrugated cardboard will also not make you rack your brains and look for a complex tool.

Flaws:

• The material is flammable. However, in a wooden house, its fire hazard will not change the overall picture.
• Rodents without any problems make moves in paper and cardboard; moreover, mice also appreciate the thermal insulation properties of cellulose and willingly use it to insulate their nests.

Mice will react to the new insulation without much trepidation.

• Paper is hygroscopic. With a one-time wetness, this will not create problems, but constant dampness will worsen thermal insulation many times over.

Self-manufacturing of cellulose boards

Is it possible to make paper insulation more convenient to use with your own hands?

Yes, some kind of thin and dense insulation can be made from waste paper. Whether the result is worth your time is debatable; however, it is possible.

Here is a description of the production process.

1. The paper is shredded and poured into a barrel. The smaller the fragments, the better the result will be. Then it is soaked for a day or two.

The water should completely cover the paper.

Improvised formwork with a mesh bottom. 1 - supports, 2 - bar frame, 3 - mesh, 4 - transverse axis, along which the frame can be additionally tied with a cross member for rigidity.

1. We spread the mass from the barrel as evenly as possible with a thickness of 1.5-2 centimeters. Most of the water should leave immediately; during subsequent drying, the thickness of the plate changes little. Drying in sunny weather takes 3-4 days, in rainy weather - about a week.

Why does paper not crumble after drying? The secret is simple: cellulose contains an adhesive substance - lignin, which, when moistened, reliably glues the paper into a single whole.

Thanks to the addition of a water repellent, antiseptic and flame retardant, we get a heater with much better characteristics than ordinary cardboard. However, its density - about 150 kg / m3 - is still somewhat high for high-quality insulation. However, as they say, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Ecowool

At the beginning of the article, we mentioned an industrial insulation made from cellulose - ecowool. Let's get acquainted with it: after all, the raw materials for its production are the same cardboard and paper.

What it is

Appearance - flakes of gray color.

The full lineup looks like this:

• Cellulose - 81 percent.
• Antiseptic (boric acid) - 12 percent.
• Bora (flame retardant) - 7 percent.

The heater does not contain harmful substances; the fibers are non-volatile and even if they accidentally get on the mucous membranes, they cause much less irritation than mineral wool fibers.

In the photo - cellulose insulation Ecowool.

Thermal insulation qualities correspond to the degree of thermal insulation provided by basalt wool.

Important: when moistened, ecowool retains these qualities. All types of mineral wool insulation, when damp, begin to conduct heat much better.

The material does not cake, does not shrink. It has a very moderate breathability, which is a definite plus: the insulation will not be blown by wind and drafts. But the vapor permeability is high, which is also pleasing: dampness will not linger in the thickness of insulated walls and ceilings, causing accelerated destruction of load-bearing structures.

The material is chemically inert. In contact with steel bearing elements, it will not cause accelerated corrosion.

With all this set of advantages, the cost of a cubic meter of finished insulation when working on horizontal surfaces is about 700 rubles. On verticals, a high packing density and special equipment are used, so a cubic meter of insulation is more expensive - about 1,300 rubles.

Application

How to use ecowool if we started warming the loggia or the walls of the cottage?

There are three ways to use it.

1. The ecowool fluffed up by the mixer can fall asleep between the beams or the floor log.
2. It can be fed into the wall or subfloor through any opening using an air compressor. At the same time, the insulation fills the smallest grooves in the thickness of the wall.
3. Finally, wet laying is applied on ceilings and walls. Moistened ecowool is sprayed onto them and sticks tightly: the notorious lignin binds the flakes to the surface and to each other.

Insulation with ecowool using a wet method.

Do-it-yourself home insulation

This section is about do-it-yourself home insulation- about how to insulate a house, each of its structures: walls, doors, ceilings, foundations, floors, roofs, windows.

And also about what to insulate: what are the heaters, what are their characteristics, the pros and cons of each heater.

But first, a few general questions.

Why insulate a house?

Here are four reasons why you need to insulate your home.

Home insulation to reduce heating costs

If you look at an uninsulated house through a thermal imager during the heating season, you can see something like this:

The brightest places in the photo are those places where heat escapes from the house most intensively: windows, roofing, foundation. Well, the walls too.

The presented photo also shows the percentage of heat loss through different structures. These figures are, of course, approximate, but they give a general idea.

In fact, the owner of an uninsulated house also heats the street. That is, literally throws his money into the wind;

House insulation to reduce the cost of enclosing structures

Materials such as brick, concrete, etc. are able to reliably prevent heat loss in the house only with large wall thicknesses. For example, a brick wall truly performs a heat-shielding function even with a thickness of two meters! Which is not economically feasible: such a wall itself requires a lot of bricks and the foundation for it must be built extremely powerful.

But the SAME EFFECT (in terms of saving heat) can be achieved if a COMPARATIVELY THIN BRICK WALL IS INSULATED WITH A LAYER OF THERMAL INSULATION;

Warming the house and preserving the environment

In Russia, approximately 365 million tons of standard fuel are burned per year (standard fuel is all together: oil, gas, coal, firewood, etc.). Moreover, the actual heating of housing takes 43% - less than half! (The rest is spent on the production itself and on transportation.) As you might guess, breathing the products of burning anything is not useful, it entails the DEVELOPMENT OF LUNG DISEASES, and it just stinks, which in itself is UNPLEASANT;

Warming the house and increasing its durability

Because the cladding or cladding material that protects the thermal insulation also protects the wall/foundation from the ingress of rain/snow moisture from the outside and from other influences. Why is it better to protect, say, a wall? Let's say the wall gets wet regularly. In winter, this moisture also freezes. And when it freezes, the water expands and destroys the wall. Surely, everyone paid attention to the walls of very old houses: crumbling bricks, almost empty seams ... this is the result of the wall being unprotected from the action of water, wind and temperature changes.

So, by insulating the house, we thereby EXTEND ITS LIFE TIME.

When should you insulate your home?

If it is cold in your house/apartment in winter, then perhaps this section is just for you. I said "maybe" because it's also possible that it's cold because of a poor quality heating system. But if the heating is in order, all the radiators are hot, the boiler is working, and the rooms are cool, then the house needs to be insulated.

Even if you don’t have a home yet, then think about heating engineering ...

What heaters for the house are traditional, environmentally friendly and natural

the more necessary. For in all countries there is a tightening of requirements for energy consumption. For this reason, the walls are made multi-layered. And even if the walls are made of a homogeneous material (for example, only from silicate bricks), then "warm" plasters and primers are often used ... I'm hinting that you need to think about the insulation of the house at the design stage, and for this you need to get acquainted with the main heaters, their properties and - which is also very important! - take into account how the materials are separated from each other, side by side in one design.

Before insulating the house

In fact, there are only three questions that usually have to be answered before taking on the actual insulation of the house (it is understood that the radiators heat up as they should). These ones:

1. Is there enough heat from the radiators to heat the whole house and/or each room individually? If not, then…
2. ... what is the best insulation to choose?
3. In what quantity and how to attach the selected insulation to the place that needs to be insulated? (that is, here we are talking about insulation technology)

These questions I once asked myself, and, in fact, this section of the site is devoted to the answers to them.

Let's start in order.

The answer to the first question: should you take on the insulation of the house or do you just need to put the heating system in order? - can be found by calculating the heating power. This can be done in the topic about the calculation of the heating system.

There you don’t need everything, but only up to the selection of radiators (inclusive; it is assumed that there is a heating system in your house; I don’t consider the option when there is no heating yet, because then you would not be reading this section, but about heating device).

As a result, you will find out if the installed radiators have enough power. Not enough - you have to add radiators or insulate the house. Enough and still cold? The options are the same: 1) add radiators; 2) insulate the house. Having chosen the second, come back here and read about home insulation: about the choice of insulation and insulation technology.

P.S. This section is under construction, so please do not judge the author strictly if you didn’t find something here, you also have to take care of your own house ...

The more intensively technologies develop, the more we want to be closer to nature and use only environmentally friendly, natural materials. Reed insulation is an affordable and reliable method that has been used for hundreds of years. it light and inexpensive material, it is used for wall insulation, as well as attic floors and attics.

Due to the tubular structure, the reed, as a heater, provides thermal insulation in buildings at the proper level. An insulating layer 15-20 cm thick retains heat as efficiently as laying a wall of one and a half bricks. In addition, the reed is characterized by good sound insulation - the noise from the street will be almost inaudible.

If you make a heater out of reeds, it will not only retain heat, but will also let air through allowing the room to "breathe". He not susceptible to destruction by fungi and microorganisms. Also in this heater rodents don't start because they die on contact with it. Due to the low weight of the material, when insulated with reed cane, the load on the foundation is minimal, which allows it to be widely used for construction purposes.

Benefits of insulation with reeds:

• environmentally friendly material;
• high rates of thermal insulation;
• dries quickly after getting wet;
• natural inexpensive material;
• does not stray and does not cake due to the special structure of the stem;
• easy to mount;
• provides good sound insulation.

What are reed-based materials and what are their characteristics

The reed must be properly prepared. Only the stems of young plants are used. The leaves separate themselves during frosts, it is optimal to harvest the material at a temperature of -7 ° C. Production harvesting of reeds for insulation takes place in the winter. After mowing, the reeds are used for the production of building materials:

• plates (mats);
• mats (mats)
• sheaves of reeds.

Reed slabs are used for wall and ceiling insulation, roofing, decorative hedges. They are made without artificial additives. In production, the reed is pressed on special installations, stitched and trimmed. Depending on the location of the stems, the shields are produced transverse and longitudinal. The length of the factory plates is 2.4-2.8 m, the width is 0.55-1.5 m, and the thickness is from 30 to 100 mm, the density is 175-250 kg/m³, depending on the degree of pressing. The service life of reed slabs is about 50 years.

Gunny - used as a roofing, for finishing ceilings, walls, as a decorative material. With the help of a mat Hide surface irregularities and defects. This is a product that is made using special weaving. The reeds are connected to each other in one row. Due to the tight fit of the stems, the canvas does not shine through. The thickness of the mat is 0.7 cm, it is stitched across the plate with 2 mm thick galvanized wire.

Sheaves are used as roofing material and for decoration.. For sheaves take a reed 1.6-2 m high, up to 7 mm in diameter. The circumference of the sheaf is 60 cm. They are fixed with polypropylene twine and packed in bales. A roof made of such material is resistant to temperature extremes, moisture, hail and rain. It will last about 50 years.

Disadvantages of reed

With numerous advantages of reeds, it also has a drawback - this is flammable material. Thanks to special tools, this problem can be easily dealt with.. An inexpensive and effective way is to treat the reed stalk with solutions such as Bishofit, Fire retardant.

Making reed slabs for insulation with your own hands

Mats are made not only in production. Reed slabs for insulation are also made at home. Work begins after the onset of frost. The reeds are cut with a sickle, after which the panicle and the remaining leaves are removed. The stems are collected in sheaves with a diameter of 40-45 cm. It is easier and more convenient to make large slabs with your own hands.

Before starting work, a frame is made of wooden planks. Pegs are driven inside the frame at a distance of 5-12 cm. The fastening of the reed stems is carried out in the opening of the frame. Sheaves are connected gradually, securing them with a rope or galvanized knitting wire. The bundles used must be of the same volume.

It is not difficult to perform wall insulation with reeds. The easiest way is to attach the boards with nails to the cross rails previously installed on the wall. There is another method: a frame is built from a thin wooden beam, reed slabs are laid in the openings and securely fixed and clamped.

Insulation with reeds attic floor

Increasingly, reeds began to be used in houses to insulate the attic. To do this, take reed slabs, which are simply laid on top of the ceilings apart.

It is better to make two layers so that the second overlaps the joints formed by the first.

To improve the thermal insulation effect, a vapor barrier film is laid under the plates.

Using reeds to insulate buildings can save up to 50% on heating costs in the winter. And in summer, this natural material will help keep the house pleasantly cool.

The roof is the place of the main heat loss in the house. Thus, you should not think about whether it is necessary to insulate the attic - it is simply necessary. If you do not make good thermal insulation, cold air can come from the ceiling in winter. Attic insulation options can be different: some are cheaper, others are lighter, others involve the use of natural materials. Everyone chooses what he needs for his home.

Previously, the roof in buildings was always made gable, and the slope was such that snow easily lingered on the roof. Under the slope in the gables they created an attic with one or two windows. In winter, the roof was covered with a cap of snow. Even in frost, this natural insulation was enough to ensure that the temperature in the attic did not fall below zero. At the same time, the roof slope was never insulated from the inside so that the snow would not melt, and the rafters were left open - this way inspection and repairs could be done.

What is the best way to insulate an attic?

It is recommended to choose the material for insulation based on what the overlap is made of. If it is represented by wooden beams, on top of which the same floor is laid, light slab, roll and bulk materials can be used. When concrete slabs were used for overlapping, it is necessary to use dense slab insulation or heavy bulk insulation, in order to then perform a cement screed.

Roll materials:

• glass wool;
• seaweed ladders;
• mineral wool.

Materials in mats and slabs:

• Styrofoam;
• straw;
• seaweed;
• extruded polystyrene foam;
• mineral wool.

Bulk materials:

• straw;
• sawdust;
• buckwheat tyrsa;
• reeds;
• flax waste from its processing;
• cellulose wool (ecowool);
• sex crops
• seaweed;
• expanded clay;
• foam granules;
• slag.

When determining how better to insulate the attic, it is necessary to pay attention to the thermal insulation characteristics of the material, its availability, resistance to temperature extremes and humidity levels, ease of installation, and safety for health. For example, you should not insulate a wooden house with foam plastic - this material does not breathe, so the tree rots over time. Not the last role in the choice is played by the material possibilities of the owner of the house.

Insulation with extruded polystyrene foam or polystyrene foam

Expanded polystyrene or polystyrene is a material with a low density, but quite suitable for attic insulation. Extruded polystyrene foam (see photo) is much denser, so it is much better suited for insulating concrete floor slabs in the attic. Before starting laying, the floor surface is carefully checked for irregularities. In order for the thermal insulation plates to be laid neatly, it is leveled. Before insulating the attic floor, a vapor barrier material is placed on the leveled surface.

Then the plates are laid in a checkerboard pattern, and the joints are sealed with mounting foam. After the foam dries, the cement-sand mixture is poured on top with a layer of about 4-5 centimeters. After the screed dries, the attic floor can be considered ready for use.

Reed insulation

Reed slabs have appeared recently, when people began to be interested in natural, environmentally friendly materials. In terms of its thermal insulation characteristics, reeds are no worse than other types of heaters. Flammability class without treatment is G2-G3, and after treatment with flame retardants - G1. This is a very good indicator that XPS and polystyrene cannot boast of - they not only burn, but also emit toxic substances at the same time.

Reed slabs can be used to insulate not only concrete floors, but also wooden ones. It is not necessary to create a vapor barrier. From above, you can create a wooden flooring or floor.

Seaweed insulation

Algae ladders are a natural material with good thermal insulation properties. Seaweed contains a lot of iodine and sea salt, so mice do not start in them, and they are also not subject to decay and damage by microorganisms. The ladder is nothing more than stitched zoster mats. Thermal insulation performance can be compared with synthetic materials. The main advantages of algae ladders are environmental friendliness and inability to burn (they only smolder, while no harmful substances are released).

Moisture is not dangerous to them, therefore, before this material, it is not necessary to make a vapor barrier. Ladders with a layer of 200 millimeters or more are laid immediately on the ceiling. From above, you can put boards or create a full-fledged wooden floor. Algae will benefit the inhabitants of the house, as they release iodine into the air, and also create a good microclimate in the room.

Warming with mineral wool

Mineral wool is a modern heat-insulating material, which is widely used due to its advantages. It does not rot and does not burn, is not afraid of rodents, microorganisms and moisture.

A vapor barrier film is laid on the bottom of the wooden coating, and its joints are glued with special adhesive tape, since cotton wool can absorb moisture, but is practically unable to give it away. Mineral wool is laid on top of the film. For work, it is recommended to wear tight clothing - the same should be done when laying fiberglass. Within 20 minutes, cotton wool takes on its true size. There is no need to cover it from above, but you can lay boards for walking. Waterproofing to protect cotton wool from leaks is done only under the roof.

Linen insulation

Linen insulation is also produced in rolls, like mineral wool. Their main advantage is environmental friendliness. Flax is perfect for warming houses built from natural materials. Before starting the insulation of a cold attic, the gaps in the floor are sealed with clay - there is no need to make special thermal insulation. Linen insulation is laid on top, carefully joining the rolls so that there are no gaps.

Insulation with filling materials

Before the attic is properly insulated with bulk materials, kraft paper or similar material (loose cardboard, glassine) is laid on wooden floors. You can also cover the floors with clay. Then a heater is placed on top (its layer depends on the region in which the house is located), and boards are laid for walking. They also insulate the hatch that leads to the attic (read: "").

Insulation with sawdust

Insulation with sawdust is a method proven for centuries. Getting them is not difficult if there is a wood processing plant nearby, and they are incredibly cheap to acquire.

Warming the floor of a cold attic with sawdust occurs as follows. First, the cracks in the floor are smeared with clay, and a thin layer of sand is poured on top. It is needed so that in the event of cracking of the clay, gaps are filled. Then slaked lime with carbide is poured on top so that mice do not start. Then comes a layer of sawdust 100-200 mm thick. Since sawdust is a combustible material, it is recommended to sprinkle it with slag mining, special attention should be paid to the area near the chimney and areas around hot spots. Instead of slag, sawdust can be treated with flame retardant. At the end, boards are laid on top of the sawdust, on which you can move.

Bonfire insulation

Before insulating the attic with flax, close up all the cracks in the floor using clay or modern materials designed for this. Then clay is smeared over the entire surface of the floor with a layer of 2 centimeters, or kraft paper is laid.

Bonfire is waste from flax processing. This material does not rot, is not affected by microorganisms and fungi, and is very light. Mice never start in a fire, because the material immediately crumbles. The fire tends to cake, but at any time it can be replaced or topped up. The main advantage of flax is the absence of disposal problems: it is simply raked out of the attic and burned.

The fire is covered with a layer of 180-350 millimeters. From above, you can put boards for ease of movement, but it is not recommended to make a full-fledged floor - it is better to leave free space. Thanks to this, the material will be able to breathe and release moisture. Be sure to make ventilation in the attic - windows can be medium or small. The material will periodically have to be checked for moisture - if it turns out to be damp, the windows must be opened so that the flax dries out.

Possible options for insulating the attic and attic, details on the video:

Expanded clay insulation

Expanded clay is perfect for use on concrete floor slabs. Its layer should be approximately 200-250 millimeters. A cement screed is made on top with a layer of no more than 50 millimeters. This allows you to create a floor on which you can not only move around, but also arrange things for storage. The cement mixture for the screed should be of a dense consistency so that it does not flow much into the expanded clay layer.

fiberglass insulation

Quite often, the attic is insulated with fiberglass, pouring a layer of 150-250 millimeters. This material is not subject to rotting and burning, is not afraid of moisture, microorganisms and fungi. However, it is toxic, so before insulating a cold attic with fiberglass, it is necessary to wear tight clothing, gloves and a respirator. After completion of work, clothing must be burned.

When the material is caked, it will have to be replaced with a new one, and here difficulties can arise, since it is not disposed of in the usual way. If there is no window in the attic through which the used material can be thrown out into the street, the situation becomes even more difficult, since the fiberglass will have to be carried through the house.

Straw insulation

Warming a non-residential attic with straw does not cause any difficulties. Straw or chaff from cereals was previously used as often as sawdust. The principle of insulation is the same. Glassine or kraft paper is laid under the straw, you can also smear the floor with clay - its layer should be up to 5 centimeters. Straw is poured on top with a layer of 200-500 millimeters thick - it depends on the climatic conditions of the region. Since it is a combustible material, it is smeared with clay on top - the layer should be 1-2 centimeters. To prevent mice from starting in the straw, you can use the same tool as in the case of sawdust - pour slaked lime with carbide.

Ecowool insulation

Ecowool is a modern material, a waste paper processing product using mineral binders and other additives that provide low flammability. Since the material absorbs moisture from the air in its fibers, cold attic insulation can be done without vapor barrier material - it simply does not make sense. But the use of the film does not need to be abandoned.

Ecowool is laid with a special blowing machine directly on wooden floors. The insulation layer is solid, without cracks. In addition, a large amount of air is preserved in the material, which also serves as a natural insulation. Usually it is enough to make a layer of ecowool 25 centimeters, but you can double it. Since this insulation is caking, when blowing it is worth using 10% more than the planned amount of material.

After a couple of weeks, a protective crust forms on the ecowool, which is a lignin that holds the fibers of the top layer together. When installing this type of insulation, water is sometimes sprayed to accelerate the formation of lignin.