Delivery of plywood and insulation

        Ok let's time travel back to 2022... In September we finally had our delivery of insulation and plywood for internal wall cladding.

    We wanted to get insulation that was
*not itchy

*not expensive

*available locally

*made from environmentally friendly materials eg. recycled

*Not toxic to humans

        After extensive research of all the available options, the best decision was definitely Earthwool, as it was available from Bunnings, a good price and made from 80% recycled glass. Also apparently it doesn't make you itchy. But there was a problem - it was impossible to buy. For one thing, Covid had destroyed supply chains. Also, something about a fire at the Earthwool factory in Asia meant that we could not even special order it from Bunnings. There was none available in Australia apparently. And none coming in the foreseeable future. 

          The Bunnings at Lismore said they get their stock from Queensland so they suggested we try the Bunnings at Grafton who get their stock from Sydney, but still there was none available. And geez it's hard to get someone from Bunnings to answer the phone, it just rings out most of the time. And you can't just pop into the store when it's an hour and half drive to Lismore EACH WAY and 2 1/2 hours to Grafton EACH WAY. That's lot of petrol money and an entire day wasted! So we had to work out another product.

        After contacting all the local suppliers the only option was Pink Batts. Definitely not ideal because they are super-itchy, though they are still made from 80% of recycled glass and bio-soluble. This means that any inhaled fibres will dissolve in your lungs and hopefully won't cause bad things to happen to your body.

        For the walls we got R2.0, which is a number which measures the insulating value. We couldn't go higher than this as that is the maximum which fits in our wall width of 7cm. This R value meant that we met the official government requirements for the insulating quality of our house. 18 bags for $60 each was $1000. For the ceilings we got R3.5, which is 17.5cm thick. There is plenty of room in the ceiling so no need to worry about it being too thick. 8 bags for $67 each was about $500.

        As for the plywood, we ordered 7mm for the walls of most of the house. CD Non structural Warrior at just under $50 each for 75 sheets was about $3,500. Each sheet was 2400 x 1200mm. For the bathroom we got Marine ply at 9mm thick, 11 sheets for $114 was about $1,200. They called it DesignerPly Hardwood, whatever that means. Each sheet was 2440 x 1200mm according to the order form, but I think the marine ply was actually a little wider than that.

        So we ordered all of the 2 types of insulation and 2 types of plywood from the one local place as it was simpler, and also as they offered delivery. You can't get delivery from Bunnings without paying hundreds of dollars. This stuff was definitely not fitting in the back of my hatchback! We actually had to wait over 5 weeks after ordering, as the local hardware and timber store were themselves waiting for a delivery from their supplier before they had enough of the right stock for our order. The delivery fee was $66 which is fair considering it was about a 2 hour drive round trip for them, and a while for loading and unloading of the heavy items.

        Finally delivery day rolled around and we asked our wonderful friend to come over and help lift off these sheets. The smaller sheets were about 13kg each, and the larger sheets were nearly 20kg each, which I think is pretty heavy but Josh doesn't think so apparently. I would have loved to be able to help carry them but had to recognise my physical limits so I didn't damage my body. The delivery driver was an old guy who couldn't help carry anything either which was unfortunate. Me and the driver had a chat while the boys were unloading, and oh boy, I could tell he was a Barnaby Joyce voter. That's what they are all like in Tenterfield! He had a young guy as an offsider who was lovely and worked very hard unloading, poor thing had to stop for a drink partway through as it had turned into a bit of a hot day and he was bright red in the face. So I appreciated very much all the work he was doing for us.

        Above is the pile of 7mm plywood, and below is the separate pile of marine ply.

         Then we had a bit of problem when the truck tried to leave, as the driver didn't listen to us when we told him not to back too far down towards the house as it was quite slippery and wet. So of course the truck's tyres were just spinning in the mud. Luckily our wonderful friend had his 4wd ute and was able to give the truck a bit of a pull to get it out. Between the lot of them it turned out that Josh had to be in charge and tell them all where to drive - even though he didn't even have his driver's licence at this point!

     Anyway it was a good day in all, and great to finally have the materials we needed to continue on with finishing the internals of our house. Here's the total of the costs, not including the screws which will be needed to attach to plywood to the walls.

$1000

$500

$3,500

$1,200

equals $6,200

Considering I earn $500 a week that's over 3 months wages!