Insulating a fish room?

[Ben]

Peoples,
I need some help and ideas....

Before winter comes around i would like to insulate my garage/fish room.

Aprox 9mx6m in size.

I would like it to be cost effective, practical, look tidy and maybe in the future,be able to transfer the insulation to another room.

What sort of insulation would be best?

Would love all of your ideas!

Cheers
Ben

[revkev]

Hi Ben I have seen your garage why not insulate the fish tanks with polystyrene sheets untill you get your new fishroom mite be better for the short term. ie sides and top to keep the heat in.
Revkev

[Mulisha]

Hey Ben this might not be revelent but once your fish room is heated i've seen people put a oil heater in the middle of the room for those really cold days and nights you would have in Melbourne :lol:

If you are planning on making a fish room for the time being maybe just put the sheets of the outsides of the tank and top of it.

I would mainly cover the tops of the tanks becuase HEAT RISESso maybe so sheets a bit thicker when doing your fish room on the roof as it will be holding all the heat it and becase a concrete slab is very cold maybe buying some 2nd carpet or something all those lines to put on the floor to hold down the the coldness.

Hope that made sense

GoodLuck :D

HTH

[kalebjarrod]

Try polstrene on the walls

but around the tanks is better

and space blankets at night :wink:

also board up any windows, glass losses heat bad

and spend some time stopping drafts around the garage door

and then buy a stompping heater! :wink:

[Ben]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and feed back.

Would polystireine (spelling) be the best and cheapest to use on the walls and roof of the fishroom?

I would like it to be done by march and as winter comes will look at getting a heater to heat the whole room.

Ben

[kalebjarrod]

cheap qick and easy, its also water proof

only prob is it gets a little mouldy from the humidity

but thats what happens in the big city! :wink:

[Mulisha]

AJAX Mould Remover :wink:

Now it's all sorted LOL :lol:

[goldenpigeon]

Ben my fish room which i have just started putting tanks in has a kind of wool sort of insulation in the walls and roof. temp is always perfect in there and i have 2 gas heaters and a portable reverse cycle airconditioner to use in winter..... should work great :D

cheers

[Crocky]

ben

go around some building site and check out there bin but ask, you would my be surprised.i won't use its proper name but stuff they wrap around the outside of new homes and on the roof.Its 50 odd buck for a large roll and just staples on.Just give us a quick call mate and tell you some as there 2 different types.

Brad

[Ben]

Brad, i will give you a buzz after the week end.

Is that the foil stuff?
blue one side silver the other?

Ben

[fishgeek]

this may be worth reading scrolldown to pdf on insulation types

there was a product that is like silver foil bubble wrap that is supposed to be quite good , cant remember the name though sorryhttp://www.sustainable-energy.vic.gov.au/seinfo/your-home/Home%20building%20and%20design/Energy%20efficient%20design/insulation.asp

[oscar]

Ben,

That blue paper they put on houses only really provides very basic insulation but would definitely be better than nothing.

You can purchase rolls of a foam product that has a thin vinyl type layer on one side that you use as the outer surface. They often use is for sound and thermal insulation of machinery cabins (e.g. dozers, graders...). The foam comes in varying thicknesses from 5-ish mm up to 1-1/5 inches. I'm not sure where you would get it from but i'd honestly expect Bunnings to carry some variety of the product, if they don't Blackwoods would definitely be able to source it.

It'd probably look alright but would cost a bit more than whacking up sheets of styro foam. I reckon you could tack it up as a temporary measure so you could move it if necessary.

It just depends on how "cheap" you want the job to be?

[Dee]

Heya Ben,

Just my 2cents worth mate ... IMO it all comes down to how well you can seal (air tight) the room. There are many heat insulation products on the market, but if air can escape/enter easily it will reduce the effectivness of your insulation. As KJ mentioned windows is another consideration when insulating, you may want to cover them over to again reduce heat loss.

When I built my my recording studio I had to insulate one room for sound (it had to be dead quiete). My main aim when insulating for sound was to keep the room air tight, same theory applies. I sealed all areas where the floor met the walls and also sealed over the windows and a skylight. The main areas you will want to look at are where the cieling and floors meet the side walls and and under the garage door etc.

One idea would be to use a suitable heat insulation against your walls and cieling, then use something like 5-7mm plaster sheating over the top to basiclly create a room within a room. This would also make sealing the area easier as you could use caulk to seal the joins and corner joins etc, would look alot neater too. I guess it could get a bit pricey going this way, but it would then be easily removed etc.

One thing I found with sealing a room is that it's great in winter, but come summer it can be like an oven, so you may want to consider what to do on like 30- 40 degree days ... just a thought. On another tanjent in regards to heating the room ... you may want to look at other heating sources aside from oil/kero heaters, mainly safety and also this style of heaters can emit fumes, which could be problematic in a sealed confined space maybe ? anyway just throwing some ideas atcha mate !

If you need insulation supplies and advice I can put you on to the guys I bought all my insulation from, they are cheap and always where happy to offer advice and suggestions. They stock a full range of heating and sound insulation, aswell as plaster board and timber supplies. Best of luck with it all mate.

Cheers,

Dee

:D

[kalebjarrod]

i agree with dee

the room will only be as good as the worst draft

and get yourself a air-con while your on a spending spree!

[Ben]

Thanks Ryan, fishgeek, oscar and Dee.

I will have a search around to see what is the best to use.

Dee i will give you a buzz after the week end.

Ben

[goldenpigeon]

the aircon i have in my fish room i bought from bunnings. it is recommended for about 20 square metres but my room is like 36 i thik it was and it does it perfectly.

the unit i have is a portable one.

[Ben]

what about something like this?

http://www.foamsales.com.au/newSite/products/productType.aspx?prodTyp=5&prodCat=8

they are in WA, so buying from them is no good.

What would be a good thickness?

Cheers
Ben

[kalebjarrod]

What would be a good thickness?


the thickest you can afford! :wink:

i would like 5 cm (50mm) minimum 8-)

[Dee]

Heya Ben,

Here's a link to the stuff I used (this is the Thermal version of the product) from memory a bail costs around $35 and has eight bats per bail, each bat is something like 450mm x 1000mm and a bout 150mm thick. ---

http://www.autex.co.nz/insulation/greenstuf.html

This ofcourse could be way off what your planning to do, but gives you an idea of what I was talking about. Its very easy to work with and no protective clothing needed ... unlike other insulation I have used in the past which can be a itchy annoying nightmare hahaha :P also doesn't get effected by moisture or mould ... handy for the sultry climate of a fish room !

Cheers,

Dee :)

[Ben]

Thanks everyone for the ideas and feedback!

So far it’s looking like costing more than $1000-

I am located in Melbourne and if anyone can help me with the insulation i can look after them with discus!

Cheers
Ben

[Dave76]

Hi Ben

Have you tried coolroom suppliers / installers as they quite often have 2nd hand slabs of poly going cheap - normally funny sizes / offcuts tho so you might need to jigsaw a bit....

Dave

[OscarSam]

Ben, is the garage drywalled already or do you have exposed 2x4 or 2x6 studs? The easiest and generally most inexpensive way to insulate an unfinished garage is with batt insulation and a 6mil poly vapour barrier.
http://www.owenscorning.com/around/insulation/insulationhome.asp
Snoop around there for a while and that will give you an idea of what's involved, this is a DIY job for most people as long as you can stand a bit of scratchiness.

[Ben]

Thank you OscarSam!

The garage has 2x4 studs.

I have been a bit slack lately and need to think about this project a bit more!

Thanks for the advice and if you think of anything else let me know!

Cheers
Ben

[OscarManAlpha]

G'day Ben,

Probably the easiest thing to do would be to build some tall racks, long enough to fill each of the four walls in your fish room and high enough to reach the ceiling.

Then fill them with the an assortment of tanks. :shock: :shock: :shock:

Before placing the tanks on the racks you could insulate the sides and backs of the tanks with Styrofoam thus insulating them.

I would recommend not to put silicone on the foam, instead I would use some Velcro strips as you may want to remove the foam at some or another time.

In theory this should insulate the room, as the water will hold temperature so the more water the merrier you will be.

You may also want to put Styrofoam on the inside of the door also using the Velcro strip method.

This may not seem like the cheapest option, but over say at most a five year period it should pay for itself.

Also it is inevitable you are going to get more tanks if you have already set aside a room for your fish.

If you do try this let us know as I will do the same if you find that it works. ( and if I can get some form of financial backing )

Just thought I'd share my fish room fantasy....strange thoughts occur at 2 am in the morning. :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

HTH

Cheers,

Mark