Norwegian wood(shop) build

[Krysstel]

OK, here we go with the insulation, Norwegian style !!! :lol:

I went for something new (at least to me). Compressed wood fiber insulation.
It's supposed to have all kinds of wonderful properties as well as being environmentally more friendly etc etc. The thing that appealed most to me was the increased sound absorption.
Supposedly it's so nice to install that you don't need any protection wear, mask or anything. But I soon discovered that was a load of BS ! That wood dust goes and gets everywhere; eyes, hair, inside clothes....... I ended up in full white suit with hood, goggles and mask and the whole job tuned out being horrible !

I insulated in two rounds. First layer was 20cm in the roof and the back wall towards the neighbours and 10cm on the two end walls and the front wall. I then cross battened the whole room, walls and ceiling, with 2" x 2". Within this outer 2" all the electrics will be installed.

Looks straightforward in the pictures but this was a long, boring, dirty job

Mark

 

[Inspector]

How does that insulation compare to traditional fibreglass, rock/mineral wool and styrofoam? The R value for each in whatever units you guys use. I assume it is treated against bugs and fire somehow?

Early insulating was with sawdust poured into wall cavities and spread around the attic and now we are coming full circle using wood again. The shop is looking good.

Pete

 

[Krysstel]

How does that insulation compare to traditional fibreglass, rock/mineral wool and styrofoam? The R value for each in whatever units you guys use. I assume it is treated against bugs and fire somehow?

Early insulating was with sawdust poured into wall cavities and spread around the attic and now we are coming full circle using wood again. The shop is looking good.

Pete

Here's the stuff I used :- Hunton Nativo

 

[MikeG.]

How does it compare? It is a less efficient thermal insulator, so you need a greater thickness. However, it works easily, is pleasant to work with, absorbs moisture and releases it slowly (so is compatible with vapour-permeable walls), and, as has been said, is a decent acoustic insulator.

 

[Inspector]

Thank you gents. It's an insulation material I'd never heard of and was curious. The real test will come with time. If it gains popularity and is still in use in a couple decades, it's a success. Except for the lower insulation values it is a natural for this country. We have more than a few trees. My house is double walled with 9 1/2" (24cm) plus sheeting and dry wall which is R40 in the measurements used here and the ceiling is insulated with R80. My shop has 2x6 walls with R19 fibreglass and R40 in the ceiling. I'd have preferred more but costs were a factor.

Pete

 

[RobinBHM]

I see

The lambda value of Nativo Wood Fiber Insulation Boards is 0.038 W/mK

PIR has a lambda value of 0.021 W/mK

which I guess means the wood fibre is a bit under half, so 100mm of celetex will be roughly equal to 200mm of Nativo.

 

[Inspector]

What is Celetex? A foil faced glass fibre board?

Pete

 

[Krysstel]

Nativo Wood Fiber is fairly new here in Norway as well. I've heard of it for a few years but never used it myself nor know anyone who has, although it seems to be quite readily available. Must admit I wasn't overly preoccupied with the thermal qualities and more interested in the acoustic advantages than anything else. With 25cm in the roof, 25cm in one wall and 15cm in the other three I'm confident it'll be warm enough, even when it gets to 25 below outside !!

Mark

 

[Krysstel]

Onto the electrics.

Now I'm no electrician but this is probably quite different to how it's normally done in the UK ? But pretty standard practice in Norway.
Basically wherever you see a red wall box in the pictures there'll be either a socket outlet or a switch of some kind. The ones in the ceiling are either for connections to the roof lighting or for sockets I'll be using for a dust filter, pull down cord and so on. Around the walls they'll be a total off 12 double socket outlets spread over two 16A circuits. The plan is to run the dust extractor on one circuit and a machine (bandsaw, PT, router etc etc) on the second circuit, thereby never overloading the 16A circuit breaker we use on each circuit.
Between the wall boxes we use flexible plastic conduit with 3 x 2.5mm2 wire (+, - and earth) pre-installed. This saves a load of installation time and 2 of us managed to mount all the boxes and pull all the wiring in the about a day and a half.
The fuse box by the door will contain a main breaker + four x 16A circuit breakers, one of them 3-phase (we have 230V 3 phase here) for my Wadkin AGS-10 . The workshop is fed from the house by a 40m long x 10mm2 underground cable with a separate breaker (I think it's 40A ?) also installed in the main fuse box in the house.
By law we cannot do any of the connections ourselves so a qualified electrician will come to install the actual switches and sockets and everything in the fuse boxes etc.

The last 5cm layer of insulation will be cut and installed around the conduit and wall boxes before I panel the walls.

How does all this compare with UK methods ?

Mark

 

[Jonathan S]

Your wiring looks simular to the system we use here in Spain....its a good system.

The uk system is a little different...well they do still drive on the wrong side of the road[FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY]

Sent from my SM-J530F using Tapatalk

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Regarding compressed wood insulation, I have had a bit of a thing for light clay slip straw infill as a wall building method. Haven't used it yet, but it is on the list. I wonder how similar this technique is to your "modern" insulation?

http://www.theyearofmud.com/2012/03/01/ ... raw-house/

(Warning: hippy-dippy tree-hugger green building methods)

 

[Vann]

Onto the electrics.

Between the wall boxes we use flexible plastic conduit with 3 x 2.5mm2 wire (+, - and earth)...
(snip)
...By law we cannot do any of the connections ourselves so a qualified electrician will come to install the actual switches and sockets and everything in the fuse boxes etc.

How does all this compare with UK methods ?

In New Zealand we would have used British Standards until maybe 40 years ago. I don't know how different we are now.

We don't use individual wires, but three wires (phase, neutral & earth) for single phase, inside a tough plastic screen ("TPS").

For sockets we use 2.5mm twin & earth TPS cable, while lighting circuits are usually 1.5mm twin & earth TPS cable.

When the cable is used within an enclosed wall, no conduit is used. When the cable is surface mounted, it is enclosed in a conduit like you have done (although straight conduit is normally used, with flexible conduit used for awkward routes).

Unlike the enclosed red boxes you use for sockets/switches, over here we used to use steel boxes like the one on the right (below).

But moulded plastic boxes are now the norm. They're open at the back and too flimsy for my liking. I reuse old steel ones if I can get them out without too much damage.

Like you, a registered sparkie is required to connect the cables at both ends.

I've not heard of 230v 3 phase here. 3 phase is normally 400v. And we're 50hz like UK, Australia, and (I assume) most of Europe & Asia.

3 phase is usually run in 4core TPS (3 phase wires + earth) or 5core TPS (3 phase wires, neutral & earth).

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Krysstel]

I believe 230V 3-phase is unique to Norway (and maybe Sweden ?).

My Wadkin AGS10 (vintage 1963) is an export model that was fitted with a dual voltage 230/380V 3-phase motor. And an adjustable riving knife that rises and tilts with the blade.

Mark

 

[Inspector]

North America is a hodge podge of different voltages and every province and even cities have variations on the national codes. #-o Im not qualified to explain the differences. :roll: I did find this, that seems to show everyones voltages. https://ctlsys.com/support/electrical_s ... _voltages/ Houses don't normally have 3 phase but with Variable Frequency Drives it is simple to run 220 delta wound motors off the 220V single phase and get the variable speed as a bonus. House wiring is something like the New Zealand cable shown and usually called Romex, probably a trade name that became common. Also if in the middle of the wall, doesn't use conduit and our boxes are steel or plastic, either readily available. Plastic boxes have backs. I've never seen anything like the OP's style of wiring here. Our electrical panels are much more complicated. My shop and garage below is served by a 100 amp sub panel off the 200 amp main panel with 15 and 20 amp 110 circuits along with 15, 20 and 30 amp 220 circuits (I could have had 400 amp but at a much higher monthly rate).

Pete

 

[Krysstel]

Time to seal it all up

After all the electrics were in I cross-insulated with another 5cm of the wood fiber insulation and then covered and taped the whole room with a new (to me) type of breathable vapour barrier.

Mark

 

[Krysstel]

The ceiling was then covered with these ready finished 12mm thick chipboard panels.

 

[Krysstel]

And the walls first got a layer of 12mm plasterboard (sorry, no photos) followed by a layer of 12mm ready finished (white) MDF panels.
The idea behind the 2 layers was to aid noise reduction. I've read that 2 layers of different materials break up the sound waves and improve sound absorption. I also specifically chose plasterboard and MDF (instead of chipboard for instance) as they are both dense materials.

 

[Krysstel]

As soon as all the walls were paneled I got the electrician back to connect everything up.
In the fuse box by the door we now have :-
1 x 40A main breaker
1 x 16A 3-phase circuit
3 x 16A 1-phase circuits.
One of the 1-phase circuits is dedicated to lighting and heating and the other 2 will be for general machine and power tool use. There are a total of 24 socket outlets spread around the room + 3 along the ceiling for the 2 machine/power tool circuits.
The 3-phase circuit will be only used by my Wadkin AGS10 table saw.
The ceiling lighting consists of 10 x 43W LED strip lights, each giving 4000 lumens. These are split across 2 switches with 5 on each, alternately connected so I can light the whole room with only 5 on or with all 10.

I wasn't really happy with having the whole room white and therefore chose to paint all the walls a blue-grey colour. With so much ceiling lighting it's still way brighter than I really need !

Getting close now

Cheers
Mark

 

[Krysstel]

Straight on the concrete floor I laid a 2mm plastic vapour barrier sheet and taped the overlaps.
I then laid 23x48mm batterns loose on top with 25mm insulation between. I did consider screwing all these down to the concrete but it would have been a lot of work and is that floor going anywhere once all the machines and benches are on top ?!

The finished floor is 25mm thick pine tongue and groove planed floor boards, B (second) quality. After a lot of research this proved to be almost the cheapest thing i could build a floor from. A few of the boards were a bit rough but for a workshop floor are more than good enough. And wood is so much nicer to walk on then concrete
I finished the pine with 3 coats of water based (very) matt varnish. It turned out great

And that's about it. Right now I'm busy moving machinery and tools and after the new year I'll start on cupboards and benches etc.

Mark

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

That’s what I like about the Norwegians.
Fantastic Quality.
Good Job.