Insulation in garage conversion help

Lestratcaster

So it looks like its getting difficult to get even a quote off builders and they all seem to be busy for at least 6 months. Some are booking for 2025!!

I've only had 1 quote back so far (had 3 people round to look at the garage). Totalled about £7500. They want roughly £3k for materials for wall and ceiling (mostly Rockwool, studwalls new plasterboard, tape and jointing and skip hire etc). £3500 for labour across 7 days and the VAT. Still waiting on the 3rd one who came round to take measurements. He says he can beat it however.

Does anyone know if insulation work for energy saving is VAT exempt? There seems to be alot of uncertainty whether or not its VAT-chargeable.

Lestratcaster

Just to update everyone on this (if anyone is still interested).

Didn't do any work as the quotes I was getting (albeit just 1) was way too high to redo the entire room. Thought it over for months and have decided to halve the size of the room. The plan is to build a new partition stud wall in the middle, insulate that with 100mm rockwool and acoustic plasterboard. New door as well. This will probably only help heat the room faster and I'll still suffer heat loss from the other walls and ceiling but this work can be done in 3 days so I can still keep my lessons running without having to shut or move things out.

I'll most likely not see a significant difference so will have to segment the work and do the other parts but I'm gonna start with this first.

Neilybob

That’s a lot of money isn’t it.

I looked at converting our integral garage to a room earlier this year and was quoted between £7k and £12k. I’ve postponed this work but I might look at doing it in stages to help spread the costs over the warmer months. 

1. Remove garage door and build wall, knock down internal wall. 

2. Raise floor height.
  3. Install ceiling and wall insulation.  
  4. Run electrics.  

Lestratcaster

Yeah, but I'm paying out a lot more for electricity in the long run to heat the bloody room from cold!

Segmenting it will be alright, I've got most of the other work done like electrics and the actual brickwork. So its all just a matter of taking down what's already there and re-doing it properly. Only 3 x 2 now as its half the space.

Lestratcaster

Ok so wall partition work started a couple of days ago. Timber frames, 100mm rockwool lined and 12mm acoustic treated plasterboard. New door frame. 

Today was the wet plaster. So far so good.

The humidity in the room is 74%, and I would use a dehumidifier but worried the plaster will dry too fast and crack. Its quite cold so opening windows all day isn't really advisable. The heating I'm trying to keep between 15-18 so not to dry out too quick.

Or should I set the dehumidifier on 60% just to get rid of some moisture but still be enough so it doesn't dry the plaster too quick?