Help please - DIY disaster!

[jazzactivist]

Hi all, I am struggling with a home DIY project. I am trying to replace the shower in my bathroom. As it is the same size and style of shower this seemed like an easy job. However, when I try to turn off the stopcock under the kitchen sink to stop the water it doesn't seem to work and the water keeps running. I have turned it fully clockwise, which you are supposed to do. I have a combi boiler so there is no upstairs water tank. At the moment I have a shower unit disconnected form the electricity and hanging off the wall, but still connected to the plumbing as the water won't stop! There is no chance of getting a plumber out here at the weekend, so does anyone know anything about stopcocks so that I can get it to work and switch off the water flow? Much appreciated...

[jazzactivist]

Nevermind - DIY disaster averted. By judicious questioning of neighbours I found someone with a key instrument to turn off the water main in front of the house, and another who had the right kind of valve. So I am now the proud owner of a new shower that I installed myself. It was quite easy once I had got over the gushing water problem, as I chose one that is exactly the same as the old one (the front casing had cracked!) so that I could use it as a model for all the wiring and attachments. Now onto adding more insulation in the roof space...

[SummerSkye]

Hi Jazz, glad you sorted your shower out and averted a problem; we always turn our water off at the mains to do any plumbing DIY it is much safer that way. What sort of insulation are you using, just curious ... one country to another.

[jazzactivist]

Hi Summer, you probably have more choice in Australia than we do in the UK, but the type of insulation that I have my eye on is made of recycled newspaper sandwiched between two layers of silver foil - like a space blanket. The other choices are the hugely expensive sheeps wool, or the usual cheap fibreglass type. These are the only ones that I seem to be able to find. What kinds do you have?

While I was thinking about this, it struck me that a good idea might be a big blow up, fire retardant balloon that you could put in your roof space and blow up and which would spread out and up to fill most of it. This air pocket would create good insultaion and it would be easy to let the air out if you had to do work inside the roof. Do you think that it would work?

[SummerSkye]

We don't have that much choice either, usually it is fibreglass batts or a popular option is "Cool & Cosy" see web page http://www.coolorcosy.com.au/supa-cel/state/qld this is a quick and efficient way to insulate a house; we have had it in several of our past places. Only problem we found with it was the rats liked it for bedding down in over winter, which meant throwing baits into the ceiling and then having to crawl up there to retrieve. Not a nice job; then again if you have cats it probably wouldn't be a problem.
Your balloon sounds like a good idea though; it would have to be a special sort of material to make it both fire retardant and flexible enough to fit into different sizes and shapes of roof space. A challenge for a designer.