I see that the govt is going to have the foil removed or leakage circuit breakers fitted.
Thats nice, then if the foil is live and you get up into the roof and
happen to touch the live foil as well as a water pipe or some other earthed surface,
you will only get a shock for some milliseconds until the breaker opens.
Then a wide area of live conductor sits there for the next fifty years
waiting for something to happen.
That is a solution ?
Mr Fix it Combe is following in the same pair of shoes.

Then for years the foil sits up there working like an antenna spreading
all the noise on the mains around and making worse your radio & TV reception.

Just a bit extra that I learnt the other day.
The foil is normally used between the tiles and the roof framing.
I noticed a roof being built locally and that was where the foil was installed.
It is not normally laid over the ceiling joists.

It looks like this whole problem of the insulation should be taken out
of the hands of the government.
They obviously cannot manage the repair either.

bazz:"The foil is normally used between the tiles and the roof framing."

No, that's sarking, which serves two purposes - it insulates and also adds a secondary water resistant membrane under the tiles, helping to protect against water ingress due to wind-driven rain or cracked tiles and pointing.

The insulation was of a couple of different types. A felt-backed foil, almost like a thin batt that could be rolled out, but with foil on one side was common. i lost one of my casual employees to a firm around the corner who were making this stuff to order, using wool felt and a heavy-gauge foil.

Another type is a "pop-up" type, consisting of two layers of foil held apart by strips of foil a few centimeters wide. It's supplied flat on a roll and then opened up once installed. I suspect it's this type that has caused the most problems, since it needs to be secured against wind movement and also so it can be opened up. The felt-backed type should be fine laid in like batts, although obviously if it sat on a live conductor there would be problems.

Thanks antiseptic,
I was not close enough to see the detail, but I was
told that the insulating foil could be used under the tiles like sarking.
Is that possible ?
Anyway its a mess.
Theoretically it could be safe laid onto the rafters as wiring
should not be crossing over the rafters but under.
At least thats how it is in my roof, 50 years old.
It will be a really difficult thing to test, no wonder they want to install breakers instead.
Just a few minutes work at the switchbox
and a great big bill for the dopey government !

Dear antiseptic and Bazz,

You may find this website answering a few of your questions.

http://www.solartex.com.au/view_article.asp?id=1&cat=7

I was aware that aluminium foil as a ceiling batt was more popular in Queensland because it stopped the rotting issues associated with fibre batts in humid climates.

As this article makes clear it is the underside of the foil batt surface which is the critical one as the top side would have issues with dust collection.

It also claims a minimum of 50mm airspace between the ceiling and the batt surface to get the proper rating.

I know the firm in question is selling the product but they do other forms of insulation as well.

To me the roll out highlights a couple of things.

The first is the inadequacy of the marketplace alone to solve these problems, one gets the feeling if the thing had been entirely government instigated and operated then we would not have seen the plethora of shoddy practices experienced with this one.

The second has to do with people feeling that something they are getting for free is someone else's money and so it doesn't require the due diligence they might have applied normally when purchasing goods or services worth $1600.

Now I'm getting a confused.

The government scheme installed foil insulation in 48,000 houses in Queensland and northern most NSW.

For the reasons stated above this is the best type of installation for these areas and has been used for years as a standard for this type of climate.

Therefore if the problems were so obvious why hadn't it been picked up before or where all those installations done correctly?

Thank god it would seem, that this was a Federal government initative because the states and the private sector have not picked up on any of these problems before now.

I don't see anyone calling for ALL the houses with foil installed whether under this scheme or not to be checked. Certainly not Abbott but if he was truely concerned about house and worker safety then this is exactly what needs to happen for him to be consistant.

I will not be holding my breath.

I am firming in my conviction that this is a Murdoch beatup and most of us have swallowed their line including the government.