Shaun’s DIY apartment reno
When Shaun bought the top floor apartment of a 1980s low-rise block in 2022, it was dated, and unbearably hot on summer days. Shaun put his DIY skills and sustainability expertise to work renovating and retrofitting what is now a beautiful, comfortable, and sustainable home.
Shaun’s one bedroom apartment has a north facing bedroom and living area, and west facing kitchen. The apartment was full of natural light during the day but a lack of external shading, single-glazed, aluminium windows, and no insulation, left the apartment unbearably hot in summer.
Having windows on three sides promoted natural cross ventilation, but Shaun knew that - along with a style update - there was a lot of room for improvement.
The apartment was already all-electric, so Shaun’s focus was to ensure a sustainable, beautiful, and energy efficient renovation that would last.
Thanks to his DIY skills, and a little help from his friends, Shaun renovated the apartment within budget, and he’s pretty pleased with the results.
Watch Shaun on Never Too Small and follow his apartment journey on Instagram.
Shaun’s work in the sustainable built environment sector, meant he had a wealth of technical knowledge to help select the best retrofit opportunities, balancing environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, aesthetic, and budget considerations.
Efficiency and thermal comfort retrofits
R3.5 glasswool insulation into the roof cavity
Insulating walls on the north and west sides, (see right for more information)
Insulated hot water pipes
Blockout blinds that reflect excess solar heat, coupled with natural timber venetian blinds
Ceiling fan in the bedroom
Efficient induction cook top and new oven
Recycled materials
Selecting second hand or recycled materials is one of the best ways to reduce the embodied emissions inherent in renovating or building. Thanks to online market places and recycle shops, accessing these resources is relatively easy. Shaun sourced:
A recycled spotted gum kitchen bench top
Secondhand wardrobes
Recycled timber flooring re-purposed for the bathroom ceiling
A second hand bathroom sink
He brought the same ethos to what he replaced and what he kept, in terms of what was already in the apartment. The apartment was already all-electric and included a small 50L electric hot water unit. While it wasn’t the most energy efficient unit, it was electric and Shaun didn’t want to contribute to additional unnecessary demolition/construction waste. When the unit fails, he’s update to something more energy efficient.
Wanting to be aware of his impact - positive and negative - Shaun tracked the renovation closely and worked out it created approximately 5 m3 of demolition and construction waste. While most of it was unavoidable, it still shows the impact of even interior renovations.
More sustainable materials
Where second hand materials weren’t available or appropriate Shaun selected materials that were zero or low VOC, and more environmentally friendly, including:
Replacing the old synthetic carpet with cork flooring
An aqua based stain for custom cut plywood for kitchen cabinetry and wardrobes in the bedroom
Borrow don’t buy for DIY
Shaun left the plumbing and electrical work to the professionals, but he completed the rest of the renovation work, which meant he needed a wide range of tools. Rather than buying lots of expensive tools, he became a member of the Brunswick Tool Library.
For only $80/year he accessed drop-saws, tile cutters, grinders, everything he needed! “I highly recommend the Tool Library to anyone undertaking DIY renovations!” said Shaun.
“I look around knowing I designed and built almost every element in the apartment, along with supportive friends, and that makes me smile. And the insulation has increased the thermal performance of the apartment and made it a comfortable place to live.”
Advice for others
Shaun’s advice to others is:
“Do it! Plan lots, but know even if you overthink a particular task or outcome, you’ll have missed something when you come to it (but that’s totally fine!).
Don’t be scared to try new things, even if you don’t think you’re ‘handy’. Leave the hard/dangerous things to qualified electricians and plumbers, and try the easier things such as flooring or even building the kitchen (especially if you use Ikea, its pretty straightforward to follow the instructions)”.
A brick wall insulation solution
It’s often challenging to insulate external brick walls in apartments. It’s possible to retrofit blow in insulation within double brick cavity walls but this would require decision making with the owners corporation, and is more complex in multistory buildings. All this would have slowed or stopped the process so Shaun looked for another solution.
In the end he sacrificed a small amount of space internally, essentially building another wall layer on the inside of the north and west walls in the bedroom, living room, and kitchen.
He installed Kingspan Kooltherm K17 board (35mm), a rigid insulation board with plasterboard attached. As you can see from the photo above, the result is visually seamless. The walls don’t look any different to the original but they have an additional R1.15 insulation in them. A clever solution!
Products and Suppliers
Facebook Market Place
More from Shaun
Design Files have written about Shaun’s renovation, he’s been interviewed for Never Too Small, and you can follow his apartment journey on Instagram.
