Rassd71 project update - insulation

[rassd71]

Well things are moving right along. This week the insulation was started. It should have been finished and if the crews had been even close to on time either day, it would have been!

But in any event, progress is being made. We decided to go with a hybrid system for our insulation. With blown in celluouse in the walls and more traditional fiberglass batts in the attic.

Here is the truck that has the blower system for the 'coccoon' insulation in the walls...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/insulation1.jpg


a shot of the walls...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/insulation11.jpg

and a shot of where the insulation fell out of one of the walls and batt was put in it's place...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/insulation13.jpg


And lastly the beginning of the ceiling installation...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/insulation12.jpg


For those who may be interested, our walls are R-21 and the ceiling is R-51! Even now, it's quiet in the house, it's kinda spooky!

Oh, and we're going to add more as the drywall goes in to some of the interior walls, expecially around the bathrooms and to seperate the master bedroom a little more!

[ChoochCharlie]

R51. Wow.
Why is some of the ceiling with vapor barrier and some without?
Nother question. How did you come to choose celulose for the walls? I would have thought it would settle over time and leave cold spots.

It is quite incredible how the insulation absorbs sound. Spooky after a loud, echo filled construction.

[rassd71]

Hey Chooch,
The reason only a small area has the facing is because the rest of the ceiling is not finished. It will be done tomorrow!

As for why we chose the celluose, with the steel framing, there were a lot of nooks and cranies. This fills them all and gives a good R value. In the walls it won't settle, at least not once the drywall is there to hold it up! However with all the ventilation in the attic, to help deal with the summer highs, it would blow around and drift like snow, and we'd end up with deep areas and even bare spots. So that's why the fiberglass there. The code called out for R49, which was going to be faced R11 and unfaced R38, but the insulation contractor didn't have any R11 faced in 24" widths, so instead he used R13 and that gives us the R51! In the garage we went with the same blown in for the walls and R30 for the attic space, just to save some money. This way it will be a finished garage and we'll be able to use it as living space.

[longshot]

good going rassd, glad to see that your making it happen.

ls

[rassd71]

Thanks ls, just keep going forward.


Ok, so the good news, the insulation is complete and we passed that inspection. So that leaves us with only 2 more inspections, the before mentioned drywall nailing inspection and the FINAL!

So, here are some pics of the insualtion...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/insulation1-1.jpg
This shows the R38 in the attic, oh, and that's a 2x6 with 1/2 osb on it for the HVAC platform next to it to give you and idea of the thickness.


This shows the great room ceiling and one of the solatube skylights peeping down...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/insulation2.jpg


Now this is an example of where it's better to do a job yourself, in most cases...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/insulation3.jpg
The insulation crew had taped up plastic to protect the door top from the spraying insulation, well then they were supposed to stuff the stud cavities beside the door, and instead used expanding fire rated foam and laid a bead, right OVER the tape!

And another example, they had stuffed handfulls of batt insulation into the box beams, not enough to fill them, just to make it look like they had! So, I called their bosses boss out to the site and showed him, the next day they brought a different truck out and filled the box beams with sprayed in celluouse, but on this one they left the pieces of batt hanging there!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/insulation4.jpg


They also tried saying they were done, until I walked through and pointed things out to their supervisor, like 6 spots where they had just not put any insulation!


Well, that's all the good news, the not so bad, the drywall arrived today....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/drywall.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/tukwut/drywall1.jpg

That's 200 sheets of 4x12 5/8's firerated white and 15 sheets of 4x8 5/8's green. The truck driver couldn't unload it and get it in the garage, and wan't allowed to let my buddy use his forklift. So instead he put one pallet into the garage, the rest had to be hand stacked as it was misting and threatening to rain! So we moved 152 sheets by hand. Boy am I glad we are hiring out the drywall after that!

Oh, drywall crew starts next monday! more to follow as we progress along.

[ChoochCharlie]

Hiring out the drywall, good for you.
You will be so happy when it is done.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why someone would want to this work for a living. Dreadful work drywall is.

[rassd71]

Yeah, I realized how old I'm getting just moving the 150 or so sheets. I've never handled sheets that long before, 12 feet and when I did drywall in the past, it was a couple of sheets or even when I did a big job, it was not 5/8's, and that makes a huge difference.

For the money involved, it's definitely worth it to hire it out.