This house is wonderfully climate controlled. The climate absolutely controls the temperature. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter. This is in no small part due to the complete and utter lack of insulation in the house. Nothing in the walls, nothing in the attic, nothing in the floor. We decided early on that the most critical space to insulate was the attic as the western and southern walls get relatively good shade and don't contribute as much to heating and cooling.
The walls will be completed later.
Insulation comes in different forms. The first thing to check is the R value. The higher the number the thicker the insulation, and the better it works. The insulation we chose is R19. The package recommended R 25-30 but given the fact we planned to insulate both the attic floor and roof we decided to go with a slightly lower R value. We could also only get 23" wide batts in R 19 at our home Depot. We decided to make life simple and only get one R value. Finally, a higher R-value in the floor would have limited storage in the attic as anything we placed on the insulation would have squished it (anything bigger is taller than our joists) thus losing the value of buying the expensive insulation!
We have two different types of insulation, traditional Kraft paper backed (23" wide), and great encapsulated stuff called Comfort Therm (15" wide). Now the traditional stuff has horrible drawbacks - the paper is flammable so it has to be covered one way or another (sucks to be us). The normal way to install it is to just staple the Kraft paper to joists and then cover it. You'll see the trouble this got us into later.
The ComfertTherm stuff is a dream to work with because it is fully covered (except where you cut) in Class A rated fire resistant plastic. No itches, no lung cancer, no blindness. Almost none of the discomfort of traditional insulation except if course for the working in a space half your height with dust the department of defense is testing, no air ventilation, and lethal heat by 7 am. . .
Here is way too much insulation loaded into our living room. 19 bales of the stuff. The pile on the cart at Home depot was at least 8 feet high. The sales people looked nervous. The guy helping load it onto the truck looked scared.
Here is the 23" stuff crammed into the ceiling. Since this is the insulation for the roof it goes in first. If you install the other stuff first you end up walking on it and tearing it up -- negating the vapor barrier aspect of the insulation any letting the nasty stuff out into the air. Also the roof is much harder and nastier to install and it's nice to have the second half of a project take 1/3 the time. There was also too damn much of it to put it all up there and still breath let alone work
Alas our oldest daughter (felis lokius) can climb ladders. A fact we discovered twice. We learned another fact: the cat is motivated to climb ladders to the extent that she can climb a step ladder laying against the wall OUT OF LINE with the entry into the attic and STILL get into the attic (We (I) had to learn this twice too). As anyone who has been in an old attic can attest they are filthy with the dust of the ages and bugs that have gone on to Jesus. This bodes ill for a long haired cat.
THREE baths later, two on the same day (anyone who knows Tasslehoff will acknowledge what a miracle it is that I can still sire children), the cat still has not learned a trip to the attic will result in a bath and thus must be locked into a room. We apologize afterwards and pretend it was an accident. She believes us so far.
As I implied earlier, there are at least two ways to install Kraft paper backed insulation. Too many years of watching Tool Time, of course, led to us choosing the wrong way.
In my parents' house, we stapled the Kraft paper to the rafters, studs, and joists and had a lovely (compared to open heart surgery) time. I ASSuMEd that was code and hunkey dory. What I failed to realize is that all the insulation in my parents' house is covered and is thus legal, whereas ours, as planned, would not be. This was the first pile of trouble alluded to earlier. Faced with the prospect of hauling enough dry wall or plywood through a two foot hole to cover the entire inside of the roof, we decided to change our plans.
There was another factor in our decision. The second pile of trouble. Remember that 100 proof alcohol which inspired the designers of the living room wall? They got the leftovers from the people who framed our house. None of the rafters are actually 23" apart. They vary from 21" (good thing insulation stuffs well) to 26" (damn, the Kraft paper doesn't stretch!).
Motivated that we were (and shy of sleep getting up at 6 am to beat the heat), we installed 9 bats of the accursed stuff skipping the spaces that were too wide. Please note the insulation, nicely contained by the Kraft paper, trying to look like a picket fence. That's Stacy in the way.
We stewed over this. We didn't really WANT to admit that we were wrong, but alas, in the end we made Tim Taylor sounds and over breakfast (and lots of fluid, and Kleenex - we also forgot the appropriate personal protective equipment) we decided to change our approach. And so:
There are no atheists in foxholes
There are no nudists in insulation
Nice transition. You were expecting more about our screw ups and triumphs and instead you get a SAFETY LECTURE! Before we begin this lesson, Grasshopper, a few random notes on the more. . . refined pleasures of fiberglass insulation. Insulating a house is nasty work due to heat, cramped quarters, and especially the insulation itself. As you look through the pictures you see we are always wearing the same clothes. We aren't cartoons. We DO have more than one set of work clothes. Fiberglass doesn't ever seem to wash out completely though - it leaves little itchy reminders in the fabric. When we finish insulating, these clothes will be destroyed in a big happy bonfire. The ideal clothes for insulating are fairly loose (you do NOT want to grind fiberglass between you and clothing) but covers you completely. Tuck in shirts, maybe even tuck pants into socks if you are very sensitive. This is primarily a comfort thing.
What isn't a comfort thing is PPE, personal protective equipment. I've said (often at the top of my lungs) fiberglass causes cancer and asthma - maybe not true, but you don't want that stuff in your lungs or in your eyes. The first time we went up we went without masks or goggles. This was dumb! We took our first break, and were coughing, and itching, and rubbing our eyes, and phlegming. This drove us to the garage where we got out all the protective gear-- Dust masks, goggles (DON'T WEAR CONTACTS!!!) and gloves (your palms don’t itch too much but between your fingers is terrible).
I believe masks are the most important element. Stacy uses a standard dust mask, about $1 each. This is a cheap price for your lungs. You can't buy cow lungs for this price. This type of mask doesn't seal on my face well (swelled head) so I use a more expensive one with a exhale valve and two elastic straps. It's about $4, still extremely cheap for your lungs, and still cheaper than cow lungs. Here are cute pictures of us in our gear.
For those of you who still do not believe, here is a close up of my mask on the last day of insulating. The black stuff ISN'T in my lungs. 'Nuff said.
We pulled the stuff we had installed and re-installed it backwards so the Kraft paper was against the roof-and thus to code. We attached the stuff to the rafters with 4 bands of chicken wire. This works very well but it has the unfortunate drawback that the nasty cancer-asthma causing fiberglass is now facing into the space, raining down on our heads. If you look back on the last pictures you will see sparkles in the air. That's not fairy dust. That is fiberglass blown into the air when the Kraft paper was sealing it. This is now a much larger problem for air quality but it is completely legal. Dad (Aiding and Abetting) has suggested stapling heavy grade plastic (Fire Rated, natch) over the insulation, an idea endorsed by at least one insulation site. They want it as a vapor barrier. We are in California, we don' need no stinkin' vapor barrier. We could however use a condom for fiberglass. This became reality 7/4/01.
Praising what ever Gods you choose to, we turn out to be kick ass chicken wire installers. Although I firmly believe that chicken wire was created by the devil after he warmed up by inventing insulation (I really put my blood into a project), it is an amazingly quick way to install insulation. Not so much fun to cut a 2 ft wide roll into 4 6" rolls however. We did one roll by hand with a pair of diagonals, that pretty much sucked. A more time efficient method is to use a hacksaw and cut through the roll. This takes a lot of energy but 1/8 of the time. Be sure to lubricate the blade with a bit of wax - lube is always appropriate when cutting metal. I highly recommend the chicken wire for installation purposes.
I want to publicly thank Stacy for her patience, skills, and most of all remaining so petite and thus able to fit into the eaves of the attic attaching the bottom three of the four rows of chicken wire. For all my gifts in construction, I move like a lumbering ox in spaces less than 3 feet high. The neighbors would have learned a rather eclectic vocabulary in Spanish, German, and Old English.
Now I didn't just sit around drinking beer, offering amoral support! Once the lower eaves (where only Stacy and elves fit) were done it was my turn to swear at the staple gun, cut myself on the chicken wire, and look at the pretty glitter. Amazingly enough, it takes exactly 1.5 batts of insulation to run from the peak of the roof to deep into the corner. This saved us a lot of measuring and cutting. I know this is purely an accident because NONE of the other house measurements help us save time and materials. Here is a picture of my behind climbing over rafters (Stacy took this in revenge for all the indecorous pictures I took), and installing one of the last batts of 23" insulation, on the LAST day of insulating.
As the ceiling was completed on the Western roof, we finished off the two open packs of 23" insulation (many more to go) and decided to lay the western half of the South gable which (finally!) needed the 15" ComfortTherm. This stuff is a dream to work with. Doesn't shed. Not messy. We weren't pulling tufts out by accident. The only problem we had is that though the plastic tears easily, it seems knife proof. Their instructions state to lay a straight edge down on the line you wish to cut, compress the batt, then slice along the straight edge. Swell. Most of it cuts well except the bottom, and then the flange you are cutting towards rips off. Sigh. One thing that does help is to have a low angle between your knife blade and the cutting surface. After you get it cut you just put it into place, staple into the nice provided flanges and continue on with your life. This stuff lays even quicker into the floor where we rarely have to cut and don't bother to staple (Gravity works!).
On July 1, 2001, we declared our independence from fiberglass insulation. The last pieces were laid at about 11:15 AM. This incidentally is a really nice time to be in the attic. There is a nice breeze if you are within 6" of one of the vents and it is a balmy 90 degrees or so. Much like Tahiti but more yellow. We should have come down much earlier but couldn't bear the idea of going back up to do more insulation.
This project was completed 7/4/01 - TODAY! This marks the end of this phase of insulating. We covered a section of floor about 6' x 8', plenty for what we need. We covered about half of the bare fiberglass with 1mm plastic tarps. The critical covered areas are over the hatch in the hallway, and the storage area so all our nice stuff doesn't get itchy. Here are a few shots and the finished product.
Since we live in such a temperate climate (never over 110 degrees, hardly ever), we also plan to install an attic exhaust fan. There are two routes we are considering, one is a traditional wired into the house model, the other is basically an "ATTACH HERE" kind of thing which is powered by solar cells. Obviously the solar cell one is more expensive but I do kinda like the idea of not having to tap into the house power supply in cramped quarters, and with electricity prices going where they are it might be a nice moral victory...
Actually the solar powered one is looking even better as the house powered ones are, sigh, too powerful. Yes indeed, our house lacks enough intake area (places for the air to come in) to allow the mas macho fans to operate. We need 800 sq in, we have about 350. One fan is cheaper but a lot more work (most of it hot, much of it involving moving insulation...), the other is more expensive but installation is (don't forgive the pun) a breeze. How to decide? Fortunately we just got one of them new gold dollar coins, Sacagawea will decide...
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