Water heater vent pipe is touching fiber glass insulation that is covering large metal air duct in attic. No paper on other side of insulation.
Pipe gets hot enough I can't keep my hand on it, but doesn't burn me.
Wondering if I need to get something installed to create an inch or two of space between the duct and insulation...
Wyd?
Our drywallers were staging drywall sheets upstairs, and we have a very narrow enclosed staircase, and the rockwool was dinged up from the corners of the sheets hitting it.
Is this damage negligible, or should I replace some of these batts before the drywall goes up?
My initial thought is it is fine, but I don't want to seal it up, if it is damaged enough to cause issues.
We had spray foam insulation installed last summer when we fitted and renovated one floor of our house. These are our first, hot humid days this year and oh my God the whole first floor smells like this fishy chemically smell. It's awful.
Foam is open cell. I already know they screwed up and over filled at least one wall because I had to go dig out my soffits.
WHAT CAN I DO? It's awful. It's only been 2 days of hot weather!!!!
We have lots of allergies so opening all the windows and venting is not an option. I'm running my air purifiers.
I've cleaned the whole damn first floor including carpeting and it's definitely not that.
Hi Everyone,
I'm planning to replace some old fiberglass insulation in the attic that has been compressed and missing entirely in some places.
Looking at Rockwool I only see it sold in the unfaced variants at the local big stores. Ghatgpt says it is totally fine to use unfaced rockwool in the attic but I'm not sure if to trust it?
Additionally I plan to cover with some plywood for some storage space - can this affect the insulation values?
4-A Climate Zone (NYC)
Unconditioned attick
Thank you
Just finished the house rewire. None of my exterior walls are insulated. How would you insulate these walls?
Hello All,
I just had a quick question my house has a foam board with a mylar side facing the down. It goes from about a 1' above my soffit and then up to the ridge and meets the other site that goes down in a similar fashion. My question is I have a ridge vent and both side meet around the ridge. Should there be a gap for air in the attic to move through the center to the ridge vent? I know air from the soffit is coming up behind that and going up to the ridge vent but id imagine it all should right, do I need to cut a 2 or 3" slot in the board the length of the room?
I just bought a 1960s ranch, the attic is solid with no signs of water damage and has all the proper ventilation.
Currently it’s rated at r-5 and we live in New England, tomorrow I have a company coming to bump it up to R49 to meet energy efficiency codes.
My question; the existing rafters and joists are 2x4 (beautiful older material) Will this be enough to support the new weight? There is nothing else in the attic besides a small air handler.
I don't know who else to ask and I'm sorry for the long post.. if you know anything about insulation in cold regions, please read and help-
Our home was built in 2022. The basement has poured concrete walls with waterproofing painted below grade on the Outside and inside. It is unfinished but the perimeter walls were insulated and vapor barriered. We live in Canada our winters are cold. The perimeter walls are 2x4 studs 16"oc. The base plates were set about 2 inches away from the poured concrete wall. They used thick r20 insulation batts.
We started getting tiny puddles forming around the baseplates. In winter following odd warm periods.We thought it was coming from Outside. I opened the barrier and removed a batt of insulation to find the whole wall was soaked. This was the case for every wall. Fast forward, the consensus is that it was condensation build up due to the temperature difference between the inside air and the concrete. The insulators had the batts touching both the concrete wall and the vapor barrier with no air space. From what everyone says, thats a no-no.
So - the home builder agreed to redo it. BUT i dont know if their solution is the right one or if its a shortcut or if its completely wrong. The email from the builder is below;
"Yes a 2x4 is made for R12 insulation but when you leave the studs away from the wall you can put a R20 into the stud cavities as you have space behind the studs
We will not be installing any Styrofoam as that has been tried with no success.
Our plan is to install typar to the concrete from grade level down and then install 1 layer of insulation horizontally behind the studs. Then another layer of insulation will be installed vertically between the stud cavities and then the wall will bepolyed.
We would need access to the house on Thursday to install the typar and deliver the insulation and poly
Friday (company) would come to insulate and poly the basement"
Please let me know your thoughts!
I would like to DIY blow cellulose insulation in my attic to have R-49, but am unsure how much baffling I need to install.
I live in SE Michigan, single level home from 1965, attic currently has R-10 batts between the joists. The home faces North, with 1 gable vent at the rear (south facing), 6 box vents total near the ridge of the roof, and there is a 5’ wide soffit (with perforated vents) at the front of the home above the side door which I know will require soffit baffles.
The rest of the home has no soffit or eaves, the roof ends at the brick, do I need to staple in baffles if there is no soffit? I know that cellulose insulation should not be in contact with the roof deck to prevent mold, but does this only apply to vented areas with soffits?
Here is a photo of the roof from the outside, I can take interior attic photos of the wall top plate/ base of the truss if needed.
Good afternoon,
Our new to us ranch house has a loft where the two long walls can be accessed from the first floor attic space. Located in eastern Nebraska, we are in the moist section of climate zone 5?
Our first spring in the house built in 2010, the loft is experiencing heat soak where temperatures can be over 10-15 degrees difference compared to the first floor on an 80+ degree day. Weather has been nice and only run the a/c on two days.
One audit recommendation is to remove the loft wall insulation with plastic barrier as it is creating a vapor sandwich against the faced fiberglass insulation stapled to the wall.
As we start to address recommendations from the report, I want to tackle these walls first by sealing gaps from outlets, drywall seams and the floor plate.
The walls are 2x4 construction. Should we keep or replace the paper faced insulation with rigid board, foil faced foam board, or other to increase r value and maybe address some heat soak?
Pictures from the garage access side. Appreciate all the guidance!
What would be the best option for insulating this ceiling? It is just beams and 2x6 T&G with shingles on top. Structural engineer doesn't want us to redo the roof to add Zip R-3 on top of the existing 2x6 T&G because of the increased dead load. (The beams are of unknown specifications.) Any other options for roofing solutions? We like the look of the 2x6 T&G from below so I'd prefer to redo the roof somehow...
Thanks ya'll! I really appreciate all the advice!
This is a small building I want to install cameras in. The building was erected way before asbestos got banned but was remodeled many times after. The walls don’t have any insulation and I suspect the insulation was added in the past 10-20 years ago when it was last remodeled. Please tell me this is not asbestos! Thanks in advance.
I tried to find newspapers traces but didn’t see any and I don’t want any disturbance.
Is it worth it to replace 45 yr old double layer insulation baffles for new ones and air seal? I recently bought a house built in 1980 and it has original insulation. House had somewhat of a mice issue that I have been dealing with with snap traps and get 1-2 per week. I recently did a sewer pipe repair in attic and noticed the baffles are still plump and sitting fine but curious if this is worth the cost to replace and air seal and clean up mouse droppings? We plan to be here for a bit so curious if investment is worth it. It’s a 2 story 2k sqft cedar sided house.
I understand it’s a difficult job and would get a few quotes but was also thinking of doing it on my own. Maybe doing like a 1/4 a weekend to space out the work and getting materials. Assuming quotes will be between 3-5k.
Hi, this is the loft space above my bathroom.
Is having the kingspan as it is correct with the wool ontop?
Or should the wingspan come out to be replaced with the wool?
I don't want to mess up and end up with a cold damp ceiling in the bathroom or cause other issues.
Thanks for any help.
Location: NE Ohio. So I have a fully walkup attic. I love that it's fully walk-up, functional, easy to get to, and I can walk around up there to store things. However, I get terrible ice damming some years, mostly when we get a solid snow, like 18 inches or more, and then it stays below freezing for an extended period (like this past winter). The ice damns do cause some ice on the siding, so it backs up behind the gutter presumably. I am intending to spend my summer remediating this little by little each pay period. The problem is clearly a lack of enough insulation, as all winter I monitored the attic. put bluetooth thermostats in there, even some old school deck thermostats, etc. And the temp in the winter is regularly 30 or more degrees warmer in the attic than outside. I tried putting fans sucking air in from the gable vents and pulling out the other side. It helped, but it still would be 10-15 degrees warmer up there, which is fine when it's 5 degrees out, but not so much when it's 25. There is old insulation under the flooring, but clearly its not enough and it's only a few inches deep, so just replacing it I fear still is not enough space for adequate insulation, but you tell me! That's why I am here! But my main question is, can I simply insulate the roof? I would really love to keep this a functional area, but am not willing to risk the ice damming eventually doing so much damage I have a major issue on my hands. Or do I really just need to close it off and blow it a ton of insulation, losing the attic's functionality as it exists today, but stopping future ice dams? Any advice you can give is appreciated!
Side notes, 1) the insulation you see in some pictures is for a cap I made for the stairs. I realized a lot of warm air was coming in from there (the attic door goes to a bedroom), so I fixed insulation to some wood and basically push it over to get up there, and replace it when I leave. that also helped, but not enough. 2) The bathroom vent was venting into the attic. I know the long-term solution to to vent it out the side of the house. but at the moment I am not skilled enough to do that, and would have to budget money aside for a while to save for it. In the meantime, is running the bathroom vent to the gable vent acceptable so the warm air has a place to go? Or is that a bad idea with consequences I have not thought of? and 3) For the summer, I do I have fan to suck out warm air, but it is not working. How can I tell if the motor, or thermostat is shot, vs it just not getting power?
Sorry for the long post and so many questions, but I am determined to fix this problem before the next OH winter hits and I don't want to waste my time with a bunch of half assed fixes that help, but don't solve the problem, like I did this past winter. I spent way to much time on this, and it ultimately did not do the trick lol.
Thanks in advance!
Hello, insulation people
I have a 24x28 shop that I work out of, and just had a 24,000 BTU mini split installed. It is oversized for the space, supposed to cool 1,100 sq. Ft or something like that. The shop is 672.
The ceiling is not insulated, and I planned on doing that next, but I didn’t expect the mini split to fail quite as bad as it is at keeping it cool. Yesterday it was 90 degrees out and full sun here, and with the mini split running wide open it got up to 86 degrees in the shop. So, I want to quickly make a move with the insulation.
My question is, what the most effective way to do it would be. I have contacted several insulation places about it and they all seem uninterested in messing with it, maybe too small of a job for them. I really hate the idea of doing fiberglass overhead, and wondering if ridged foam board installed directly to the ceiling rafters, and possibly making a vented air space, would be good enough not to work the unit to death.
I would appreciate any ideas! Thanks.
Based on previous posts here, I see it’s pretty common to discover some "creative" insulation in the walls of old houses. While installing some wall cabinets, I just found out that mine are stuffed with old twine and rags. Is the house freezing in the winter? Yes. Do I want to tear open the walls when I was just trying to hang some cabinets? Absolutely not.
What would you do? Leave it as is, or trigger an unexpected, full-blown renovation project? I knew what we signed up for when we bought the house, but man I needed a quick win this time.
The walls of my 1965 house in SK, Canada, are 2x4. During renovations, we noticed that some of the insulation was in really bad condition, so we decided to replace all of it on the exterior walls (bilevel house). While undertaking such repairs, I’m thinking whether it’s worth it to add 2” strips (ripped 2x10) to be able to put 2x6 (actual 1.5”x5.5”) insulation in.
What worries me is that cutting 2” strips with a table saw might leave me with crooked walls. Could I use 2x2 (actual 1.5”x1.5”) instead and compress the insulation by 1/2”? Either Rockwool or fibreglass insulation.
I’d be adding the strips to the inside of the house, as the outside has stucco that I don’t want to mess up.