Insulation... plus cars.

"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
12/30/2016 at 12:05 • Filed to: Breathe in

Call me squemish, but just looking at this makes my lungs hurt. Brittle old tube with lots of “repairs,” some so old the duct tape appears to be completely warn though some places... Also none of the gentlemen appeared to be wearing respirators going into the attic...

Neighbor has good taste in vehicles, though:

DISCUSSION (24)

Wacko > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
12/30/2016 at 12:14

so mr. 4 cars now is spying on his neighbors now??

OPPOsaurus WRX > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
12/30/2016 at 12:18

i was talking with a guy who had the spray-in foam done to his house. the installers fucked up the mixture and it didn’t set right. It ruined all his framing and got into his wife’s lungs and put her in the hospital in serious condition.

jkm7680 > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/30/2016 at 12:37

I smell a lawsuit.

Frenchlicker > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
12/30/2016 at 12:50

The stupidity of some people somehow still surprises.

LOREM IPSUM > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/30/2016 at 12:54

Surprising. Around here you need to be “ticketed” to install foam. Must have resulted in one hell of a lawsuit and I bet the contractor has a hell of a time getting insurance going forward.

...and pregnant women should stay far away from newly spray foamed homes fwiw.

Also, that hose is for blow wool, not spray foam.

If they’re blowing fiberglass a mask is recommended but not necessarily a requirement. It really doesnt get all that dusty, surprisingly. Blowing celluose on the other hand is some disgusting stuff. I’d only do it in a full tyvex suit and a full face shield because it’s just that gross.

LOREM IPSUM > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
12/30/2016 at 13:08

Zoidberg, what is your profession? City inspector? I’ve always wondered.

LOREM IPSUM > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
12/30/2016 at 13:10

Did you know that you can only apply spray foam at certain thicknesses per pass?

Know what happens if you lay it on too thickly?

It self ignites.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
12/30/2016 at 13:12

PRELUDE

Pixel > LOREM IPSUM
12/30/2016 at 13:26

You seem like you might know the answer to this.

I need to improve the insulation in my attic (1895 house, crawl space attic), there is currently ancient fiberglass(paperside down, completely compressed and falling apart), and some blown-in fiberglass over that(wildly varying depths but rarely much over the joists, lots of debris from when roof decking was redone). Is it worth trying to remove the old insulation to make room for better newer stuff, or just add more layers on top of it? What do you recommend I put in?

Also part of the 2nd floor walls are the slanted roof walls. Is there a way to put insulation in those?

MM54 > LOREM IPSUM
12/30/2016 at 13:30

He’s got to be some sort of building inspector based on the pictures he shares.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > MM54
12/30/2016 at 13:38

FOOLS!

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Wacko
12/30/2016 at 13:40

Work.

LOREM IPSUM > Pixel
12/30/2016 at 13:55

In your situation I wouldn’t bother paying to have the current insulation extracted. I would just add another thick layer of blow wool over the top of the existing insulation and call it a day. Don’t forget to add styrofoam soffit vents at the edges of the roofline to facilitate attic ventilation or you may end up with mold in your attic.

Some might suggest extracting all of the existing insulation and adding a “butter coat” of spray foam to act as a thermal break, and then blowing fiberglass or celluose on top of that. While this would be excellent it would also be considerably more expensive, and if the rest of the house hasn’t been renovated and insulated to modern standards the place will be leaking so much air from everywhere else it probably wouldn’t be worth the additional cost unless you’re planning to do a drywall off reno to the rest of the home in the future.

Lucky for you your attic was insulated with fiberglass to begin with. Around here many older houses were insulated with Perilite. Perilite, as it turns out, is naturally radioactive and can cause cancer. Covering it up and/or not disclosing it’s existence to potential buyers would be both shady and probably illegal.

As for the vaulted ceiling on the second floor, that can be a bit tougher to accomplish without removing drywall depending on how the house was built. If you can access the backside of the vaulted ceiling from the attic space you can lay thick batts on top of the existing insulation. You wouldn’t want to blow most vaults because gravity can often allow the insulation to slide away from the top of the vault, causing heat loss where you need it most.

On the other hand, if the vaulted ceiling is inaccessible from the attic altogether you are more limited on what you can do. Realistically you would want to remove the drywall, vent the soffits, and batt and poly the vault. If however you really really dont want to pull all of the drywall down you can cut strips of drywall from the peak of the vault (or drill holes for each cavity) and just fill the whole thing with blow wool from the top. There are a couple of issues with this method however. One is the issue of gravity allowing the material to settle away from the peak of the vault. The other is that if you fill the cavity top to bottom you’ll be without proper ventilation which could result in your roof rotting out over time.

Wacko > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
12/30/2016 at 13:55

but that’s not your work truck

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Wacko
12/30/2016 at 13:57

YET

Wacko > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
12/30/2016 at 14:03

what are you loosing your taco? or changing job?