Insulation, part III.

This is a photo of the torn vapour barrier after it was repaired.

This is a photo of the attic hatch in the spare bedroom, after the area beyond the hatch had been filled with blown-in insulation.

This photo shows the blown-in insulation as it is partially done. On the right side of the photo, you can see that the insulation has been brought up the level of the plywood baffle.

This photo is looking across the top of the master bedroom area, you can see the baffle between the garage and the house section at the very front of the photo. The new level of the insulation is even with the top of the baffles.

Increasing attic hatch insulation

The attic hatches are a piece of particle board with an 8" thick piece of styrofoam insulation glued to it. Since the insulation in the attic was being increased, the insulation on the attic hatch needed to be increased so the hatch wasn't a weak area, from an insulation perspective. Here the 8" thick piece of insulation is being used as a pattern, and is sitting on top of a 1 1/2" thick piece of styrofoam.

I cut out two pieces of 1 1/2" thick styrofoam (using the 8" thick piece as a pattern), for a thickness of 3 inches. I took a thin piece of fiberboard, and fastened two 2x4 pieces on the sides (to help hold the fiberboard down on top of the attic hatch). I took two pieces of 1x4 and fastened the styrofoam to the fiberboard using 4" screws to go through the fiberboard, the styrofoam, and then into the 1x4s. For the top, I took some more styrofoam and fitted it between the 2x4s and had a few other scrap 1x4 pieces to hold those together. This photo was taken when the pieces were being test fitted.

Here the pieces were all assembled.

Here the extra hatch insulation has been placed on top of the bedroom attic hatch. It fits like a glove (perfectly). So the attic hatch now has 12 1/2" of styrofoam insulation above it. I believe this white styrofoam (technically: expanded polystyrene foam) is about R-4 per inch, so that makes it about R-50, so that should be good.

Adding a light in the garage

The garage needed a light over the stairs into the house. The time to add a light was before the insulation was put in, and this was relatively straight forward.


This is after the box was installed but before the light was attached.

A thick plastic bag was put over the electrical box and taped to reseal the vapour barrier.

This is the light after the power was switched on and you can see that it works!

Attic insulation - before

So I went up into the attic to check out the insulation status. This was because the energy audit we paid for said our attic insulation was only R-35. Charles and the insulation contractor said that it was R-40 (I had asked for R-50 or better but Charles said a good vapour barrier made anything more than R-40 a waste of money). Well, I didn't buy it then and I don't buy it know.

We bought a bunch of cellulose blow-in insulation a while ago. This is what the coverage chart from Home Depot says in terms of "blown inches" (after installation) and "settled inches" (after cellulose has had a chance to settle down):

R-32 9.4 8.4
R-40 11.8 10.5

With that information in the back of your mind, here are the photos.

This photo is above the closet by the great room, and shows a large hole (I could put my hand through it) where the electricians roughly made a hole for the wire. You can also see condensation in there because the cold air can enter the space and condense the warm inside air against the cold plastic. You can also see there is absolutely no insulation against that plastic....


This photo is looking south along the front wall of the house. You can see the soffits on the right, and in the center you can see the top of the wall. The solid plywood wind barrier should have been in line with the outside of the outside wall, or right above the 2x12 (which is a bit weathered, beside the new looking 1x4 strapping).


For this photo, you need to know that the solid plywood wind barrier is 1 foot tall (almost everywhere). You can also see the trussesin this photo, which are made of 2x4 and 2x3. If R-40 of insulation was installed according to the table form Home Depot, then only 1 1/2" of plywood should be showing - and clearly there is a lot more visible....


I said the wood barrier is 1' tall almost everywhere. In this location, it is only 11" tall. Not such a big deal, but the insulation on the other side is about 3" - 3 1/2" below the top of the wood, which means that there is 7 1/2" - 8" of insulation. According to the Home Depot table, that makes it less than R-28...

Losers and liars.... that describes the builder and the insulation contractor...