Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

     

Left Nav S-B Home Register FAQ Members List S-B on Facebook Arcade WEAX Tides Buoys Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Right Nav

Left Container Right Container
 

Go Back   Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating » Striper Chat - Discuss stuff other than fishing ~ The Scuppers and Political talk » DIY - Forum

DIY - Forum Do It Yourself for Non-Fishing Items

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 02-27-2016, 09:34 PM   #1
Ian
Idiot
iTrader: (0)
 
Ian's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Glastonbury, CT
Posts: 2,287
Insulation

Sooo, I'm gonna type some stuff up and back this thread up with some pictures in the morning.

I have a 2 bay garage with 2 bedrooms and 1.5 baths over it. The space is cold all winter long because it's basically surrounded on 5 sides by cold air.

The full bath has been down to the studs since we bought the house almost 2 years ago and this winter I started sweating in new shower plumbing, insulating, and other core prep for finishing it this spring. The plumber hacked up the primary joist below where the tub used to be and when I was doing some work on the new shower valve, I noticed the floor was pretty noisy. After some additional assessment I could tell the joist was sagging pretty badly and compromising the structural integrity of what is going to be a tiled shower floor.

Fast forward to this weekend, I dropped a portion of the ceiling in the garage to sister a new joist and support the floor. One thing led to another and I found the 8/3 wire the mouse chewed through in 4 different spots and dropped the rest of the ceiling in that garage bay to make sure the wire was good back to the panel. During the process, I found that close to 70% of the insulation had been compromised by mice, meaning a bunch of trips to bulky waste today getting rid of Sheetrock and insulation.

Now I have one bay of the garage completely exposed and and trying to make an intelligent decision on how to re-insulate before putting up new fire rated sheet rock.

Option 1: R38 batts with the vapor barrier facing the conditioned space which essentially replaces what was there with non mouse superhighway stuff.

Option 2: DIY spray foam kit to seal the underside where the floor from above sits on top of the joists, then the appropriate sized (thinking it will be R30 depth) fiberglass batts under that with the sheet rock keeping everything sealed up.

Option 3: Hire someone for $$$ to come in and do it their way.

My questions:

While I have one bay exposed, should I bite the bullet and tear down the other side? I'm assuming the mice made it to that side too.

Should I consider trying to drop the ceiling height by an inch or so using sheets of foam board for some extra R value?

Am I insane?

Is there something else I should remember to do while I have this area exposed down to just the joists? (I'm going to re-route some coax and cat6e cables already)

The artist formerly known as Scratch59.
Ian is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-27-2016, 09:50 PM   #2
Nebe
Registered User
iTrader: (0)
 
Nebe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Libtardia
Posts: 21,551
Tear the rest down. Run some wires so you can mount some track lighting in your garage. That was the best thing I ever did to my old house, as you can aim the tracks for different projects you may have in the garage. Hire one of those insulation companies that can spray foam. It's amazing how well the closed cell foam insulates.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
Nebe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2016, 07:16 AM   #3
Raven
........
iTrader: (0)
 
Raven's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 22,805
Blog Entries: 1
@ Nebe?
i have a barn section that needs insulation bad
it's like a walk in freezer set at 20 degrees
so, if i have a company foam it
are the truss's coated too so i can cover up
the foam with say plywood and not see it?
Raven is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2016, 07:58 AM   #4
Liv2Fish
Registered User
iTrader: (0)
 
Liv2Fish's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Chasing fat girls in the dark
Posts: 961
My $.02.

1. You can typically pay someone for less than you can buy the batts. Before they or you install batts, use canned foam to seal any wire holes or pipes, etc. I prefer un-faced batts with polly vapor barrier but since you only have one bay stripped, it really doesn't matter.

2. If it were me, I'd strip the entire garage ceiling and warm walls, add wiring for what ever I could think of for future and have it sprayed with closed cell foam. They will spray to what ever depth you want. If you fill to the depth of the joist, you'll get something like R50. Walls you can get up to almost R30. It's usually 2.5 - 3 x the $ of doing batts.

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children"
Liv2Fish is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2016, 09:57 AM   #5
nightfighter
Seldom Seen
iTrader: (0)
 
nightfighter's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 10,370
Drove past Glastonbury around 7pm last night on my return leg from Philadelphia....

It is a budgetary issue. Batt insulation is not going to improve the cold you have been experiencing, unless you can install radiant heat from the underside of the floors. Foam would be first choice. Again, price dependent. Run all wiring and plumbing first. Add some PVC tube messengers for future use. Planning accessible shutoffs is key. And if you have to add wiring in the future that you had not planned for, it is a garage ceiling, so adding race tracks on the sheetrock will not be out of the question.

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms.” – James Madison.
nightfighter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2016, 10:08 AM   #6
nightfighter
Seldom Seen
iTrader: (0)
 
nightfighter's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 10,370
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raven View Post
@ Nebe?
i have a barn section that needs insulation bad
it's like a walk in freezer set at 20 degrees
so, if i have a company foam it
are the truss's coated too so i can cover up
the foam with say plywood and not see it?
Foam fills the rafter bays, not the trusses. Google foam insulation and look at images.

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms.” – James Madison.
nightfighter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2016, 10:44 AM   #7
trevier
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 331
foam it, it's the best hands down,expensive but the best.
trevier is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2016, 10:45 AM   #8
buckman
Registered User
iTrader: (0)
 
buckman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Mansfield
Posts: 4,834
Blog Entries: 1
Closed cell is about R7 per inch . They usually don't fill it solid . Open cell they fill solid and trim flush .
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
buckman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2016, 08:24 PM   #9
Ian
Idiot
iTrader: (0)
 
Ian's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Glastonbury, CT
Posts: 2,287
Made a step towards being ready to accept foam as my solution of choice today. Entire house has Type L copper but acidic well water. Had the first pin hole leak a week or two ago so I decided that if I'm going to spray, I'm replacing the plumbing that runs in the garage ceiling. Ran PEX from the main line to the shared wall for both bathrooms and up through the floor into the exiting copper plumbing (it's a crazy collection of intertwined pipes that haven't leaked yet so I'll deal with these when I have to)

PEX is so damn cheap but according to my research the only fittings that don't restrict the ID of the pipes are the push-fits which are more $ than gold.

Couple hundred $ later and my potentially risky copper and freeze prone plumbing are no-more (although all my waste and vent pipes are still copper.)

I'm going to see if I can get someone to quote ~$3k for the job with closed cell and if I can hit that target, I'm thinking I'll pull the trigger.

Rest of the ceiling is coming down this week.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
Ian is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:40 AM.


Powered by vBulletin. Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Please use all necessary and proper safety precautions. STAY SAFE Striper Talk Forums
Copyright 1998-20012 Striped-Bass.com