Insulation

I started watching This Old House regularly about 5 years ago when I bought this place.  One of the products they use consistently on the show is spray-in insulation – one common brand is Icynene.  The idea of the product is that it installs quickly and does a great job insulating because it expands evenly into every nook and cranny.  This is especially useful in older homes that may not have been built as tightly as they might be today.

So we used Icynene in the media room two years ago.  The room is in the basement and has thick walls – we had it sprayed with Icynene and the entire process took about two hours.  This was one of my few contractor experiences, and it went pretty smoothly.  The media room does pretty well – although it does get cold in there in winter.  The room has an electric wall heater that I only turn on when we go in to watch TV; typically it takes about 10 minutes before the room is nice and cozy.  I always said we’d use Icynene again for the upstairs.

But recently we decided not to.  Due to schedule and the complexity (or, perceived complexity) of coordinating a contractor, I decided – after much encouragement from my dad and Trissa – to just use fiberglass-roll insulation.  I didn’t make this decision lightly, but I think it’s going to work out fine.  Added benefits are 1) I can install it myself at my own pace, and 2) I can save a small chunk of change.

One concern I had is the heat loss calculation that went into our radiant floor system.  Fortunately, it turns out that the r-value per inch of Icynene is very similar to fiberglass.  The only difference comes from the fact that because Icynene is hard to install incorrectly (and fiberglass generally is) you may lose a bit due to technique and not being able to insulate those nooks and crannies that the Icynene would expand into. 

My other concern was the plain headache of installing itchy dusty fiberglass – it’s not generally much fun.  I felt better about this when I discovered “ComfortTherm” which is a type of Johns Manville-brand insulation (the brand carried by the Home Deposit).  This stuff comes on a roll, but instead of being faced with paper (or, unfaced), it basically comes in a long plastic sheath.  Think thin garbage-bag wrapper.  Of course they still recommend wearing gloves, a mask, and glasses, but in my experience sleeves are optional.  And I didn’t really wear gloves or a mask for most of the installation – only when I had to cut special pieces for strange cavities. 

In any event, the stuff installs pretty easily with a utility knife and a staple gun.  Over the last two weekends I installed R-13 in the walls and R-25 in the ceiling (remember, radiant heating up there) of the living and dining rooms.  I was pretty anal about doing a nice neat job.  With fiberglass, over compressing or under-cutting will dramatically reduce its effectiveness.  I still need to do the kitchen but am waiting on some final electrical work that needs to happen there, hopefully next weekend. 

So, we’re getting closer and closer to drywall.  Stay tuned – Trissa and the rest of the world are rooting for me to call a contractor for that one.  I just don’t know…