I am currently building a new home for myself, and family. I am a licensed builder and am doing the construction myself. When insulating other homes we built we always used FG batts, they are inexpensive, easy to install, and thats what just about everyone else has used as well. For this home I’d like to do better than FG batts. Spray foam is too expensive $2.00-$2.50 per square foot (2×6 walls). Blown cells was about 95 cents/sq. ft. and Blown-in-Blanket FG was 1.00/ sq. ft. I was under the impression that the cells or BIBS needed to be done by a dedicated insulation contractor because it requires special equipment or adhesives mixed into the insulation. We have done blown cells in attics with a blower from the local rental yard in previous projects. Is that the same way one would blown wall cavities? I understand you place a mesh and fill behind it with the insulation(I have been keeping up with the Mooney wall thread). I’d like to do the job myself if possible, to save money, and just because I like to do things myself and learn how to do new things… I am leaning towards blown-in-fiberglass. Is this a job that I could do myself by renting the equipment? or is this a job that requires special equipment, tools, adhesives, or whatever else? I am also thinking of 1/2″ foil faced rigid foam on the inside, under the sheetrock. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Skim-coating with joint compound covers texture, renews old drywall and plaster, and leaves smooth surfaces ready to paint.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
I gotta tell you, if it were my house i'd go with the spray foam. Go cheap on something thats easy to change later like faucets or flooring.
I'd rather live with cheap flooring for a few years and be warm than be stuck with a cold (expensive to heat) house.
And that's from one Michigonian to another! Heed MSA1's advice. I sell foam so don't listen to me. Stu
Excluding spray foam insulation, I have found that insulation companies can install insulation for only $100 or $200 more than I can buy the materials for, so price your job out carefully before you make a decision. Spray foam I have never used so I can't speak to that.
Fiberglass insulation is good for one thing, and that's making all other types of insulation look real good.
If foam is out of your price range, then do cells.
You can do them with mesh as you;ve seen on the other threads. You can wet blow them into open framing bays. Or you can sheetrock, then dense pack them through a gap left between the sheets of rock, or by drilling access holes in the rock and patching afterwards.
Dense packing blind, while not difficult, does require practice. If you want to for it yourself, Take two sheets of ply, a few 2x6's, and mock up three stud bays on the 4x8 sheets of ply. Use screws to assemble.
You need a blower capable of dense packing. Blow your mocked up wall, then unscrew one sheet of ply from the studs anc plates and see if you have an voids or lightly filled areas.
After a bit you'll learn to read the blower, and the sound of the cells packing the bay.
Do bag calculations as well to make sure that you are indeed packing at a density high enough to prevent future settling.
Blowing into mesh you can see everything.
Wet blowing, even I'd sub that out to someone experienced.
Mongo
the wet cell is blown in (over blown) then excess scrubbed off sucked back up and blown again...
i have the equipment... and still can't buy the product for what i can get it blown & scrubbed for...
you do need to let it dry out before seal'n the wall up... the amount of moisture used these days isn't alot...compared to what they use to use...
I'm all about doing the things i can myself... but only if it saves money or i get a better product... in this case you get both....
p
I agree 100%. Way back in the 70's during the first oil crunch, cellulose insulation first came out and you could rent blowers from any rent shop. I used to do it on the side and made some money. Then for years I never saw a blower in any rent shop in fact the rent shops didn't even know what I was talking about. I must be older than I thought. Anyways last year I saw a blower in the local HD and the young worker was telling about this "NEW" way of insulating attics. I felt really old at this point. To make a really long story short I thought I would buy a new blower and do small blowing jobs on the side.
Even with semi truck purchases of insulation and having my own blower I couldn't compete with the low prices of the insulation companies. In fact the price for a company to do my 1000sq ft attic was wayyyyyyyy less that my sister-in-law paid 10 years ago for her 1000sq ft attic (6 inches)!!!!!!!!!!!
I really did the number crunching and it seemed that the insulation companies were all competing for the lowest common denominator. They are welcome to it.
roger
We are homeowners who just finished building an ICF "Insulated Concrete Form" building ourselves.
We did a "hot roof" with polyurethane spray foam, "Apex".
This is our first winter and this building is great! No drafts. Easy to heat, strong and quiet.
We have 2,140 sq ft in the basement and 3,270 sq ft on the first floor and the loft for a total of 5,410 sq ft.
We have 2 stoves made by Harmon. A Mark I and a Mark II. These are not the largest stoves that Harmon makes.
One is in the basement and one in the upstairs.
We have no ductwork or grates. Both stoves just "idle". In other words, as low as they can run without cutting off the combustion air.
We did site our building with solar gains incorporated in the design. South facing, energy efficient windows, etc.
We did not pay a lot for our windows. We bought them from a local supplier of construction material returns, over runs, whatever.
We have a probe measuring the temperature of the concrete in the walls and it is 48-50 degrees. This means you only heat and cool against this temperature no matter what the outside temperature is.
We used "Reward" ICF's.
We built it ourselves and had no idea what we were doing but the concrete pours went fine and the walls went up quickly.
We love this house. No winds will ever bring this house down.
The cost to heat our house this winter will be around $400 dollars.
We installed radiate heat tubing in the basement but didn't have time to use it. We want to hook it up to some solar panels and then boost as necessary with the stove. This should cut our heating bill by more.
I know you live in Minn. but we just went through at least 2 weeks here in Central PA that didn't get above freezing.
Just my 2 cents but save on other "perks" and go for an ICF house if you can.