Hey all,
I’m working on a remodel on my 1940s house in upstate NY. I’m converting a half bath to a full and adding laundry hookups in the adjoining room. The space (both the bathroom and adjoining room) used to be a side porch that a previous homeowner enclosed and added the bathroom to. I’ve reframed two of the three exterior walls and installed sheathing and a WRB behind vinyl siding. The third wall has cedar shingles and board sheathing, which I left as they were in good condition. I’ll be framing a new wall to separate the bathroom and laundry room and adding new floor joists to raise the floor to be flush with the floor of the rest of the house. There was a step down previously. The doorway that leads to the rest of the house is covered with 6 mil plastic and accessible with a zipper door.
As the temperatures drop, I want to make sure I’m doing what I need to do to protect the work I’ve already done and continue working throughout the winter. This isn’t something that I’m going to finish soon, I will most likely work on it through the winter till spring.
Would it be a good idea to put batt insulation in the walls temporarily as I continue to work on the rooms (framing, rough plumbing and electrical)? The wall that is shared with the rest of the house isn’t insulated, so it should warm the remodel space slightly. Should I heat the space with a space heater?
Any ideas or suggestions would be really helpful, I’m concerned about condensation buildup before finishing the walls with the cold temperatures outside.
Thanks!
Replies
I wouldn't be concerned about this at all. Even in some extreme scenario where the warm, more humid conditioned air rushes into the renovation space and condensed on the backside of the cold sheathing, it would readily dry because everything's wide open. And this incidental moisture won't harm these materials that are designed/expected to face some amount of weather exposure during construction. Not that I think it'd matter either but if anything I think you'd make the situation marginally worse if you put batt insulation and no vapor barrier in the walls because you still wouldn't have vapor control but you'd be blocking some of the air flow. Tho again I reiterate, I think you have nothing to worry about.
My concern would be how you plan to ultimately insulate the walls. A bathroom will be a humid space, and you've already got the siding on, so you can't use any insulation on the outside of the sheathing. That is the best way to avoid condensation on the inside of the wall. There are other ways to deal with it, but you should do some research in FHB.
As for the temporary fix, it shouldn't be a problem, especially if you use an electric space heater. A propane heater would add way too much moisture.