Message Boards

I know this might better pertain to the remodeling board but there seems to be more action daily here so I'll try this first.
We have a few projects that will need insulating and we thought we'd start with the smallest first to see how it goes.
We've never used the blow in spray foam insulation...if you have can you give me pros/cons for it vs regular fiberglass bats please...?
My garden shed is a building we purchased in May and it has no insulation, we are having electricity installed as we speak. This building is my garden shed now with the thought that we might move it/use it as a mountain cabin home later on...a few years at least down the road. It is a Weather King product and they are considered portable buildings....we purchased 12x32 lofted cabin so it has two lofts areas with open space below...
We might not put any sheetrock up now till we decide if we are moving it but our thinking was the spray on foam insulation would help with sealing any air leaks, etc...
Cost is more for this I know but in the end would we be glad we did this?
Our next project would be the area (crawl space though it is almost 5 foot from ground to floor joists)below our living area...the ground is dirt, the walls are poured concrete and there is no insulation yet. Again weighing the benefits of spray foam vs bats....feedback would be great here as well.
Last project will be our large metal shed/we are farmers and the back side is dirt now but we hope to pour concrete...there is a concrete footer already that the sidewalls rest on, no insulation at this time on this side. My BIL had his sprayed and really liked it, felt the benefits of sealed tighter/insulated well outweighed the cost. Our other half of the shed is DH's heated workspace with full concrete floor and used batts in there being held in with a chicken wire layer...this will be the most expensive project and largest of the 3, hence it will be last.
The addition to the house happened in 2005 and we've had many cold winters, laminate floors are cold....so we want to do something before winder this year hoping to start to recoop dollars spent on utilities...
Thanks for any feedback you can give as soon as possible.

My house was built in the 50's on piers. I had insulation sprayed in my attic several years ago and noticed a savings in utility bills at once. Earlier this year, I had insulation sprayed in the crawl space. The immediate result is that my wood floors are no longer buckling--that is a serious savings right there!!!! It is too soon to tell, but comparing electricity usage this year to last, it appears that the insulation has had an effect.

If i had a choice - it would be spray foam!! It just seems to be a better insulator and able to get into all the nooks and crannies

I don't normally hang out in the decorating board, but was coming here to look the thread on Knob and Tube and saw your post.

For your crawlspace I'd look into making it a conditioned crawlspace. Check this link http://www.buildingscience.com...erformance-and-codes it is a PDF. For a conditioned crawlspace spray foam would be a good choice. You will need to do it with a fire-rated foam, poly-iso is probably the best. http://www.pima.org/contentpag...eID=5&SubModuleID=45

Spray foam will give you a much tighter house/structure than fiberglass batts. If you went the fiberglass batt route in your outbuilding you should cover it right away with drywall as the paper facing is flammable. You could use foil faced as an alternative if you're not going to drywall the building. Again Polyiso would be fire-rated (FM Class Approvals 1 UL 1256)

You'll probably get more traffic on a question like this in the remodeling board. There are several regulars there that answer questions. Traffic is light but I know the other regulars are there frequently and questions rarely go long without an answer.

Sparky, thank you for your reply with the links and comments. I will show DH the links and I will also repost this to the remodeling board. Wish I knew if it is possible/and how/to just copy-paste this over there...LOL save me on typing and trying to remember ALL I said--)

sms and becca....thank you for your input too. Glad it worked for you, sms.....I can't imagine a house on piers!!! Would love to go into one and see if it 'feels' different...?? Can you post us pictures?
becca, my thinking is the same as yours--if we can get it all closed up it would make me very happy, from the dirt factor to the heating/cooling factor, not to mention those icky critters that find their way through!!

Spray foam is great, but (from an electrician's/DH's point of view) it makes it hard to do future electrical work, if necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by WWanda:
Spray foam is great, but (from an electrician's/DH's point of view) it makes it hard to do future electrical work, if necessary.

It certainly can be a PITA if you need to add electrical on the outside walls. I would err on over-wiring while building. Drywall can be patched if need to install a new wall mounted fixture where none was before. Sprayed in Polyiso insulation will make an extremely tight house that will likely need an air to air exchanger to bring in fresh air.

You can watch the HGTV show "HOLMES ON HOMES."
HIS WORK ON HOMES shows what preperations are needed for different projects.
1. Preparing areas putting vapor barriers on walls & floors.
2. Using drywall that is mold resistant.
3. There is a rubber paint to put on concrete or blocks in foundations. If a crack developes later the rubber paint stretches. That keeps the concrete dry. Saw this applyed on foundation on "THIS OLD HOUSE." I think this rubber paint is good on metals & maybe even wood.
4. NOT TO USE ALUMINUM wire for electric.. There was a time when it was used, but found it was a fire hazzard.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: noraj,

ladeuce, I think you are imagining a house eight feet off the ground. While there are such houses in south Louisiana especially after Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina and Rita, mine isn't one of them. In fact, the crawl space under my house is so low that the termite guy had to dig a little in order to get under there. My grandmother's house, however, was high enough off the ground for my brother to scramble under it to hide from her as a toddler!!!

quote:

Originally posted by noraj:

4. NOT TO USE ALUMINUM wire for electric.. There was a time when it was used, but found it was a fire hazzard.

Aluminum is used all the time for service entrance cable and for cable to electric stoves and sub panels. It is perfectly safe in this application when properly installed in the right type of device with the proper no-ox solution put on the conductors. I do agree that that it is not good for branch circuits (outlets and lights). It was used back in the 1970's when copper prices first soared but it quickly fell out of favor. It is still out there in homes built in that era.

It is estimated that there are over 450,000 homes in Canada that are wired entirely with aluminum wiring. Studies confirm that these homes are 55 times more likely to have a fire hazard condition present than homes wired with copper. Most of these homes were built in the 1960’s to late 1970’s. Problems began to surface where aluminum was used in branch circuit wiring. These are the smaller wires that bring electricity from the electrical panel to the plugs, switches and lighting fixtures. Testing revealed that aluminum wiring has some problematic characteristics that are not found with copper. Aluminum tends to oxidize when exposed to air, resulting in overheating, and eventually failure at the termination points. Aluminum is not as resilient as copper and also has a higher rate of expansion, which can cause loose terminations and connections, resulting in possible arcing, melting and even fire. Breakage, due to improper stripping of the wires or over-tightening of the splices during the installation stage, has created further problems. Because of these concerns, aluminum wire is now banned from use in branch circuit wiring. Insurance companies are wary of homes with aluminum wiring and most companies require a complete electrical safety inspection by a trained and certified electrical contractor before policies are sold or renewed. Electrical modifications are usually needed and in some cases complete rewiring is recommended to reduce the risk of a house fire.

Nora,
I agree on branch circuits, my point was aluminum is used widely today in home wiring, just not on outlets and lighting circuits. Properly installed for larger loads aluminum is safe and frequently used in the USA, can't speak to Canada.

I saw this website when reading another forum. I know nothing about the site but the concept makes sense. Just thought you might find it interesting.

http://howtohomeinsulation.com...mans_spray_foam.html