Monday, July 14, 2008

Rear Garage Insulation

While the guys were hanging the sheetrock in the house, my dad and I got to work insulating the rear garage with blow-in fiber material from Home Depot.





Yes, that's me! See, I really am capable of physical labor!

This material is like the lint you clean from the filter in your clothes dryer mixed with random pieces of newspaper and plastic scraps. You break it up from the bag into a hopper, and it blows though the hose. It's dry, so it doesn't stick in the walls on its own. You need netting installed across the front of the studs to hold it in.

Like everything else, this has taken much longer to complete than first anticipated. As I write this, we're not done yet. If you buy enough material from Home Depot, they let you rent the machine for free. They say they don't want you to keep it longer than 3 days, but that didn't sound like a hard-and-fast rule. Just a request. I picked it up Friday afternoon, so this afternoon would make 3 days. I'll bring it back tomorrow if we can finish tonight.

The stuff is dry and fluffy, so it gets everywhere. In the picture above, you can see it coating my arms and clothes. The gear on my head is keeping it from my eyes, nose and mouth. The material is treated with a chemical. I presume it's to make it fire retardant. But if you have any open cut, blister, or sore, it burns like crazy on contact.

So far, we've completed all except the right-hand wall. Blowing in the attic should go mch quicker than the walls since we don't have to stop to hang netting and I don't have to hold the hose over my head. I'll be in the attic blowing down in between the rafters.

The stuff seems really good at sound insulation. I hope it's good at keeping some of the heat out. I know I'm not cooling the inside of the garage, but it would be nice for it not to be 100 degrees in there.

On the Sheetrock Front...

The hanging is done, and the next crew is starting the next stage today. I know they start with taping, and I guess the next step is called floating? In any case, I'm told they're going to start after lunch.


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