Hello!

I am in the process of sealing and re-insulating my attic. I'm hoping to get some advice on how to proceed here. This is above our bathroom. The bathroom has a tongue and groove wood ceiling and that appears to be attached directly to the tongue and groove boards in the attic. I want to seal this area but I am not sure what the best method would be. It is my assumption that these two layers do not provide any air sealing at the moment.

There is also quite a bit of mold. I have seen RMR-141 as the recommended product to use for this. I can't seem to find it for sale in Canada. Are there any alternatives that work well?

Thanks in advanced for any advice!

Hey all,
I recently had some skylights removed and I was wondering the best way to insulate these new holes.

I was thinking of glueing a piece of 3inch foam board to the plywood, and then sticking another 1 inch piece that covers the 3inch piece and the 2x4 that surrounds it and then have the finished ceiling board. The finished ceiling is all tongue and groove so that’s what I’ll put back.

The plywood that you see from the underside is the same piece of plywood you see towards the bottom of the picture with all the 2x4s. What ended up happening was they raised the roof up to add this additional air space under the actual roof. This has a series of vents between each 2x4. The rest of the roof has straight foam board at this point so I feel like gluing foam board in the space should be no problem?

Any questions or suggestions are appreciated,
Thanks

House is about 7 years old, dealing with a leaky roof or HVAC stack…the water seems to enter the stack and goes through the HVAC tube to the utility closet, but this is the insulation around it. I don’t think it’s mold but wondering if I have to redo the insulation since it’s all open now.

Thanks!!

Hey all,

I'm trying to get a feel for what insulation sales reps are making in Texas. I have done some research and have seen a variety of pay from commission only to base + commission but I wanted to get some really reals. We are thinking of hiring and expanding our business so any help is greatly appreciated!

Search most one person trades by business name and there is nothing to find. No site, a Facebook page that stopped in 2023, and the customer deciding on a phone number and a feeling.

So I built a free one page profile for it. Trade, area, hours, callout charge, photos of your work, and your Gas Safe, TrustMark or Companies House number printed with a link straight to the register it came from. One tap to check instead of taking your word for it.

Two honest limits. Reviews can only be left through the link on a customer's own invoice, so nobody can post a fake one, me included. And having a page does not mean Google shows it.

It is mine, it is called SoloDesks, and this part is free. here is an ex: https://solodesks.com/free-website-for-tradespeople

I’m preparing an HVAC estimate and my customer had an attic that the spray foamers sprayed the ceiling and the roof deck and also over both gable vents essentially making it an enclosed space. Homeowner says he can cut open the vents and make it vented again but that would create moisture issues with the foam right?

There’s absolutely no way to get hvac ducting up there and the attic space is so small and not usable for even storage. I’m thinking cut two holes in the ceiling and have a fan that cycles living space air to the attic and discharged back to the living space.

Living space is very small, around 800-900 square ft.

HVAC equipment will be located underneath living space in the garage

Anyone use pink board to make air seal boxes for non IC recessed light fixtures?

I discovered my fixtures were not IC tastes and were packed in blow in fiberglass

Made boxes out of 1/2" pink board but now I'm unsure about the fire resistance/risk

I had a feeling that my house didn't have any insulation as it gets extremely hot in summer and really cold in winter. I got up there today and I was right but what surprised me were all the timber flat timber platforms sitting on the ceiling beams.

There are also wires and plugs running throughout the ceiling. I'm wondering if I should just lay the ceiling batts on top or do I need to move the timber platforms and install the insulation beneath so they sit between the joists.

To find a company to do rockwool in our new build? We want exterior walls rockwool with some select interior walls, attic blown cellulose, rim joists spray.

Everyone is throwing a fit over rockwool, any advice?

We’re in West MI

To do or not to do? Thoughts? Experiences? Any long term concerns with breakdown over time?

Hello! So beneath my sunroom there is some insulation that seems to be installed improperly, and seems to be getting torn apart by an animal or something? There is some plywood which the insulation is attached to by some furring strips. This is below the subfloor of my sunroom. I'm nearly certain my sunroom subfloor already has fiberglass insulation, and this may have been a strategy to increase the r value? The floor isn't noticeably cold in the winter, even in the areas the insulation pictured here has fallen down. Anyway, I reached out to a few different places that came out, and I got 3 quotes with three different strategies.

Quote 1: Remove the fiberglass insulation shown here. That leaves just the plywood that it's attached to. Then Closed Cell Spray Foam 2 inch on plywood subfloor. Cost: ~$1,450.

Quote 2: Remove the fiberglass insulation. Drill 2' holes through plywood. Tube feed nu wool cellulose into floor and plug holes with wood plugs. Cost: $950.

Quote 3: Remove the fiberglass insulation. Remove the plywood. Replace fiberglass insulation in subfloor with closed cell 4" spray foam. Re-attach plywood. Cost: ~$2,800

Quote 3 seems probably like the "best" solution, but quite a bit more money than I wanting to spend. I could also just tear down the fiberglass insulation myself, and see how things feel in the sunroom in the winter, and then decide if I need to take steps to improve the insulation in the floor.

Curious to hear others opinions on how I should proceed?

EDIT: I'm located in southern Michigan.

Got a quote to lay batts of r-38 for ~1000sf in my attic and do about 250sf of blown in cellulose, price was roughly $4,000, does that seem fair?

We had an electrician come in and replace some wiring. In the process, they cut the bottom 20" or so of drywall, as well as the insulation.

Before putting in the drywall, I'm wondering if there is anything I need to do about the insulation. Can I just stuff it back in and call it good?

My main concern is with the vapor barrier. Should I cover the exposed wall with poly vapor barrier before putting in the drywall? Some of the paper is heavily damaged, so I'm guessing this is the way to go?

I'm in a 1950's house in Saskatchewan, Canada, so a vapor barrier is needed between the drywall and insulation. They also don't seem to sell faced insulation where I live anymore.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

hey everyone, I’m new here and pretty clueless when it comes to building science. trying to learn more about insulation before doing some work in my basement... i keep seeing people talk about rigid foam insulation, but I’m not really sure why they choose it over regular fibreglass or Rockwool.

is rigid foam generally better for basements, or does it depend on the situation?

Just trying to understand the basics before I buy anything. Thanks!

Currently in a full gut/renovation of a first floor bathroom. Walls are multiple layers of brick with a painted stucco exterior. I’ve tried researching without a solid answer for what would be the best option for insulating. It was previously regular fiberglass insulation. Is this the best option? Rockwool? There was a mold issue caused by a leaking roof which is now fixed, but otherwise the insulation seemed dry and mold free.

Beyond that, what’s the best way to insulate the ceiling? Single level rowhome addition, flat roof with about 1’ between the roof sheathing and where the drywall ceiling will be. It was blown in cellulose (what an absolute nightmare to clean out).

I'm in south eastern north carolina and looking to airseal, install baffles, and blow in insulation in my attic myself once it cools down. I got a few quotes from contractors which were pricy, and have decided to tackle it on my own. I have a 1970s ranch that is ~1950sq ft with a 450 sq ft garage. I am looking for some opinions on spray foam and spray foams guns for attic airsealing. Currently, I am planning to buy great stuff pro gun from lowes with the great stuff foam. Just seeing if anyone has recommendations on any other brands. I saw there are a lot of kits on amazon with tons of reviews, but I didn't know if they worked well and reliable. thanks for your advice

I recently redid all the insulation in my 1905 villa in Christchurch New Zealand. I installed two layers of R3.6 glass wool laid crossed over each other. Having spent more time doing research I realise I should have air sealed prior to laying the new insulation.

My question - is it worth lifting the insulation back up and air sealing with expanding foam? Or would it be diminishing returns at this point? Good news is attic access is fairly decent.

Would love to know people’s thoughts before I got chase incremental gain.