Insulation & natter
Nov. 3rd, 2005 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsWell, the insulation project is off. I was under there with snakelights tonight and ran into engineering problems I can't solve. Neither could the guy who built it, as there are gaps all over. No wonder my bedroom is so cold!
And by the way, the official dimensions of the crawlspace are 20 feet by DearGodIDon'tWantToGoOverThere.
So I get another bill in my life. Whee. I'll be calling for estimates next week, even though the tree has to come down first.
Sometimes homeowning sucks.
On the other hand, fun stuff in the next two days. Tomorrow work is having a buyathon - over lunch they'll have reps for Tastefully Simple, Pampered Chef, Southern Living, Longaberger and a bunch of other similar places. Oddly for someone with a basket fetish, the only one I'm safe from is Longaberger - I don't believe in paying $80 and up for baskets when I can get so many cool ones for $15 and down.
And Saturday is the Indian new year; this year I'm joining the Indian film club at the pre-ritual party/shopping.
I can't go too nuts at either place with a new insulation bill coming up, but I'll enjoy windowshopping.
And the candy-making project may be back online. King Arthur Flour sells silicon mini-cups which are good for making chocolate shells and peanut butter cups.
And by the way, the official dimensions of the crawlspace are 20 feet by DearGodIDon'tWantToGoOverThere.
So I get another bill in my life. Whee. I'll be calling for estimates next week, even though the tree has to come down first.
Sometimes homeowning sucks.
On the other hand, fun stuff in the next two days. Tomorrow work is having a buyathon - over lunch they'll have reps for Tastefully Simple, Pampered Chef, Southern Living, Longaberger and a bunch of other similar places. Oddly for someone with a basket fetish, the only one I'm safe from is Longaberger - I don't believe in paying $80 and up for baskets when I can get so many cool ones for $15 and down.
And Saturday is the Indian new year; this year I'm joining the Indian film club at the pre-ritual party/shopping.
I can't go too nuts at either place with a new insulation bill coming up, but I'll enjoy windowshopping.
And the candy-making project may be back online. King Arthur Flour sells silicon mini-cups which are good for making chocolate shells and peanut butter cups.
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Date: 2005-11-04 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-04 06:13 pm (UTC)The bracing on the joists, mainly. Draw an upside-down U, for the floor and two joists.
Now draw an X that goes entirely from the top corner down to the bottom edge of the joist for the braces. There's no *room* to put insulation there. The previous guy didn't even try. Insulation goes up to the brace, stops for about 3", and then starts until the next brace. The braces are not set at regular intervals, and then there is piping and a little wiring to worry about.
The solution is simple enough, I think - run a moisture barrier (also missing) by hand along the floor, tucking it around the braces. Nail board insulation along the bottom edge of the joists, making a box. (Turning the U into a square, with an X in it.) Fill the hole with blow-in insulation. Hand-insulate the parts with pipes and wiring to keep them accessible.
Which is fine enough, but a friend of mine is still dining out on his "how it took me one month and 6 different home improvement centers before I got the machine to blow in my insulation" story. Once we got to blow-in, we got to Somebody Else's Problem.
Plus, it terrified me to manuver around the two boards on edge that actually hold up the center of my floor, even though everbody tells me that they're just fine. They're not rotten or anything, I just kept having images of accidentally knocking one askew...