Hi, I'm Bob Vila.
Welcome home again.
We're insulating the house today, and not just fiberglass insulation.
We've got several different products to show you.
One of them is a new type of house wrap.
But we're also quite excited about installing some sound attenuation batts in the house.
Which are really going to help control noise.
Also, we are working on the backyard deck.
All that redwood is here.
And inside, a terrific product for removing many layers of paint.
It's literally, a peel away type of process.
Stick around.
It's good to have you home again.
Bob Vila's Home Again.
We're going to get started in the attic and we're talking insulation.
You know, the attic is the most important place to have insulation because heat rises.
And if there is no insulation, heat escapes.
Now, we're not going to have an attic, we're gonna have a teenage living room here on the 3rd floor.
So the other things we have to worry about is sound control.
Music control.
And Eric Anderson from Anderson insulation.
Hi Bob.
Is helping us out in that respect.
Before we talk about controlling the heat and energy loss, let's talk about controlling the noise.
What is this product we're putting in?
This product is an Owens Corning product called Quietzone and it's especially designed to reduce residential noises, within the structure.
And it's used as a separation barrier between bathroom walls and other living spaces.
Or between recreation rooms, game rooms, and sleeping spaces.
Now you're using it within inside walls.
Don't you have to worry about moisture getting trapped in it?
No Bob.
This product really doesn't have a vapor barrier.
It has a paper covering for ease of installation, but it's not a vapor barrier at all.
OK.
It's just to facilitate the installation of the product.
So that's not an issue.
You know this really makes a lot of sense, not only in walls where you're trying to isolate the bedroom from the living room.
This is the wall where we're gonna have the entertainment equipment.
The big screen TV and the stereo and everything.
So that it's a very good idea to able to control that here.
And will we also install it in the floor?
Yes, there will also be Soundproofing installation in the floor as well, to totally enclose this game room space, so that there won't be any noise infiltration into other parts of the structure.
I love it.
I think it's the best thing about the whole job.
Now let's talk about how we are actually insulating the house.
This wall here basically is like an exterior wall.
Right.
This is a two by six knee wall that separates this game room from the eave space under the attic rafters.
And what's this material here?
This material is Pinkwrap made by Owens Corning, that's specially designed to prevent air infiltration.
This wall is essentially like the exterior wall of the house.
You've got a vented soffit and there's gonna be a substantial amount of wind blowing going through that soffit up against the back of this wall.
If we don't have this membrane here, the insulation in front of it could conceivably get moving air within the glass blanket.
Right .
If that happens, it no longer insulates.
That's a very good tip, because if you do have moving air against the bats, you are actually reducing your R factor considerably You're right
Absolutely.
Insulation works in still air.
If you have moving air within the fibrous back, its only as good as to where that moving air stops and the still air starts, and then the back.
And the house wrap still allows any moisture that gets through the wall and into the insulation to escape.
Absolutely, it's a good wind bearer but it's a permeable membrane to any type of moisture that may be trapped in there.
Okay, now what about these?
Those are attic circulators, which are basically put into the rapture spaces to allow moisture and also the wind from the exterior of the house ride up and over the insulation.
They go up in between the rafter spaces, and there's two channels that allow this air to circulate up and over and as a result to maintain the still air within the insulation, and also evacuate any moisture that may occur at the underside of the roof.
And that's very critical from the point of view of keeping paint on your surface.
Absolutely, and the wintertime is well for ice stamps.
Yes.
Because if you don't have this here on the underside Your roof is warm without any cool air circulating.
The snow melts and ice stands form at the eave.
Right.
Now Eric, how do you deal?
When you're installing insulation very often this can be a real nuisance.
You've got your electrical wire right in the middle of the bay.
What's the best way to install the bat right there?
Well, in the area like this, we really have to put the bat.
If you measured to the exact length of the space.
We cut our bat and then that wire runs exactly through the middle.
And you split it that way.
So you split it, and we have insulation on the backside of the wire and insulation in the front.
You've avoided compressing it.
Right, exactly.
Which is the one thing you don't want to do.
You wanna entirely fill the space.
If you compress a bat, you're going to get less R-value.
Now, once we've put in all the bats, you're also putting a visquene layer, a moisture barrier.
Is that important?
It's very important because that maintains the moisture within the structure Structure.
And doesn't allow to migrate to the exterior of the structure where it could essentially condense against the outside wall.
And condense, it means you're lifting paint or bubbling paint.
Absolutely.
It's one of the big problems.
Okay, let's talk art factors.
What do we got in the wall here?
This is an R-21 bat, which is 5 1/2 inches thick and it's designed to go within a 2 x 6 studspace.
OK.
And in the roof?
And the roof we have a r38 bat, which is a ten-inch bat, high density.
And it fills the 2 x 12 rafter space in conjunction with the vents .
Terrific.
All right, we're going to be warm in winter around here.
Eric, thanks a lot.
Yep, you're welcome.
We've got to break for some messages.
Stick around.
