How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

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Tora
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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by Tora »

How BIG are the ventilation holes and where are they? if it’s not too windy I wouldn’t worry about it.

I had the Same situation with critters, birds, and nests from at least 4 hinds of bees and hornets and so on between the ceiling and roof. I put some wire mesh over the ventilation holes that looked to be small enough to keep out the bees. I used mud (tsuchikabe) from walls I demolished to fix the mesh to the existing walls. You could also attach the mesh or screen with staples or small nails or screws too. Shouldn’t take much.

The hard part was moving around in a low space(I’m tall) with nails sticking down through the roof. I inched around up there on some scaffolding planks laid across the beams while having visions of a nail piercin my skull and the. falling through the ceiling like some bad Hollywood movie. That Hasn’t happened yet....

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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by starting_the_dream »

Thanks for the replies.

The thing is, it's not ventilation 'holes.' It's open all around the house between the first and second floors. The company that helped with the animals closed up anyplace that animals could get it in. This is primarily the corners, but other places as well. I'm happy with their work and they gave a 3-year warranty, so we're good there.

But there are still large areas where it's open. And I guess the wind would have to come up from under the small roof that covers it outside, meaning the air would be moving up and not across the space. All of that said, it's been almost 9 months and I haven't seen any shifting of the insulation. I'm probably just over-thinking it and everything will be fine. Primarily wondering if anyone has every had trouble with it.

I've attached some pictures to give a better idea of what I'm talking about. In the house picture, you can clearly see the roof between the first and second floors. In the renovation picture, you can see the light where the slant of the roof meets the top of the first floor walls. That's all open to the outside.
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Zasso Nouka
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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Your house looks great.

If the air is flowing upwards I guess it's not likely to disturb the insulation so you should be fine.

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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by starting_the_dream »

As I mentioned previously, we had an issue with animals living on our ceilings while the house was empty. We paid a company to clean it out and put new insulation where they could, but we had a room that could only be reached by opening the ceiling in a hallway. The company for animal-proofing and cleaning didn't want to do the ceiling work, so that room was left for me. Because the animals left a stain on that ceiling, I was motivated to get it replaced.

Over the holidays I finally found a few days to get it done. And I have to say, cleaning out old insulation and animal droppings is a truly unenviable task! In addition to the dust and old fiberglass fibers in the air, the main difficulty was that the ceiling didn't look like it could support my 90kg frame. And of course the far corner was where the worst of it was...So I was forced to buy an extendable branch clipper with a grabber on the end to reach to the far side. After clearing out the old insulation, I then zip tied the vacuum onto my clippers to finish the clean. Luckily the animal droppings had dried out, so a vacuum could do the job.

The local hardware stores in my area didn't have the same ceiling boards, but unless they're looking for it, most people probably won't notice the difference (of course I do!). But now I know the ceiling is clean and insulated. Somehow I must've added a zero or two in my calculations and bought way too much insulation, so the second floor is next.
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Zasso Nouka
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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Ha ha, nice use of the extendible clippers Starting_the_dream, that's pretty innovative. Hopefully you can feel the difference now you've got it all insulated, certainly does look nice from inside the hallway.

What next are you planning to do ?

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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by starting_the_dream »

This weekend I took a peek at the second floor. I was worried about what it would look like, only to find it clean and covered with new 50mm insulation! The only thing I can figure is that the renovation company did it for us because they were up there for wiring issues. Might have to give them a call.

I will be honest, though, in that I was hoping it would be old and torn up so I could point to that as the culprit for why it's so cold. No quick fix this time...I believe Tora mentioned that there is a notable difference between the 50mm and 100mm that they used. I don't want to re-insulate the whole thing, but if I'm serious about energy savings, I will have to think about it.

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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by Zasso Nouka »

More is always better. How well insulated are your walls ?

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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by starting_the_dream »

The exterior walls have fiberglass batt between the studs. I've only seen the exposed kitchen walls and there was some there. But nothing thick and airtight. It's an old house that has settled into it's age. I'm sure there are slivers of openings here and there. And all of our windows and sliding doors are aluminum single pane, so we're losing tons of heat there. The best I can do is make sure they fit tight and caulk around the frames. I've gotten good with the すきま止め tape!

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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by Zasso Nouka »

starting_the_dream wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 3:53 pm
I've gotten good with the すきま止め tape!
It's useful stuff :lol:

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Re: How much insulation do you have? Is it enough?

Post by Tora »

Sounds like you’re doing a lot of work. Some questions and thought I had when reading your posts:

Are all the top floor ceilings insulated? How thick is insulation?
Are floors insulated? How thick? If fiberglass, is dampness under house reducing efficiency?
Are there cracks where drafts can come in along floors, doors, wall openings?
How warm do you want the house? ...each particular room?
Can you insulate those rooms to isolate them from areas which lose a lot of heat? Interior walls too
Which rooms are coldest?
What are the walls made of?
Do walls/floors/ceilings feel cold in winter or hot in summer?
Do you feel drafts? A candle or smoke from some incense can help locate drafts. Don’t burn house down in process, though.


You don’t have to post answers, just questions, etc. I might consider in finding where to focus my energies. Thanks for the inspiration. Two minds are better than mine. I’m sure you’ll have lots of insights as you go.

Currently, I’m working long hours trying to finish up our renovation. I ran out of 100mm fiberglass batt on one wall (just mood one... more...piece......) and am planning to use 2 pieces of 50mm. Does 50 +50=100 with insulation? I did some ceilings with 50mm fiberglass in the ceiling and there was a lot of heat exchange so I added more on top from the attic later. It’s more better now! More can be added later in some situations.

Also, we have clay (wattle and daub) walls that are great for holding heat but aren’t very insulating on exterior so I’m thinking they’ll benefit from exterior applied insulation in the future if/when I redo the siding on. Like wrapping the house up in a blanket. I Want to try more natural materials so I’m looking for numbers on lime- rice husk insulation efficiency. There are definitely lots of rice farms around and the application might suit our situation. So many options, so little time and brain space....

Good luck!

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