Insulation on Budget
What you will need:
1 Bag of Spray Foam Insulation waste.
2 Bottles of Great Stuff Spray Foam
Total Cost: $3.59+$3.59 = $7.18
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So this is an image of what was behind the sheetrock in the office bump out.
These air gaps render the insulation a most useless. In order for batt insulation (the most common insulation used) to do it’s job, it need to be touching a surface on al six sides. All six sides? Batt insulation has only four sides you say? Nope. Watch:
Properly insulted batt insulation is really hard to do. When it is installed properly there are no air gaps between the wood and the insulation. So, given this information – I needed to do a lot of work to this wall in order to make it air sealed, and properly insulated. So while at a work event – Dispelling Myths of Soy Based Spray Foam – I learned that after the foam expands in a new home application, the applicator uses a saw to remove the excess foam to allow for an even drywall application.
Here is a video of a new home insulation done by Western Spray Foam.
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In this video, when the insulation gets thrown off screen, it goes into a plastic bag and thrown into the landfill. The integrity of the R-Value of this insulation is still intact. The other major benefit from spray foam is that it creates an air seal, with a little help from a can of spray foam, that air seal can be re-created. So I asked Western Spray Foam if I could take a bag home – they gave me one!
Here is what one individual piece looks like. I put the flat part against the wood to make it as even as possible.
Below you can see that I filled the crevasse with the spray foam, you can see the gaps and cracks in piecing them together, so I bought some Great Stuff to fill them in. I made sure the whole area was very densely packed so I really only needed to filled in the cracks on the surface.
Here is what is looks like when it’s all been filled in.
That’s it! Upgraded & air-sealed! That’s insulation upgrade on a Greenstring – Saved a bag of perfectly good insulation from the landfill AND got it for free.
Yay! The comments work! I have been reading your site since you told us about it at Thanksgiving.
The wood floors are beautiful and I’m so impressed by the changes you guys have made! The house looks awesome and you are super inspiring.