On Calculations and Basement Hydration

Our insulation arrived today, via the friendly Man in Brown. I was rather shocked to see how very large the four boxes were. I did in fact order four packages of insulation, but somehow, I thought they were going to be...uh...smaller.

Here are the specs I read on the website, and which you also see above on the packaging:
Sq.Ft. 48.96
6-1/2 Thick
Wdth. x Lgth. Ins. 15 x 94
Includes 5 pieces

So I thought each package contained 5 pieces which, together, were 94 inches long. Since we had four empty bays in need of insulation, each 93 inches tall, I ordered four packages. It seemed perfect.

(You can see for yourself if this is a reasonable mistake to have made by looking at the site where I bought it here. Perhaps mistake number one was having no idea how much insulation should cost per foot. I dunno, it seemed reasonable.)

It was brought to my attention by my mathematician husband that in fact, the packaging meant that there were 5 pieces, EACH being 94 inches long. So we now have FIVE TIMES the insulation required for this job.

I feel kinda dumb.

On the bright side, we do have plans to tear out the plaster in the spare bedroom, which would be the ideal opportunity to add more / put in new insulation there, and these batts will be perfect for it.

Also, I like that they're KRAFT-FACED BATTS. I wonder if the Kraft food people are the same people responsible for the Kraft paper on the insulation. I wonder if Kraft cheese provides any insulating benefits. Many readers are already aware of my previous encounters with bats, so the fact that I would welcome this many batts, kraft-faced or not, is rather surprising.

_____

While I was telling my mom the above story, she happened to ask if we had any water in the basement (the presence or absence of water inside our house is a regular discussion point for us). I realized I hadn't checked the situation with the problematic basement window by the driveway lately. We've just had a ton of rain on top of snow and sleet, so it seemed wise to investigate. There were, predictably, some very wet towels inside that window. No surprises; fixing that is a spring plan, and the towels were doing just what they should. You can see the state of things here:














The surprise was water on the floor in several previously dry places. None of the water was by walls, so it seems that the water was seeping up through the floor, through various patched cracks in the cement. Oh dear.


It's not an enormous amount of water, but still, I don't like that it's there. Water is our enemy. [A colleague in my department told us that, in a frightening, dead-serious way.]

We're not on red-alert, but we do need to keep an eye on this new development. Sigh.