The Insulation Itch

Sometimes, I get the itch to do something around 83 Durant. Today, after a long day of sitting at my desk and in meetings, I just wanted to do something more substantial than make up lesson plans and quizzes. It was 6 pm. Is this really a good time to START a home project? Generally, no. But, as Jake wasn't here to talk me out of it, I decided:

Why not insulate?

Indeed, why not?

Many times, these sorts of evening/nighttime projects that I begin do not end well. I'm pleased to tell you now, that this one was a success!

As you may recall from previous posts, the basement laundry room/bathroom is clearly mid-project. [That would be a project started by the previous owners.] Framing has been built for insulation and drywall, but some of the bays are empty. I decided to work on the two full-sized empty bays, as portrayed here:



As you will also remember from a hilarious previous post, we have plenty of insulation to fill these bays. To my disappointment, Jake was correct in his calculations, and I indeed was incorrect: there are five pieces, each 93 inches long, in the package. And they E-X-P-A-N-D when you open the plastic.



Lucky for me, these pieces are each exactly the length I need for the height of the wall, so all I needed to do was shove them up into the space between the studs. I also carefully carved out spaces for the pipes in the area (compacted insulation doesn't do its insulating job).



I used my handy staple gun to staple the Kraft paper to the stud, and voila! It's insulated! It didn't take long at all.



For future reference, I include the photo below to show the location of pipes. We're hoping to move the washing machine (and hence, water & drain pipes) over to this area sometime in the not-too-distant-future.



And here we are, with the two bays complete! I'm so pleased! There are still the two corners to deal with, as well as a few other spots down here, but for now, this seemed like a good night's work. In the (hopefully) near future, we'll finish up the remaining bays, and then we need to cover up this Kraft facing. It's not really supposed to be exposed like this (some kind of fire hazard). Drywall is the fancy way to go, but I'm not sure we need or want to do that. At the very least, we need to staple up some plastic sheeting to cover this up and contain any stray fiberglass particles.



While in the basement, I also took on one of those longstanding WHHHHHAAAAAAAT? issues: the red sweatshirt stuffed into the hole in the chimney. I removed the shirt, shoved some nice fresh insulation inside, and then covered it with a brand new flue stop from the hardware store. It's basically a metal plate with prongs on the back to hold it in place. I sealed the whole (hole) thing up with caulk, and here it is!!!



R.I.P. Old Red Sweatshirt:


And by the way, safety first when dealing with insulation. I wore long sleeves & pants & gloves, all of which went into the wash immediately after I finished. A face/nose mask and goggles, too -- that stuff is nasty! By the way, I got some how-to tips on this project from a book I borrowed from the library: Time Life Books: Insulating and Weatherproofing. It was the updated, spiral-bound edition, and it is a great resource.

The whole deal took me about an hour and a half; still plenty of time afterwards to clean up and blog it all before Jake gets home from class. The question is, will Jake notice the new insulation? I suppose the real question is, will I be able to contain my slightly giddy pride in my accomplishment long enough to let him notice it?