Right, the builder told me that when I asked about spraying the basement ceilings, so we plan to not do that, although I do want the holes sealed where the 2x12 boards for the deck protude and I can see daylight.
Pete:
When I worked at NREL
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Home Page we designed in-house a 2,500 square foot laboratory for the scientists working on top of the mesa overlooking the main campus. One of the things the ES & H (Enviromental Safety & Health) group made us consider was doing our best to seal up the building from mice due to the possibility of Hanta Virus carried by deermice. We learned that mice can get into a building through a hole as small as a 1/4". Around our house, I have stuffed up possible entry points with stainless steel sponges/scouring pads I got from MSC Direct. The sponges cut easily with scissors, go a long way, don't rust, and the little buggers can't chew through them.
Scrubbers - Sponges & Scouring Pads | MSCDirect.com
Seal up the holes now, not later.
Pete, a couple of items come to mind here.
3) Don't know if you'll have this issue but my master bath is located next to an exterior wall. One time when it was very cold outside I noticed some drips coming from the exhaust fan located in the ceiling. This occurred (I think) because the area above the bathroom is an area without heat. The vent pipe (like you showed coming from the master bath) just sat on top of the insulation. What I did was wrap the vent pipe with several layers of insulation to prevent the cold glass syndrome. My suggestion to you is have the spray insulation guys give a shot of the foam surrounding your vent pipe. You could then later wrap/cover the pipe for added protection or tell the insulation guys to wrap the pipe with some batts.
Stanley
Our Master Bathroom has the mirrors on the outside walls, and even with minimal code required insulation (fiberglass batts); the blasted things get condensation on them. If your Master Bathroom has mirrors on the outside wall; look into getting the electric heaters that go behind the mirrors to keep the condesation at bay. Heck, you might look into towel warmers too. A buddy has them in a house and he says they are great. I have no experience with them.
Pete,
All the above to get back to your humidity comfort statement..........
We have an aquarium with a waterfall pump, a large statuary fountain thing in the flower room to keep the orchids happy between watering, take 2-3 showers a day and have 2 bodies adding moisture to the air. We still need to run the humidifier to be comfortable at 72 degees inside and not hack and cough in the morning.
Your mom is only 1 person so she will not generate as much moisture.
At your house you have big fish tanks and big filter troughs in the basement that are bound to be adding humidity to your inside environment plus a wife and kids.
You will have to be the judge, but if he has to modify the trunk lines on the HVAC for fresh air and humidification, now would be the time to do it, as well as getting the programming set right for the system, rather than adding this stuff later and hoping it can be made to work properly.
We have an Aprilaire bypass humidifier and I've seen rebadged units from Carrier, Trane, and others offered. In our dry climate, a humidifier is a good thing to have; but this Aprilaire has been a PITA with water leaks, water hammer when the solenoid valve shuts off, condensation on the windows, etc. Don't get me wrong, it helps moisten the air; but I have to think there must be a better solution out there than what is essentially a mini swamp cooler. Don't get any of the units that look like a paddle wheel that mounts to the underside of the duct as these rely on a sump of water for the paddle wheel to rotate through and pull water into the airstream to vaporize. The sump can be a breeding ground for microbial nasties. I've heard of steam humidifiers; but haven't investigated them.
Kinda a scaled down version of my system in the basement, which looks like this:
That's quite a system!
I believe the garage doors will be R9 and the walls, being 2x6 with the same ~1.5" blow foam and the batts, will be the same as the rest of the house. Thinking about it some more, I feel not worrying about running HVAC duct's the the garage makes the most sense. The garage should stay "temperate" I think.
I would think the garage should stay temperate in all but the most frigid of temps as you're insulating it. Another reason I wouldn't run ducts from the living space to the garage is that code may require you to install automatic fire dampers, and that could get pricey. If the garage needs heat, add a separate heat source of some kind. Just remember, no matter how well insulated the garage doors are, they still need to seal well to keep overly hot and cold air out.
With all the talk about insulation that has gone on in this house, isn't it counter productive to put in skylights? I don't know of anything quite as bad for loss of energy then a big hole in the ceiling with no insulating properties. At least with windows, most of the energy is going up and held in place by the insulation in the attic, but when you put in a skylight, that just creates an open path for heat to leave or enter the house almost unrestricted.
While the light is nice, what you lose in energy, it's a lot cheaper to run a light all the time.
I've also found that there isn't any such thing as a skylight that doesn't leak. It's just a matter of when. You might get lucky and get 20 years out of it, but there are a lot of people out there who didn't get half that out of theirs. I know it's always blamed on the installation, but just the way they are designed leads them to failure over time. The more severe the environment, the sooner they fail.
Eddie
I like the concept of skylights; but I agree with Eddie on this one as I think they are more pain than they are worth. Although you're planning on skylights for the kitchen area I believe; you might want to look into various forms of light control (e.g. blinds, shades, etc) in case too much of a good thing (aka sunlight) pours into the kitchen, and how easy it will be for your Mom to operate the shades. If you go with skylights, research them and find a good brand.
