New House Build in the Country!!!

EddieWalker · Mar 1, 2016

Are they going to put flashing up along the dormers?

jk96 · Mar 1, 2016

Looking good. It's amazing how fast things go with a good framing crew.

AGRIMAN · Mar 1, 2016

Congratulations on your new house Justin. As you know, there are a lot of options when it comes to insulating it and they all come with different cost. I would also suggest that you take a serious look at spray foam as there are a lot of benefits over the other options.

AGRIMAN · Mar 2, 2016

jk96 said:
We applied 6" of closed cell on the underside of our roof only. 3-1/2" of closed cell for the exterior walls. No vapor barrier. I have been very happy with the results. The main thing people underestimate with foam is how well it seals the home if done correctly. We have a 27' great room ceiling, 32 large windows, 7 exterior doors, and a see thru glass fireplace from the living room to outside. Our home blower door tested at 1.9 Ach50. We are heating a total of 4,700 sq/ft with geothermal (1st floor, 2nd floor, basement). Our heating bill this winter from Nov through the end of this Feb was $540.

Your better closed cell foams have a built in vapor barrier. Wow, 1.9 is really good.

dragoneggs · Mar 2, 2016

AGRIMAN said:
Congratulations on your new house Justin. As you know, there are a lot of options when it comes to insulating it and they all come with different cost. I would also suggest that you take a serious look at spray foam as there are a lot of benefits over the other options.

I definitely like the spray foam in the walls as long as you are confident on your wiring to cover future needs like entertainment system. Hate to think about trying to fish wires through that. For ceilings I would go with as much blown in (or batting) insulation to get max R value above you.

jk96 · Mar 2, 2016

AGRIMAN said:
Your better closed cell foams have a built in vapor barrier. Wow, 1.9 is really good.

Justin make sure you blower door test before you sheetrock. This is something most people don't think about. It's not very expensive and will payoff for as long as you own your home. We tested three different times. 1st test was 3.2 Ach50, 2nd test 2.3, and 3rd test 1.9. It will be a lot easier to find and fix the leaks before the sheetrock goes up.

justinramani · Mar 2, 2016

dragoneggs said:
I definitely like the spray foam in the walls as long as you are confident on your wiring to cover future needs like entertainment system. Hate to think about trying to fish wires through that. For ceilings I would go with as much blown in (or batting) insulation to get max R value above you.

I really like the idea of spray insulation, but it just isn't in the budget. We are about maxed out as it is. I can almost guarantee that this will become a "I wish I would have done that" down the road....

tractorshopper · Mar 2, 2016

Looking great Justin. They are moving fast. I hope the finishing also goes as fast for you. Good stuff.

EddieWalker · Mar 2, 2016

justinramani said:
I really like the idea of spray insulation, but it just isn't in the budget. We are about maxed out as it is. I can almost guarantee that this will become a "I wish I would have done that" down the road....

Can you hold off on sheet rocking and insulating the upstairs area ceiling with just the thickness of the rafters until you can save up enough to spray foam it? Nothing else is going to work very well there, and if you use fiberglass bats, it's not going to be very effective.

justinramani · Mar 2, 2016

Eddie,

The 2nd floor ceiling is not going to be vaulted. They are going to frame a flat ceiling and the insulation will be blown into the area above the ceiling. R30 is code - might ba able to have them blow in additional insulation......