Friction Fit
A.V. Walters
I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting. I have been busy with everyone’s favorite task in home building. I’m insulating.
For good reason, Michigan takes insulation seriously. Back in California I remember building inspectors glancing at insulation, with a nod and a wink. Not so here. Normally, we have winters that warrant a rigorous inspection. Without insulation, we’d spend a fortune (and a lot of natural resources) to keep the place habitable in the winter.
Because there’s little you can do to insulate log walls, the remaining areas get extra scrutiny. In part because the default—fiberglass–is such a miserable job, we considered all of our options. Rigid, closed-cell board, which is not itchy at all, was time consuming and expensive. We secured bids on foam spray installation. They were outrageous—especially because of the manual labor to install the cold-roof baffles, before the spray. Ultimately we opted for the tried and true, the fiberglass, do-it-yourself option.
We have to meet R 49 in the roof and ceilings. When you include the cold-roof baffles, there’s not enough depth between the rafters to get R49’s worth of insulation. So, we found a company that made sturdy R5 baffles AND we firred-out the rafters with 2X2s for extra depth. Then we used high-density fiberglass batts. Of course, they don’t make such things in the depths we needed, so we opted for three layers of R-15 batts to get to the R-value we needed. It has been an amazing amount of work, most of it overhead, unpleasant and itchy (on a ladder, in protective layers and mask.) With three layers, it means dozens of times up and down the ladder to fill each bay. The first two layers are “friction fit,” that is, they are held up by their sheer orneriness. The last, faced, layer is stapled.
It’s nearly finished. Some of it has to wait—to accommodate wiring and plumbing first. I don’t mind the break, though it might be hard to go back to it. Our little house will certainly be cozy when this is all done. I’m curious to see how it will fare in summer—whether the cold-roof baffles and ridge vent will really keep the roof (and thus the upstairs) cool. In that department, we are blessed that the house falls in the shade of the hill in the afternoons and that should help us keep comfortable, too. It’s important, because we’ve opted not to air-condition.
I’m happy to be nearly finished. It turns out that the only part of this task that is not friction fit, is me.
tworockchronicles 
Methinks the worst is behind you. The road forward will have downs with the ups but it’ll be over before you know it. Summer 2016 is coming 🙂
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‘Friction fit’–what a useful word. As I started your article, the first question that popped to mind was how all that pink stuff stayed in place. And the last layer stapled–to the joists on the sides I imagine?
When do you move in?
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Well, as you can see, we have a bit to go. We’re shooting for a “partial certificate of occupancy” by mid-May.
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Admiration all around. The one time we installed insulation we were lucky enough to be able to blow it in. This time we totally abandoned our ideals and hired someone. I’ve adjusted to the disgrace. 🙂
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Disgrace is a strong word–too strong. We all count our pennies, swallow hard, and make our decisions. Our choices are often between time or money. Sometimes, our other “values” figure into the picture, and then I hold firm to needed environmental concerns. Here, it’s enough to note that insulation does enormous good for our carbon footprint–however you get there is okay.
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So glad that they take insulation seriously in Michigan. Probably helps with climate change — and comfort.
Pretty amazing work there!
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Thanks, it’s just regular tedious work. But it’s the right thing to do and we are the folks who have to do it.
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Such hard work, I’d never thought of how to insulate a log structure. I’m sure that will keep the upstairs cool in summer. Amelia
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Standard insulation protocol requires R21 in vertical walls. Our logs are cedar, which has an insulating value of 1.4R per inch. We have ten inch logs (but because the logs are thick and then thin at the joining) you only get 8 inches credit. That leaves us will walls at R12. Because of that, they cut us no slack at any of the other areas of insulation. I don’t mind, it’s our house, of course we want it snug and tight. I can hardly wait for the heat of summer to test it.
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I can’t imagine the satisfaction it must give you to build your house yourself. Amazing 🙂
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It’s a roller-caster of satisfaction and panic.
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