Thursday, February 23, 2006

Insulation Comments

I do a lot of research. That's partly how this blog started, because I could not find information from other people's experiences.
Thanks for your comments guys. I think they key with using cellulose is that it will be "dense packed" and that seems to be the key. It will be installed with a proper moisture barrier. Though the density may reduce the insulating value, it should block the air movement. Also this will be installed on the south facing roof deck only.

In our house the north-facing roof has experienced quite a bit of mold growth. I'm sure with the recent fixing of venting our bathroom fan outside is going to be a big help. The north face will still be open and allowed to breath. We've insulated the knee wall with r-30 batts and sealed off any air leaks we could find. Used a bunch of those Cans.

This dense pack cellulose is ONLY for the roof deck that is behind the knee wall on the south side. The 'true' attic (remember it's a 1.5 story cape) will have proper ventilation. If we remove all of the air from the cavities and we prevent moisture from entering and condensing then I think we'll be fine.

I would love to use closed cell spray foam. In my previous house I used Icynene brand, which was AWESOME. But the cellulose is a 10th of the cost and the insulation contractor I'm working with is a friend of mine, and I should be able to trust him. I'll still watch him like a hawk :-)

Sure I’m worried about what if a leak occurs and if the cellulose becomes wet etc. etc. That’s just more of the “joy” when it comes to home ownership.

So stay tuned. If we have any problems with this you will be the first to know.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Gutter Worries

I've been doing more research about our copper gutters and how they were installed. The copper gutters were installed with using galvanized screws ( SCOTS TRUGRIP GT ) After more research this does not appear to be really sufficient. Even though the gutters have only been up for 6 months, I think I’m seeing signs of a galvanic reaction between the screws and the gutters (white powder)

Also my other new worry is about the new pressure treated wood fascia they installed. I'm going to have to check but the wood might be treated with alkaline copper quat (ACQ). The fascia was installed with twist shank nails but I don't know if they'll be resistant to the corrosive nature of ACQ.

Insulation saga continues

I met with the insulation contractor. I showed him the work that I had done to get ready for the cellulose insulation to be installed. He came back over to, because I asked about some venting issues because we've had some moisture problems. He told me that instead of leaving open space for venting, we should dense pack the cellulose and remove all of the air spaces. My house does not have any soffit vents, and since existing fiberglass and the cedar paneling would cover the dense pack cellulose, it would prevent any condensation from occurring by blocking the movement of moist air from touching the cold roof deck. It sounds like a good idea. I think it will help with the general draftiness of the house.

Friday, February 10, 2006

House Blogs

I'm always scouring the web for information on how to do my work. I thought I would try to give back, especially about my more recent projects. There's just not a lot of practical experiences that are published out there available to people. Hopefully my additions will help people with their own projects. Feel free to comment or ask more questions. I'm always glad to help you with your projects. I work cheap, beer, pizza, and wings are my types of currency.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Basement water proofing

Our Cape Cod has a basement rec room. It's a nice room, with a fireplace, deep window wells and a stucco like ceiling. As I've seen in all previous houses that I've owned, the former owners didn't properly prepare the walls and have used a hodgepodge of paint and mortar the waterproof the walls.

My previous house had green latex over Thoroseal seal, over more green paint. It was awful. To waterproof that basement I used a grinder ( two actually ) and a wire cup ( 4 total ) to remove all of the layers. It took me a week of 8 hours a day to remove it all, and Ohhhhh the dust. We coated it with UGL and that seemed to work pretty well.

This house is no different, 3 or 4 layers of paint, 2 white, one green, and the bottom layer is a mysterious brown coating. It's the same old story of mildew in the corners, efflorescence on the lower bricks, peeling paint all over.

In my new house, and with the arrival of our first child, I did not want to grind off the paint. I looked at a lot of paint strippers. I wanted something that would work (duh), not be caustic, and not smell to bad, as I'm doing this in winter and I'm not opening any windows. I decided on the Peel Away line of products. The website for PeelAway isn't the best, but I'm a sucker for things I see on This Old House. I emailed the company about my situation and what I was looking for and they offered to send me 2 samples, Peel Away 8 and Peel Away 21. I did a couple of test areas with both 8 and 21. 8 uses the Peel Away paper but 21 does not. My results were that 8 worked really well, but 21 kind of dried out in a 24 hour span. I assume that the paper is what did the trick. 8 does not have much odor at all, no need to wear masks or gloves and it sure did munch through the paint after letting it soak, under paper, for 48 hours.

After discussing, with Barry (NY), that in Ohio we pronounce it SOUTH-ING-TON and not SUTH-IN-TON. I purchased 10 gallons of Peel Away 8. It's a bit pricey at about 30 bucks a gallon.

The Peel Away ( goop ) is nice to work with. The goop is a little thick to use a roller on but using a large paint brush ( 6 inches ) worked great. We put it on thick and then covered it with the supplied paper and waited 48 hours. It works pretty good. After removing the paper (48 hours later) the paste was still wet (in most places) and the paint was bubbly. Pulling off the paper actually did "peel away" some of the paint down to the concrete block. Scraping and using a wire brush (for the cracks and crevices) took care of the rest of the white and green paint. It looked good, EXCEPT for this mysterious brown "paint".

Thinking that the brown stuff was just more stubborn paint we re-applied more Peel Away and reused the same paper. 24 Hours later we removed the paper and wire brushed the wall down to the masonry and washed off the wall. Looks Great.

I kept wondering about what that brown stuff actually was. It sure didn't act like paint. More Peel Away would soften it so we could remove it more easily but it didn't act like the other layers of paint. Even when using a wire brush it would come off the wall with lots of water and in little teeny tiny chunks. So, it's not paint, and I don't want to be wasting my premium paint stripper on..... on What?

I've come to the conclusion that my mysterious brown coating is actually CLAY! I've heard of Bentonite Clay used for waterproofing on the outside... but the inside??? So, instead of more Peel Away it's just more water and wire brushing. I might even breakout the grinder again to help remove it ( gently of course ). Walls to look great though. I have a hard time with focusing on brushing the efflorescence away too. I might use the grinder for that as well.

Questions:
  1. Can anyone tell me about Bentonite ( or any other ) Clay used on the inside for waterproofing masonry?
  2. Any suggestions for removing efflorescence other than muratic acid, TSP and elbow grease. I would prefer not to use the grinder, and get more into the pores of the block.

Whole House fan

After a lot of research, I selected the Whisper Aire dual drive whole house fan. I considered the Tamarack but at about $1600 for a comparable model. I decided against it.


  1. I didn't find it to be very whisper quiet. Compared to my previous house and my Broan Model 2220 it is not as quiet.
  2. I have added additional levels and foam in between the layers of 2 by 4s to help with the noise
  3. The remote control only works directly underneath the fan. I contacted the manufacturer and they offered to send me a replacement, as it might be a bad solder on the antenna. It sounded like they are aware that this happens from time to time. I'm going to add a wire coil to the antenna side to see if that helps. The switch/ antenna is right next to the chimney in the attic and the drywall is very thick and might be blocking the signal.

Due to a cold snap I have not re tested the noise level.