Home Improvement Today?

The old ones got chucked off the roof didn't they?

 

How did you know this?!?!

 

post-attic clean out, when crawling through my attic I noticed drywood termite frass.

god damit

one more thing to deal with.



One quote and week later. I had termite contractor onsite spraying borax in attic ( I liked their working Tacoma! )



Fumigation done, 5-year warranty in pocket with included annual inspections.

 

The picture of it sitting on the roof its perfectly round, the one on the ground is no longer round and the flashings are all bent inward.

 

Just curious, how much was it and for how big of an attic (just the insulation removal)? This has been on my list of things to tackle, but if I can sub it out for less than a grand, I might.

 

Nobody quoted anywhere near that amount. But quotes are free, so maybe get some?

My attic was a wreck from rodent damage from 20 years ago that never got cleaned up. had some blown insulation.

I got it in the contract that they would remove everything including 57 years worth of dust, sanitize, rodent proofing, & hole sealing, for $2400. Attic is 1,300 sq.ft

 

What's your plan for insulation up there ?

 

I am very interested in hearing any feedback or advice you have for me as all of this is outside my expertise.

Anyone can chime in.

So I have product in garage.

For labor, the attic companies are a racket and want a ridiculous amount of money.

Decided best option was to put a crew together. Myself, plus 3 trusted friends. Going to bust it out this Saturday, early.

Best part is I am paying my friends $200 each for the estimated 4 hours of their time.



Plan is to cocoon the attic hatches with plastic sheeting to protect living spaces from any dust.

Workers get tyvex suit, eye pro, and dust mask.

Someone at the bottom of ladder splits open a bag and hands off (1) batt up the ladder to a taker, who gives it to a feeder, to gives it to a placer. Repeat until finished.

I constructed a tool for the placer task



There are a couple concerns.

Is it okay for the batt to touch the roof deck where there are no soffit vents? I ask because I want to get coverage on the top plate of my walls, but due to the slope of the roof 6-12 pitch I have to compress a portion of the batt to make it fit. All of my eves are boxed in. I know I lose insulation value for this, but covering the top plate is a priority.

For the joist bays where there are soffit vents (I have 16), my plan is to pull apart an insulation batt down the middle to get a lower height so it will not block soffit vent.

I made this crude illustration when I was thinking of using a diff material to cover the top plates, but again, now thinking just to compress and make fit.


Just want to make sure that I can do that without causing issues?

thanks

 

Can you get me contact info. I’m in Casa De Oro, South Mt. Helix area. The guy I normally call is not returning my calls. Got some large Queens that need lacing.

 

Use insulation baffles , it will allow unobstructed airflow from soffit , prevent wind washing and keep the insulation from billowing up and blocking the cavity

The new Owens Corning batts have way less released fibres during placement because they altered their binder and now they also smell like cotton candy

 

So my non working gfci in my bathroom i opened up and run a voltage tester over everything in the box, which is a lot of wiring for whatever reason. And no voltage on any of it. I get a hit on my light switxh from outside the panel so I know its not the tester.
Klein tools tester off Amazon.

How f'd am I? I dont know where anything is run or ends. Ive got two clusters of 3 wires each coming from the top and two more from the bottom. Only three wires going to the gfci (black, white and uninsulated copper ground).

Ill grab pictures if you need them. There are two wire ties, one with all the black wires twisted together, the other with all the white wires, and then the copper grounds are just twisted freely together.

Im no electrician but I feel like this isnt optimal.

 

Was this the company that did it?

 

Plan sounds solid I like ur custom batt picker lol

just start super early so you’re not in an attic in the SoCal sun

U can lay/hang a box fan blowing up in the attic when you’re not feeding material up it, that will really help with dust and temps

Like @OZ-T said get you some baffles, We usually use Durovents

Make sure batts are in continuous contact with ceiling, no voids lol

Just for shits n giggles I’d insulate your ductwork as extra as cheaply possible, maybe stack some batts around the plenum

And I’d think about running a radiant barrier under the top chords of your rafters

 

Pics lol
Are there any circuit breakers that are always in the off position? Lights/outlets that don’t work?

 

This, and use an outlet tester to go through the chain and find the last outlet that is functional, the next hop could be the culprit of your issues if the breaker is fine

 

@Crom x2 on the fan. I was rescreening gable vents in my old house. Access was in the top of a closet, and I aimed my big shop fan from the floor up to the hatch, and it made a huge difference between dying or not dying up there.

 

@Crom

Looking at your pics again , have a few questions

I see you have trusses that look to have 2x4 bottom chords , and you have R30 batts . How do you intend to install the batts ? Just in between the trusses ? If so , the issue then becomes that you end up with a thermal bridge through the truss in between each batt .

You want insulation over the truss bottom chord as well as between them as wood is only R1 per inch so you would effectively have R30 where your batts are and R3.5 every 2' where your trusses are .

 

well after adding to the scope of work we are finally moving forward more now. 3 weeks of not being in my house so that it could be 100% redone electrically and brought up to code has been a pain. contractors are patching drywall and wrapping those projects up now so I can get back in this weekend, then we can finally get back to putting the bathroom and kitchen back together. hallelujah.

 

can't remember if I shared this shot or not....close to where we currently sit progress wise..

 

Could run a line of canned spray foam in between the batts on top of the bottom rafters lol
This is why we blow in our attic insulation