Ugly eaves

When you find interior products used in an exterior application you had better investigate because it's probably just the tip of the iceberg.

I found a piece of medium density fiberboard (MDF) behind the gutter on the second story. Needless to say it was waterlogged and inhabited by ants. There is also a piece of interior trim running the perimeter of the soffits all the way around the house. I've pulled lots of bright nails out of the fascia board as I've been taking it down, more interior product.




It's hard to see, but there is a piece of romex running on the exterior under the eave to flood lights. This is a code violation. There's a good reason romex has to be enclosed. Squirrels had gnawed the casing off of the wire. A good way to start a fire.



This is where the two sections of the house connect for a split-level.

Here is a shot of the old exterior grade gyp board they used to use. I don't see it used these days, however it is still around.

Between the rafter tails where they extend beyond the exterior wall I am adding 2" of rigid foam insulation. I will seal the cracks with expanding foam insulation.

When the contractor sprayed the foam insulation against the roof deck they did a good job of sealing everything from the inside. But out on the eaves where the angle pinches down it is hard to reach, even with the wand.

Here you can see where the foam blew out against the exterior at the eaves. From the inside it is sealed and airtight but as you can see there is still room for more sealing.

I've filled these voids with rigid foam and expanding foam. The rigid insulation adds another R10 to the system. The foam prevents air flow, moisture and bugs moving into the interior.

For new construction all of this can be accomplished during the construction phase with all spray foam insulation and it makes for a nice tight envelope which saves lots of $$$ on heating and cooling.

Insulation installation

Before

After

We filled the wall cavities with 2" rigid foam insulation and filled the cracks with spray foam insulation to stop any air flow from outside.There was zero insulation behind the old drywall.

Many of the circuits needed to be rewired and boxes moved or deleted. These windows will be replaced, they are single pane leaky windows.

There is no insulation below this window because it will be replace with a door that will open onto the deck.

Kitchen w/drywall hung

It is tough to try to maintain some semblance of order during a renovation. It gets expensive to eat out all the time however, so we've tried to keep a functional kitchen throughout the process.

Another Day in the Attic

Here is the old attic fan from the seventies. Hot air leaks through it's louvers and heats the upstairs of the house.

Cut out in the attic deck for the fan shown. Only the louvers remain.

The next picture shows radiant barrier foil placed in over the louvers. 

This will reflect any heat from moving into the attic during the heating season.  

                                                                                                                                                                

First layer of batt insulation in place. Kraft paper face down.

 Top layer of batt insulation.

Rigid insulation put in place. I will seal around the rigid foam with spray foam to prevent any airflow from occurring.

Eventually the louvers will be removed also and dry wall will be added to repair the ceiling. But that's later on.

Insulation results

After having spray foam installed on Friday we've had the weekend to assess the results. We have had record heat in Atlanta over the last few days, seeing triple digits every day. The insulation has kept the temperatures down substantially in the attic. They have been contained to about the same outdoor temperature versus the 130-140 degree range without the insulation. On Saturday afternoon the attic temperature peaked at 102 degrees. This is quite a dramatic reduction in the amount of heat getting into the attic, but I would like it to be even less. I am working on some ideas to further reduce the heat gain in the attic. I will post them as they are implemented.

There is a noticeable odor when they first spray the foam. By the next day it had all but dissipated.

Spray Foam Insulation

Today was a pivotal day in the continued energy efficient retrofit of the Tucker Green Home. Spray foam insulation was blown in against the roof deck in the attic. As it turned out, a record high for the day was broken in Atlanta! (105 deg)

Bird Family Insulation was the contractor.

Here you can see the foam insulation that was sprayed in the attic. It's about 5.5" of open cell insulation sprayed against the roof deck. Open cell spray foam has an R value of about 3.5 per inch. So this is about an R-19 shown here.

Insulation was also sprayed against an interior knee wall in the crawl space.

The process took about 4 hours and cost approximately $2700.