House Post: More Basement Insulation

The project that's never done took some big steps forward last weekend: I added Roxul insulation to the basement ceiling.

To recap the plan: we had a contractor spray 1" of closed-cell spray foam on the ceiling to serve as a vapor barrier & air sealant. We built a wall to separate the garage from the main basement.

Last week, I used Roxul insulation to add on top of the spray foam. I had the week off for a staycation to work on the house and try to give my brain a rest. I told myself I had to work an hour a day on the basement; on day 1, that meant about two packages of insulation, or 12 batts total.

This stuff; two of these at a time.

I dressed to the nines: jeans, long sleeved t-shirt, baseball cap, protective goggles, respirator. I did it first thing in the morning, and then took a long shower afterwards. Roxul isn't quite as bad as the pink fiberglass stuff, but it's still not great to get on your skin or to breathe in. 

By the end of the week, I had both run out of insulation (and the budget to buy more, sadly) and improved my time quite a bit: two packages on day 5 took me about 30 minutes, or half as long. I am guessing that I need about 4 more packages of insulation, or about $140 worth. I have until mid-November to figure that out, which is when my dad is coming to help put up the drywall.

On the one hand, the actual doing of it wasn't a ton of fun. It was a lot of lifting and shoving above my head. On the other hand, it was straightforward, simple, and enormously satisfying to see happen.