Posted by Keith in Washington [108.162.245.55] on Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 20:41:22 :
In Reply to: Re: quite often it is a waste of time and money posted by Doc Dave [172.69.63.142] on Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 13:56:02 :
I did a lot of work on the insulin my house. I live just east of Seattle and we do see many frosty days and snow occasionally. Our utility has a program to help with lowering your heat loss. They require you to use their contractors along with other stipulations. I figured that even with their special pricing I could do it much cheaper and do a better job than they would do. Unfortunately, there were no credits if you did it yourself. But I know it was done correctly with no shortcuts.
First the attic had about 4” of blown in insulation with numerous missed and thin areas. The skylight walls had no insulation. I put batts R13 in the bare areas and shifted blown in to fill in the thin areas. Then I added 12 inch batts to the entire attic and insulated the skylight.
Second was the 900 square feet of floor over the garage. It had R13 batts with plenty of gaps as shown by very dirty insulation from air flow. I put 9 1/2 “ batts in and I also enclosed and insulated, with 2” foam board, the cold air return that ran in that floor. I also taped and wrapped the heating ducks in the garage with 2” foam board. Then I closed it up with 5/8 sheet rock and caulked along the beams. I then insulated the garage walls with R13 and sheet rocked and insulated the 3 garage doors with foam board.
I also found no insulation between the shower stall and the exterior wall. I also insulated the ends of every hoist run in the floors and the exterior walls.
So what was the result of this work. My heating bill was 45% of what it was before. Then I put in a high efficiency furnace and now My gas usage is 30 to 35% of what it was before. Well worth the effort not only for the money savings but our house is no longer cold drafty nor are the floors cold over the garage. The house also does not heat up in the summer like it use to.
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