My first impression of insulating a ceiling is that the damn insulation is so expensive! The R13, 23 inch wide insulation was $126.50 for 11 bats. I had to buy two. That was the most expensive item on my interior list of supplies. By comparison the 15 inch insulation that is 32 feet per roll was only $31.87 per roll. The funniest part was when I was trying to find a source for this, every post I found was of some other person complaining about the price. I guess I am in good company.
The good thing is I only used half the second package so I only have to buy one more for the back yard workshop shed we are planning for last summer.
My second impression is this is more of a two person job. While it likely could be done solo, it’s really hard to get the bat of insulation above you, stuffed between the joists, hope it stays, then try to staple it. That’s a lot.
My wife and I worked together. She is taller and it was easier for her too stand on a step ladder and get it started and feed it to me on my scaffolding. I waffled on buying the scaffolding but for $99 it was worth it. It will come in handy when I fix the house ceilings where the previous owner didn’t use drywall tape and the joins are all cracking.
We were careful not to impeded the soffit vents, or the ridge vent at the top, but just kept it secured to the outside of the joists. We discovered the 8′ bats of insulation got us over the ridge vent area, and down the other side. I have seen YouTube videos of people doing it every which way, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal to just do it the way we did, then patch in a short bit on the other side.
Since we had such issues with the hammer tacker and our weeny arm strength last time, we used an electric staple/nail gun. I got it on sale for half price, and it was the hero tool of the day. (None of these are affiliate links. I just liked the products.)
I thought it would be annoying dealing with a cord, but it was so much faster. My only gripe is it didn’t hold enough staples at one time. I also had to use an electric one as I am not set up for pneumatic tools.
Within two hours we had all the insulation in.
That afternoon we noticed immediately that the shed did not heat up as hot from the sun hitting the roof. That’s impressive. Insulation is so worth it.
I did come back and use some tyvek tape to tape the seems on the joined bits of insulation. We overlapped a tiny bit, and I tucked the white fiberglass in, and taped the brown paper to keep our paper barrier intact. I also taped the holes in the paper from delivery. This worked well as I could feel a small breeze in the join, and that killed that problem.
Overall, the ceiling insulation was the hardest bit for us to complete. That is likely due to our own physical limitations. It’s slow going as we can’t do much at a time, but we are getting there.
Next will bet the walls. I don’t know how much we can do in a day, but it will certainly be easier because we don’t have to reach over our heads.
Garden Rat 