February 11, 2008

Very Expensive Icicles




After thousands of dollars spent on insulation, I still have ICICLES! It is so disheartening. A guy tries to do his best. I researched and interviewed until I was blue... failure! I could've bought a lot of heat tape for the amount of money I've got into insulation in this place (or taken a nice cruise to a warm "ice-free" place).



One of the culprits is that, in place, the Icynene spray foam appears to have shrunk some and pulled away from the roofing & framing - which is not good. The other issue is that they scrape the icynene away from the bottom of the rafters so that drywall can be attached. In my opinion, this wicks the heat up to the roof surface and melts the snow. I just bought a few hundred more dollars of polystyrene foam board and will attach it in these areas to try to insulate these rafter faces. Will see what happens.

I also had they icenyne added to an exterior wall of an upstairs bathroom in attempt to keep it a little toastier.

I didn't insulate any walls in the house in that most every wall is covered in huge windows -- OVER 80 OF THEM -- in this place. I figured what little wall space there was would not benefit from insulation in that most of the house is covered in glass.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you know what thickness (R value) you actually have just above the wall top plate? Unfortunately most of the problems I see with insulation comes down to one very small area...the top plate of the wall. You see....it's the pinch point in most roof framing and it's the point at which we typically fail. From the pictures you're showing I think you have some rather significant heat loss to cause that amount of melting. Did you strap the ceilings prior to applying the drywall? You have me very curious......

I'd love to chat more about it if you have the time....

Todd

Jennifer said...

How frustration! I've always felt very lucky with our old house that there is none of that. We don't have any wall insulation, either...

I hope you find the cause!