New thread.........right now

For her 14th birthday took Delaney and a friend to Les Mis in Philly. Ate lunch downtown in an area that turned out to be very, um, gay friendly. Across the street from this was a pizza joint (Santini Bros or something) with a handwritten sign "homo hut" lol.Wife was snapping a pic of the girls and, well... Dad's gotta dad

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Front row seats... of the top balcony. Not willing to mortgage the house for floor seats. Besides you get a better view of the pit and crew this way, the things she cares about
 
No longer right now but earlier today

Bring your child to work day. Delaney got to help me do a demo explanation of how we make and use gels as brain simulants
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Then got the honors of pulling out a new 3d printed skull model of bone simulant
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orange150 said:


Curious what y’all think of this
@CasterTroy @shawn etc.
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I mean, just my opinion......but technically it could be more efficient. Same with a sealed crawlspace.

But like anything there's a cost. What are you willing to pay up front? While there IS a benefit to efficiency, you're also paying to condition that space. There are other factors as well. With a house sealed up that tight, you're not getting any outside air, which you may want to consider .

Me personally, I've not paid to encapsulate my crawlspace at the house, and my Barndo has traditional attic.
If it's something you want to consider in a build, I would consult @Mac5005
 
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I'm not buying into it. The drywall on the ceiling isn't the barrier though. My house has 12-18" of blown insulation on top of the ceiling drywall.

The crawlspace is a whole different ballgame, and we just had ours encapsulated.
 
orange150 said:


Curious what y’all think of this
@CasterTroy @shawn etc.
Click to expand...

Roof sheathing rot due to vapor drive becomes an issue, but if you have an air handler and/or ductwork in the attic, it's a no brainer.

drkelly said:
I'm not buying into it. The drywall on the ceiling isn't the barrier though. My house has 12-18" of blown insulation on top of the ceiling drywall.

The crawlspace is a whole different ballgame, and we just had ours encapsulated.
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How many ceiling mounted light fixtures do you have? Attic scuttles? Every one of those is leaking air into the attic, it's just a question of how much.

Encapsulating the crawl space is easy, but all part of the same system, not "a different ballgame". Put some visqueen on the dirt, cut a bunch of XPS filler blocks and foam them into the foundation vents, and install a dehumidifier. Biggest cost is the dehumidifier, the rest is $100ish. Helps with termites, too.
 
shawn said:
How many ceiling mounted light fixtures do you have? Attic scuttles? Every one of those is leaking air into the attic, it's just a question of how much.

Encapsulating the crawl space is easy, but all part of the same system, not "a different ballgame". Put some visqueen on the dirt, cut a bunch of XPS filler blocks and foam them into the foundation vents, and install a dehumidifier. Biggest cost is the dehumidifier, the rest is $100ish. Helps with termites, too.
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Numerous canned lights, but they are not visible from the attic due to being covered with insulation.

Two full size doors access to the two attics.

Power bill seems reasonable.
 
The best I’ve seen is insulation on top of roof sheathing, furring strips on top of that as rain screen and metal roof over that. If the insulation seams are taped, you get a sealed attic, but there is still vent under the roofing material so the paint doesn’t get baked. You would have to spray foam the soffit vents for a retrofit, but the attic trusses are now inside the conditioned space so you don’t rot your roof structure out like traditionally spray foaming an attic would

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shawn said:
Roof sheathing rot due to vapor drive becomes an issue, but if you have an air handler and/or ductwork in the attic, it's a no brainer.
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That's what I had always heard, your roof sheathing would rot out if there is insulation up against it due to sweating.
If you're conditioning the space are you just ducting registers up there and they blow whenever the A/C is cycling or are you doing something more specific
 
I have a fully spray foamed house built in 2019. Everything is electric, no gas. 1500sqft basement, 1500sqft main floor, 1000sqft 2nd floor, and probably 700sqft attic, so nearly 5k square feet in the insulated envelope. Highest power bill we have seen the first 5 years was like $160. And every area in the house is a pretty consistent temperature, no hot/cold/drafty spots.
 
jeepinmatt said:
I have a fully spray foamed house built in 2019. Everything is electric, no gas. 1500sqft basement, 1500sqft main floor, 1000sqft 2nd floor, and probably 700sqft attic, so nearly 5k square feet in the insulated envelope. Highest power bill we have seen the first 5 years was like $160. And every area in the house is a pretty consistent temperature, no hot/cold/drafty spots.
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Rotten roof deck buddies 🙌
 
drkelly said:
Numerous canned lights, but they are not visible from the attic due to being covered with insulation.
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If you've ever done demo, you'll know that the insulation around ceiling lights is always discolored from the air that leaks through the fixture in/out of the conditioned space.
 
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