Insulation

Since our home is essentially stripped down to the studs, this is our opportunity to replace the insulation. After having seen the utter lack of insulation in the walls when they were opened up (it was old loose fill that had settled and deteriorated over the decades), basically anything would be an improvement.

But we're not going with just anything. Another advantage of a home renovation is it's an exciting opportunity to outfit our home with more eco-friendly, healthy and renewable alternatives. In a later post we'll try to recap the various green approaches we've taken, but one example for us is insulation. We've chosen to avoid fiberglass for a few reasons: it's bound with formaldehyde, which slowly evaporates into the air to toxic effect; handling it causes it to shed tiny particles that can dangerously irritate the skin and lungs; and there are cost-effective alternatives, which the 30% federal income tax credit helps make even more attractive.

Our insulation of choice is Bonded Logic's UltraTouch Recycled Cotton Fiber Batts for the walls, and their Recycled Cellulose as a dry blown-in insulation for the ceilings. It has similar insulating, accoustical, and fireproofing qualities as fiberglass but without the downsides. Note, it really is made of recycled jeans, as evidenced by the photo to the left.

Our walls are mostly 4" thick, so filling them requires R-13 insulation. Because the roof above the dining room is completely open, we're putting 6" thick batt insulation there. The cellulose is useful to blow in above existing ceilings that are not torn out. All in all, we purchased:

• 15 bags (1590 sq ft) R-13 cotton - $838
• 5 bags (316 sq ft) R-19 cotton - $273
• 7 bags (280 sq ft at R-19, depth 6") cellulose - $76

One very interesting upside to the type of insulation that we're using is that we can install it ourselves, because it's completely safe and requires no special protective gear or equipment (though a mask is recommended just because cutting up lots of cotton fiber can get pretty dusty). And this weekend we attempted to do just that - the next post will be about how that went.