Eco-insulation
By Karina | October 26, 2009
It’s getting awfully cold up here in the northeast of the US, and my partner and I are facing a task we’ve been putting off for some time – insulating the attic. Yikes! The house had a horrible roof and window leak situation, so the prior owners ripped out all the old insulation and replaced the windows and the roof, but never got around to the insulation before selling the house to my partner. So after taking over the house in early Spring last year, and thoroughly enjoying our summer, now that we’ve had to top off our fuel oil tanks for the colder temperatures we really have every reason to stop putting off the important task of weather-sealing the house.
Of course, as we mentioned before, there are some other incentives besides saving money and being more efficient. From the Energy Star website:
- Tax credits are available at 30% of the cost, up to $1,500, in 2009 & 2010 (for existing homes only) for:
And that’s just for 2009 and 2010, so if you’ve done any of this stuff or plan to, keep track of the possible credits you can claim!
And now that we’re at the point of finally measuring our (old houses are so charming!) uneven spaces between the rafters in our full attic, we are trying to figure out what the best kind of insulation to get. Plus it’s got to have a manufacturers certification statement that the material qualifies. But of course, I want to make sure that I have got the best kind of insulation – the most efficient and of course the lightest on the planet.
There are a few options out there – there’s cellulose fibers, but that usually is blown into a closed cavity, like a wall or laid down in the floor of a crawl space. There’s also materials made from recycled fabric – like ultratouch, made from post-industrial recycled denim. It unrolls into batts, but I haven’t found any information about how heavy it is to install and if it’s suitable for the ceiling of an attic. More traditionally we would pick a fiberglass insulation, but it’s generally held together with formaldehyde. (Not great for your health! just ask the embalmed…) There’s some ecological options to traditional fiberglass that avoids the toxic binders and contains recycled glass, though, so we’re considering that as well. Beyond that there’s a few non-DIY options, but we are trying to do this sort of on the cheap (I’d rather get a contractor to put up gutters than insulate the attic!).
And of course we also have to seal up the new windows… this article suggests using incense smoke to find the drafts, but we have a few windows where if you hit just the right angle, you can see straight through to the outdoors – below the frame. And we’ll be on the hunt for some earth-friendly caulk and sealant, too.
Do y’all have any suggestions? Any personal experience?
[[Thermal imagery from flickr user Pro-Zak via creative commons license.]]
Topics: Home | 7 Comments »
I think you should use the recycled denim insulation, just because I’ve always thought it’s the coolest. But looking forward to hearing which one you choose, for, like, real reasons.
if you haven’t already, go look at This Old House.com, they have some great suggesions for energy savings. Though you will probably have to do some additional research into the green-ness of some things tehy suggest.
For the windows/etc, I really reccomend a low-expansion spray foam sealant–seal it with the foam first, then caulk smaller gaps and paint. You don’t want to use caulk to fill large gaps, as it tends to fail then.
I can’t remember if you have vinyl windows or the traditional double hung? If there are weight pockets still accessible, make sure you insulate them, as that’s where most of the drafts from windows come. Also, a good storm window is worth it’s weight in gold, and can turn the older double hungs into just-as-good-if-not-better-than new vinyl windows, especially since old wood double hungs are meant to be repaired, unlike vinyl windows which can only be replaced when they fail.
They make a soy-based spray foam insulation that is apparently fabulous on all fronts, except expense. But, you get the greatest R value for your $, and no VOCs.
this comment is really invaluable, thank you for the tops on the spray foam sealant!
we have vinyl windows – while on the one hand I’m glad they’ve already been replaced and we don’t have to do that too, on the other hand posts like this one about traditional windows makes me a little wistful.
Ultratouch insulation is awesome. I used it in the attic of my 100+ year old house and it was easy to install. You have to get two layers to get enough R factor or whatever its called but it’s so worth it to not have to worry about the toxic stuff and the gross feeling of fiberglass insulation and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t conventional when I applied and received a credit from some government program through the gas company.
Also you can use leftover insulation scraps to make pillows or dog beds which I wouldn’t dare try with fiberglass. Another bonus is that the guys who put in my hvac system were so grateful to not have to work in an attic full of itchy stuff. It makes the attic much more pleasant to work in; it looks like a big denim quilt! Even the code inspector was like “What is this insulation? It looks great!”
I love this recommendation of yours, annie! thank you!
do you mind telling me where you live, as in, how cold does it get? and how thick did the two layers work out? to be honest if we’re DIYing it of course I would rather do the non-glass method, even if there aren’t toxins in the other fiberglasses I’m looking at. it just seems like a lot of opportunities to injure yourself.
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