DIY Spray Foam Insulation To Lower Energy Bill

energy costs can SAR through the roof when it comes to heating your home in cold climates like this and it can be especially complicated when you have an abnormal structure like an A-frame that does not have an attic well today we're going to be insulating this almost 2,000t A-frame cabin with the most highest efficiency we can let's get started all right uh Googling average home R value R value stands for heat thermal resistance essentially how well does that actually keep the heat in and not allow anything to kind of seep in in cold climates the recommended R value is r13 through R23 in mild climat a lower r value may be sufficient attics and ceilings that's something we don't have as an attic common R values are 30 38 and 49 well that's if we have an attic we don't have an attic but we're going to have a ceiling so let's shoot for the moon and get an R value of 49 let's get started so I had to just escort the uh insulation delivery guy this is probably the smallest truck that's been here for deliveries and uh he's not happy with this I don't think he's that confident he's kind of giving the stink eye but what can you do I'm not going to make him go all the way into the driveway just cuz I don't think he's comfortable so we'll just hand roll it down and I hate when I get drivers that are nervous about stuff I like experienced guys those guys are [Music] gangsters you want me to just cut this open and I'll just set them all by hand my b it's like rolling a semi [Music] trer you guys always have to do these by hand so we're looking at R38 instulation bat it's 12 in wide which is perfect cuz my span are 12 on Center but the opening itself is like 12 maybe even less uh 44 bags that is $3,171 and then we have our spray foam installation which has to go on first I got to do I think 3 Ines of it I got 10 kits each one is 796 bucks 10 kits is $7,923 to do this cabin with R39 value um this is going to be a lot of work I'm going to go buy a dolly and I think that'll be the easiest way to get it inside the house oh I need also sprayit that's what I need [Music] well I was excited to start spraying the foam insulation until I read the manufacturer directions and it says that if they're exposed to freezing conditions which they have been overnight here it's been like 20° overnight uh you have to have them be in a room temperature for 24 to 48 hours which is mindboggling to me because most of the time you're going to be using instulation is because you don't have heat in the building like this new construction that we're doing um so I'm going to do two things I'm going to take him to my house let him sit for 2 days uh in like the living room arena is going to love that second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go buy a diesel heater and warm up this place uh so that on Monday I could have a warm place and bring them out of the inside of my truck to there I have to baby these things this is stupid all right guys uh here's the thing in order for me to keep my sanity make sure I'm full of energy one thing I have to do without skipping a single day is working out every single morning and they're not big workouts they're 30 minutes a day but they're every single day and that keeps my head clear keeps my body healthy and I can start building that's why I'm super excited to share the sponsors of today's video Hydro folks meet Hydro wave rower the reason why I love this so much it's the efficiency of working out every single day for 30 minutes you have 30 minute classes with over 5,000 courses that you could take to get that number in to get that 30-minute workout in it's a full body workout Works 86% of the muscle groups it's low weight bearing so your knees your ankles they're not going to hurt that's why I don't run anymore that stuff hurts you got cardiovascular and strength training one of my favorite Parts about this programs here is that not only you can just row with Incredible coaches that are my I say very very motivating they're ridiculously good but you can also do full body workouts where you could have a set of dumbbells do your rows and do these intervals that are targeting whatever you want to Target courses include like rowing yoga strength training and more so Hydro has two incredible rowers that really caught my eye they have the pro and then this is what's called the wave and the wave actually has a 33% smaller footprint on it this is ideal for my space uh I didn't want something too crazy cuz I don't have the space for it and what's great about it it's light it's got wheels on it you can move it around and check this out on days that I want to create more of a footprint in the garage here I simply just hook this stand up and I'm able to put it away look at all this space here the wave comes in customizable colors that's also another reason why I chose it this is the forest color it has a 16-in TV tons of courses Bluetooth connectivity heart rate monitor connectivity this is everything you need to get a full body workout every single day consistently so click the link description below or head to hydro.com use my promo code build and you'll receive an additional $125 off of your rower now that promo code will actually stack their discounts so this wave will be $325 off and the pro will be $525 off plus three free gifts so take care of your mind take care of your body especially in this new year check out Hydro they're incredible rower and thank you hydro for partnering us on this video now let's get back into this video we got our kits I got a heater here to warm up the place there's pretty strict uh instructions for temperature control uh that we're not exactly following just cuz it's kind of impossible uh in the circumstance we will know the quality of it uh if the temperature is being affected based on the quality of the foam so we'll figure that out but two-part solution here one's poly one's ISO uh these are all chemical jargons that I don't quite know about but this is supposed to be more of a DIY kit without you having to invest in a rig so all of these trigger guns are all disposable um each kit is about 850 bucks we'll see how long each one covers I'm going to follow instructions the best I can I have to uh put some lubricant inside here uh Purge the system and then connect a tip and looks like there's two different types of tips one has a notch one does not and I will'll find out which one does better and which one does worse but uh says shake them for 20 seconds [Music] all right looks like a two different colors here I'm sure this is the part that's going to mix the two chemicals together and the color is supposed to be homogeneous and kind of does look homogeneous Let's uh let me get my respirator my goggles and my gloves let see what happens [Music] okay so couple of little test spots here uh first of all it sucks wearing goggles with the respirator because it fogs up so it's hard to see how much you're applying so I'm just trying to go as consistent as possible uh it's rising really well it's kind of hard to say how fast I need to go cuz it's still Rising we need to hit 3 in that's what our engineering plans wrote out so 3 in of spray rigid foam and then we got to use our bat insulation to get the r value that's desired but all in all this is cool I did just learn that if you're not using the gun for more than 20 seconds you got to replace the tip so fortunately they gave me a bunch of tips here so that shouldn't be a problem let's party this is kind of fun so that's about as high as I can reach with this ladder uh that's about that's a 12T ladder another maybe 3et maybe 15 ft I have another maybe 10 to 12 to go I'm going to use my Roofing ladder for that uh unfortunately uh but these hoses only go up to 15 so I might have to come up with some kind of scaffolding situation in order make it reach so in the meantime I'm just going to get as much stuff as I can actually reach it right now onward and forward so apparently with spray foam instilation there's pros and cons behind it some Pros are there's a thermal protection you have a a higher r value per inch than regular insulation uh airtight seal that's awesome keeps uh you know heating energy well allergens out uh fills gaps obviously moisture resistant closed cell spray foam is moisture resistant that's cool that's what we're looking for deters mold improves indoor air quality awesome but there's also cons cost spray foam is one of the more expensive insulation options health concerns uh spray foam insulation may have health concerns I don't know what they are they don't list them here but just says that uh Sound Reduction that's a con but that should be a pro uh and then fire retardancy so fiberglass and rock wool are better fire retardance than spray foam but we're also going to have fiberglass insallation in here as well so that'll cover that there you have it pros and cons do what you will with it I think it's a higher Energy Efficiency product here specifically that airtight part and the more you learn the more you know [Music] these are pain in the butt to spray through you can't get to the rafters from them too easily so you got to climb over all the electrical and all the plumbing and all the HVAC stuff ah this is the annoying part man I hate it hate it so much [Music] so here's my only beef with this kit is uh even though there's still plenty of material inside of it the pressure is kind of windling down and so it doesn't spray as well and there's no way to get that back there's no connections that I know of for hooking up a compressor so when you get a fresh kit it shoots it out like paint but when you get this kit it starts splattering and though you can get some of it out it's just more an annoyance of applying it cuz you're like let me just put a fresh kit I just want to freaking paint this thing but that's the only downfall but hey we're getting through it oh and also my goggles are destroyed sorry John the shop shades are awesome but I picked the wrong ones to wear today I don't know if they're coming back from these [Music] all right so it's a 7-hour work day um I got five out of the 10 kits put up already uh so the upstairs the downstairs all is done all I have left is the roof itself down at the main voled part I'll show you obviously I'm going to need to come up with some kind of solution to get up higher with those tanks um so basically the last of the five tanks are going to be for this middle section which I think I'm going to have more than enough my body's aching I'm I feel like I'm Tarzan hanging off this ladder H hopefully tomorrow I can wrap that part down and then it's the bat inflation [Music] okay it's the next day this is the stuff I was dreading the very top from top to bottom I think we're sitting at 26 ft uh these are 32t long Rafters but they're angled obviously so my 12T ladder is all maxed out the solution I came up with is I'm going to use my Roofing ladder uh and I put Roofing stabilizers because the rails don't sit between the rafters perfectly so that'll just keep me safe got it secure down below and then I made a little DIY little hobo looking uh scaffolding and so the idea there is 12 ft tall is going to give me reach with another 15 with my hose and so what I'll do is I'll do the top section drop my ladder and then move over and shimmy everything around uh this is really sketchy this thing is wobbly I don't have enough OSB to secure it all the way around but I think if we're careful we should be fine and if we're not those things fall down and there's foam all over the place that's Cowboy [Music] [Applause] Up we're finally done spraying 2 and 1/2 days 2800 square ft on the Roof oh man this insulation stuff is serious so I got to catch my breath uh first of all no casualties I hate ladders I hate going up that high but we played it safe second of all this is there's two types of foam insulations there's closed cell installation and open cell and my basic understanding of it is open cell they'll have a little holes pointed through it closed cells they're nice and full if you have open cell uh insulation you have to use a vapor barrier on top that's per manufacturer if you have closed cell that's what we're using here that is not required to have a vapor barrier on top because it acts as a vapor barrier so we're looking good on that I'm going to catch my breath grab a little something te Eed and then we'll start putting in our bat insulation so excited there are supposed to be eight pieces in this roll it's 24 in wide 8 ft long cover 6 4 Square ft R38 unfaced insulation uh face insulation has a paper on it my understanding of it the paper acts as somewhat of a moisture barrier on it um which I don't know how well paper will do that but that's what it is now when engineering wrote us these plans for the HVAC system the R value itself I want to confirm that this is rated for our ceiling r49 so they gave us a couple options here for the roof here we could either do air imparable spray foam or 3-in rig rigid insulation here's why I went with spray insulation and not rigid foam both are equally expensive uh 3-in rigid insulation is incredibly difficult to find in the local hardware store Like Home Depot they have it as far as 2 in uh out in order for us to meet code on this it would have to be three which there I believe are let me look it up real quick Owen's cornering R15 3in in rigid foam insulation 4 by8 sheet $187 that's ridiculously expensive now it's also the spray foam was ridiculously expensive so I didn't compare Them Apples to Apples there would both be in the thousands but I wanted to bank on something easier to do uh to spray than something to cut and then glue on while the ceiling is doing this on you so we sprayed our imparable foam we don't need a moisture barrier now we have our baton that's suggested to use we're gonna cut it um we're gonna let this side dry we're going to start it in the rooms and the idea there is to shove it in place and then work our way uh down I think is going to be the most effective way to do it once I get to this part it's going to be a little let's just say we're going to have to use some cowboy stuff and it includes a broom this will be fun [Music] this is working out pretty well I am really thankful for these eye joist because they have this kind of recess little pocket on both sides for the bat to sit snugly because if uh we didn't have those and we just had let's say lvls or like a 2X material we would have had to use sorry about that light these uh insulation support sticks so looks like we won't need to use those also I was going to use a broom to get to the heart to reach spots so I kind of figured out this little sanding pad on an extension wand and it's been helping me kind of Tuck all the little Corners in where I would have to micro adjust my freaking long Roofing ladder just to get to it so all in all working out really well just super dang slow that's the annoying part all right got to get back at [Music] it all right I got our last piece of batting in again uh this was the most uh intimidating process just because how high the freaking ceiling is uh I'm using an inefficient ladder like a roofing ladder but piece by piece we got it all up there took me about one solid week just to do the bat well I would say about a week and a half just to do the batting that's all in place now we need to start handling these side walls here these are exterior classic 2x6 Lumber so for that we're going to use actually faced uh insulation for that which will make it easier because fac has a vapor barrier on it which will save on quite a bit of [Music] time so this is where our exterior wall ends this is the roof line again exterior this is the laundry room typically you don't I wouldn't need to cover it with insulation but because the laundry room is there and the dining room is here I think what I'm going to do is insulate this part as well reason being is because this installation also acts as a noise dampening system so it'll allow for when the washer dry are on to not make a whole bunch of noise that is going to be heard in the dining room I love when you catch those little moments like that you're like that would be nice to have wouldn't it we just got those moments dining room is officially insulated now this is all exposed Lumber we can't fit any insulation in there but we do have to wrap it with a vapor barrier so we'll just got this this is I believe 4 mm uh wrap it around staple it in place cut it around the windows and I'm debating and I don't know why I'm debating also throwing this on on this side and that side as well even though yes we have our Vapor Barrier there some of the pieces that was not worth cutting I just shoved installation so technically is exposed and we have our stud plates right there exposed which technically you could have a thermal break but um I don't know I might throw it on we'll see what the inspector says he might just tell me to put it on keep it on or take it off we'll see dining room's done kitchen's done uh I got the backs and the front here now clearly because of all these beams here there's not a whole lot to do definitely have to Vapor uh barrier it up but for protection here because this is 2x6 and by the time I do I did a little experiment I put some spray foam in there but you can't put insulation after it so I'm going to scratch the spray foam idea and I'm going to take all these little off cuts that I have of the bat insulation and I'm going to shove them all in there throw my very throw my vapor barrier down and uh I think that should do the trick it shouldn't take too long I don't think [Music] installation is officially done and I have even better news the inspector shut up and we finally got our energy inspection all approved that means we are ready for cover up with drywall now I had some scrap pieces of bat insulation left over just because they're 24 in wide and some pieces like here are 16 so I had some pieces left over and I decided to put them to good use check this out since bat instulation also works as a sound dampening uh approach what I decided to do since this is a primary bedroom I put the bat instulation in the ceiling here along with all the ducting that's going on reason why is it creates a sound dampening so when the let's say kids are upstairs and they're bouncing or Mommy and Daddy are having their talk down below this creates a little bit of a quieter environment so kind of drowning out any kind of noise and besides why would I just toss that perfectly good insulation well after two long weeks of doing this all by myself I finally got it knocked out I saved myself a ton of money as opposed to hiring an insallation guy to come do it all in all 12 Grand is what it all cost me in materials really glad how it turned out really glad we got our approval and I'm really glad that we could start continuing on with this process and getting some drywall in thanks so much for watching this process in the meantime here's a video I think you might enjoy [Music]