I only use Rockwool. It's water, fire, bug and mouse proof. I've only ever found one mouse nest in it and the nest had been abandoned. Your point is excellent though. Rockwool is un-faced so it meets the goal.
I was going to post the same thing. Our 1890 house was built with air flowing through all the walls and zero insulation. It is hard to keep the temperature stable to keep it comfortable. We have been adding rockwool in walls when we open them over the years. Makes a huge difference not only for temperature stability but also makes it much quieter! Although the double pane Pella windows we installed made the biggest difference.
Insulation is one thing that studying Internet does not resolve as I'm building The heartfelt opinions about vapor barrier air, barrier, ventilation, and materials are all over the place, very little consensus My inspector advised to just do the simplest thing that meets code
Code is the minimum requirement. To understand home performance building is relatively simple: ventilation/convection, condensation, radiation. Appropriate plans begin with knowing your local environmental conditions, home occupancy, and then what are the starting materials. At te beginning of this video, he states he used 2x10 for the insulation to fit R-30. If you're starting with 2x6 then stuffing R-30 will decrease insulation performance. You'll need to look for an insulation/sheathing system that fits your budget/code/performance desires. Retrofitting rockwool has an advantage of allowing ventilation and allowing condensation to escape. Isocyane foam is better R value and partial vapor barrier. Think of it as an insulating membrane.
To appease some of the keyboard comandos, you can use some Rockwool comfort board as the protection layer under the cabin. It will add more insulation value, a fire barrier, animals won’t nest in it and also stop the thermal bridging at the floor joists which is what you were panning on achieving with your foam panels and plywood. Good job.
At my lake house in south Texas, I re-did a cathedral ceiling upstairs. I used perforated hardie plank soffits outside and instead of those preformed plastic baffles to the ridge vent, I used 1" thick Styrofoam sheets cut into strips the width of the joists and used 1x2's to space the gap between the roofing plywood and the insulation sheeting. My thought was this gives me more R value in my ceiling after adding the fiberglass insulation. That was 10 years ago and the Texas summer heat does not make the house as hot as before I did this install. Previous ceiling was plywood, fiberglass and 1/4" paneling. Ugh.
We are building our own cabin too. We are going to use mineral wool and double bubble alumin foil because it is acting as extra insulation plus as vapor barier, overlapped, and taped it with aluminum foil. Under the roof we are doing the same, with the higher R value insulation but we are waiting for warmer weather because we want to apply 3 in of closed cell foam first to encapsulate it ( is going to be unvented) and then place the mineral wool leaving 3/4 in of air gap and bubble foil, then dry wall painted with 2-3 coats of latex paint to act as an extra vapor barrier. Probably, the entire inside will be painted with 2 coats min of latex paint for added vapor barrier. A lot of work, regardless of what type of insulation is used
I like your attention to detail. Tape the seam in the vent pipe with foil tape to keep it from springing open. The seam joint is called a Pittsburgh join and often they aren't fully formed. If you close the female side a little bit it fits tighter. Always tape the seams.
Nice. Once you get to the smell of fresh cut pine on the finishing is the most rewarding. The tedious behind the scenes where the rubber meets the road.
Use bubble wrap under floor boards, vapor barrier on the ground, and a good skirting. Mineral wool and only use spray foam around windows and doors. Fiberglass sucks in a building that is not always heated or ventilated. It will absorb moisture. We put down tongue and groove on our rafters, underlayment, mineral wool, roof decking screwed into rafters, more underlayment, and a metal roof. I am off grid so needed a passive ventilation system. And since we won't be there 24/7. I have a timber frame and north masonry wall. So know there will be some moisture that needs to be let out. And it won't be heated in winter.
The paper backing on the insulation goes to the outside, it is to keep dirt and debris out of the batting and makes it possible to staple the batting in place. Making the baffles in the ceiling air tight, totally defeats the purpose of the baffles. Their very purpose is to allow moist air inside the cabin to vent outside. Once you make them air tight, the most air cannot vent out of the cabin. The bottom of the baffles will be much cooler than the warm moist air making its way through the insulation, so now it's going to condensate between the baffle and the insulation.
Per code, in warm/humid climates the vapor barrier/paper facing goes to the outside, in cold climates the vapor barrier/paper faces the inside. Also, to cut fiberglass it is easier to use a board or straight edge to compress the batt and use a sharp knife/razor knife to cut it.
Hey Tristan,you made that look easy lol ,in our cottage we are building here in Ontario we used the rockwool on the walls and spray foamed the ceiling ,cost me 11000.00 just for the ceiling, it took me awhile to get the hang of installing the rockwall ,we are using 6 mm plastic vapor barrier, curious as the the vapour barrier you have going on in your next video,never thought about planning the blocking tho so hope I dont have a problem when we start the drywall come spring , keep the videos coming,thank you,, Doug
Im curious how much I would have been charged to get someone to spray foam the ceiling. The air barrier / vapor barrier I used is called intello plus, I’ll cover that in the next episode.
When you install the Hardware cloth, make sure to run it the same direction as the joists. If you go perpendicular to the joists you will create a gap between the layers and animals (especially raccoons) will find it. Also, you should use PVC coated hardware cloth so you don’t have to do it again. Depending on how humid your area is, the regular hardware cloth will rust out after a few years.
Where is your ridge vent in your roof for all the air that will travel up the air gap you left in the rafters? I would think that you would have put boards maybe a couple feet down from the peak that crossed from one rafter to the other that would leave an air gap at the peak of the roof with a ridge vent running the length of the length of the house on the roof. Maybe I missed something but it looks like you gave all that air no where to go.
Made that mistake and had black mold on my sheeting. Also didn't have a very good roof vent at the time so double-whammy. Not to mention the mice loved it. Fixed the roof and insulated with rigid foam.
@@TheDIYCabinGuy Found that issue while fixing another bigger one with the roof. Mistakes you make when you build a cabin at 27 with minimal carpentry experience 🤷
Faced insulation should be put on with the paper side toward the living space like it says on the batt. I dont know about ceiling. But in the closed in garage we put the paper side up in the attic which is wtong but there was no moisture mold to be had take this advice in this video with a grain of salt. I will use unfaced and put my own vapor over the insulation, then put the boards on. I like the foil type of vapor barior. 73
where the insulation is against your roof you just install foam baffles too allow air flow from soffit to the ridgeline...it will not sweat or mold . Faced insulation has been used for decades .
@@Me-dx5zb dad never insulated the roof line just the ceiling . He used 3 and a half faced insulation with the paper toward the living space our house was never cold. They back in the fifties did not use 6 or more inches. Only in the garage part was cold. The celler part was warm enough and where the furnace was it was real warm. We had an electronic work bench there with an old telephone operator stool with arms. The garage was cold but who cares you don't live in that part. Only store junk. And lawnmowers. I practiced piano downstairs in the celler because I liked that old upright better than the one upstairs the action was more forceful on that old early teen piano. Back to insulation. If you insulate the roof the snow won't melt it could be three feet of snow up there I would rather have a bare roof in the winter. The farm house had no heat in the attic and we had icicles from the roof to the ground over ten feet long. Had the attic had heat which we put later the roof was bare just like home. Fuel was not a problem we had a natural gas well on the farm. Well my parents sold the farm then the cottage at a lake and then our home and we moved to Florida and froze in the winter because the lack of insulation and the cold concrete slab we had to walk on. Carpet is no insulation. 73
@@Me-dx5zb faced insulation is old school and I told why it was not used on the roof line. Snow has to melt if it gets too deep. Some people put heating elements on their pitched roof that wastes electric. There are better materials. If I had a metal roof I would have insulation board (foam) under the metal to cut down rain storm noise. 73
If insulation is used below the roof sheathing, cold air must be able to flow between the insulation and the interior side of the roof sheathing (2 inch air space). You'll also need to have ventilated soffit and ventilated ridge vent. Or, you could put rigid insulation above the plywood roof sheathing and then heat and cool the attic or cathedral portion of the roof.
I've watched many videos on insulating the floor and many RU-vidrs end up doing what you do: insulating from underneath. Why not put the wire mesh down when the floor joists are being installed and then fill the spaces between the joists before putting on the subfloor material? In other words, why does everyone work from underneath when they could drop the insulation down? Also, is there some kind of breathable material that can be put behind the screen to prevent the incursion of insects into the insulation?
It’s a simple answer, If I did what you described, the insulation would have gotten wet and would have been completely trashed. You can’t really insulate until you’re dried in, meaning you have a roof on to keep the place dry.
THIS is correct. Any attempt at adequate insulation with a proper vapour barrier will only work as well if the air above can be ventilated. Without ventilation, warm air will only collect and thus create moisture. The floor insulation should also include a vapour barrier over the joists, before sheeting. Alternatively, best practice would be closed-cell spray foam which will create a vapour barrier in itself and not be penetrated 5000 times with fasteners as poly vapour barrier would end up.
The paper is a vapor barrier, that is why it has tar on the back of it. If you use unfaced you should use plasic on the walls to keep moisture out of the wall.
The correct way is to either use closed cell spray foam or to use faced insulation w batts for airflow to reach the peak. Im a builder. Never had mold in cathederal ceilings.
@TheDIYCabinGuy oh i always have an air barrier on the roof sheathing. Even for pole barns we sheet them instead of using pearlings and always use the vapor barrier on top of the sheathing.
I'm a builder. Lmfa. Different states have different climates. Different country's have climates. States that don't have frost don't have the same issues as ones that do
How do the external walls deal with water? Looks like there are horizontal gaps of 1 or 2 inches every 8 to 12 inches? When it rains or snow or ice melts where does the water go?
Heads up...I was renovating my home. I wasn't intending to touch the insulation. When I opened the walls all the fiberglass insulation, in the outside walls, was resting on the bottom 3 feet of the wall cavities. Fiberglass sucks. I had to replace all the outside wall insulation. I put rock wool back in it. This stopped my renovation for 2 years. I don't know if the fiberglass was installed wrong. The paper around the fiberglass was still stapled in the wall cavities..........If the fiberglass had gotten wet, I found no rot in the walls......
Lots of rockwool salesmen in your audience. Pink insulation is just fine, ignore the haters. Venting eliminates the mold issue, and the rest of the construction looks well thought out and executed so there should be no moisture problems.
I'm pretty sure a dwelling of any kind that people live in can be sealed up too much. It needs to breathe naturally. Buildings that do not have correct air exchange need system installed that does it properly. It can be rodent and bug proofed without over killing ventilation.
Should I never ever have to insulate or vapor barrier a crawl space, it will be far too soon. I wish I would have made less money and done physically easier work in my early years.
Other than cost why not use foam for the floor and walls then that insulation for the ceiling or would that have still been too much moisture if not adding a exhaust fan
@@donaldstrickland8093 that’s a great point! I actually didn’t even try to get a quote. You’re absolutely right, I could have saved myself a lot of time BUT I’m just stupidly stubborn and want to do everything myself 🤣
Omg why all the extra steps just for baffels! All that was overkill. U dont even need but 1 baffel per run😂😂😂 u want the baffels to help the attic breath when the insulation is put in and you probably made it less efficient
I'm starting to do my cabin ceiling also. I used Durovent (the egg carton style). If I'm using the vent, and fiberglass insulation and a vapor barrier and tongue and groove, what problem does the faced paper do at that point?
Im installing intello plus, it’s an air barrier and vapor barrier. According to the manufacturer, you’re not supposed to put faced insulation below that.
@@navydave1 I guess because the intello plus is a smart vapor barrier, having Kraft paper below could mess with its properties and having it work properly.
You may have saved yourself a little misery installing Rock Wool insulation between the joists and eliminated the hardware cloth and stapling. Rock Wool is easier to install (no staples) and use tension wire rods between the joists to hold it in place. Though it is a bit more expensive than fiberglass the elimination of the hardware cloth and installation should balance out in my opinion. It’s also hated by insects (even termites) and rodents, including raccoons. My 2 cents…
We used faced insulation for walls and ceiling. We only use the cabin for weekend or 3 day stays. Is the mold problem really something for us to consider before we tongue and groove the ceiling? Thanks for the heads up about it. Also, we never had a mice until we insulated.
I would advise you to do some research about it, there are several posts on green advisor about this and then make an educated decision. Of course, from a cautious standpoint, It might be better to be safe than sorry. Another consensus is to install sheet rock (taped and floated) before installing the T&G, of course, one shouldn’t install a bunch of leaky can lights.
Yeah the brown paper side has side flaps that just fold out to lay on the bottom of the joist so that you can staple it on the intensive what are you thinking ?
I want exactly sure, I was always told the paper should face the conditioned space but honestly for a crawlspace, I wonder if you should just use unfaced insulation.
@@TheDIYCabinGuy only in the floor u face it towards the ground because obviously the ground is a source of moisture, lay 8 mil plastic as a moisture barrier and you did yourself a favor
@@TheDIYCabinGuy I was an inspector for 20 years and approve this method I mentioned. Fiberglass insulation is a mouse home for the duration of the build. I’m not required to have inspections anyway so I see your point. The foil bubble wrap reflects heat on both sides and eliminates mouse houses. It works very well and to me meets all the R values plus more.
@@Grizzlife that’s very interesting but again, I really doubt the inspector would have approved. Seems like the actual values given by the manufacturer for bubble foil insulation are quite low. Doesn’t seem that I would have been able to get my r38 ceiling or r30 floor.
I’m not sure that rockwool makes R38C (compressed) which is what I needed for my ceiling. And if they do, it’s probably not readily available in my area. Also I think that rockwool is more expensive by 25-50% compared to fiberglass.
Umm... Yeah, sooo... Don't do what this guy does, especially the baffels.. There is no need to put baffels all the way. This guy acts like he is some kind of authority on building but he only knows what Google and RU-vid showed him
domading2759 Actually, on a rafter type roof, i.e. not trusses. You do need the baffles to go all the way from bottom to top however, you need an opening at both ends to outside fresh air to allow cool air underneath roof deck to prevent ice dams
This is the most depressing ‘cabin’ build series on YT, to be frank. It’s so focused on code and the structure so overbuilt that it makes building a small cabin into a monumental task. It’s more like ‘DIY mimicking commercial contractors’, very soulless, modern and inaccessible. All the comments are people pretending there is some perfect way to do this or that activity, as if well maintained structures from almost any era can’t be wonderful cabins or homes.
Interesting twist, well, if you want to pass inspections, you’ll need to get into the nitty gritty details of construction codes (structural, plumbing, electrical, hvac), and yes, building a cabin that has water and electricity is a monumental task. It sounds like you’d be more interested into off grid cabins where rules are not as important and people tend to do whatever they feel like.
@@TheDIYCabinGuy yes, that defines a cabin. This seems to be a house in an semi/urban area, and subject to all the barriers and costs that plague our ability to develop housing. Maybe the algorithm doesn’t respond a ‘building a code compliant house in my yard’ in the same way it does to ‘cabin’.
@@oregonNYC I’m actually in the countryside away from all city rules, no HOA either, I’m only subject to the county but still have to abide to typical permitting, inspections and meeting code requirements. You’re correct that at this point, this becomes more like a house but I guess it depends what the definition of a cabin is. People here also call their cabin a 4,000 SF house in the mountains, cabin could also just be a non permitted small shed next to a river with no electricity or water…. The reality is that building a cabin/small house with utilities, no prior experience and mostly alone is a difficult endeavor that is not accessible to everybody. Sorry for the reality check… Just as a note, as I worked in commercial as well, I can assure you that commercial buildings are even more difficult, complex, full of red tape and rules to abide by. Residential (what my cabin is) is a joke compared to commercial.
@@TheDIYCabinGuy I’m not trying to criticize your build or your efforts. You’ve obviously invested tons of time and it’s of value to film and share your process. What is depressing is how impossibly expensive and inaccessible housing is for average people as a result of this constant chasing of supposed perfection and code compliance (which will be totally different long before this structure ceases to be of value). I get why a multi/story apartment building in an urban area needs strict code, but a dude building a tiny home in his yard tripling cost and time to stay complaint is just awful. It’s an indictment of a sickness in our bureaucracy that has led to housing being inaccessible to so many.
He builds just like it do. You do not want ANY air movement. Air leaks bring moist air with it and causes mold and rot. Moisture also brings insects as a lot of them need moist places because their bodies don’t hold it in well. Do it right or don’t do it at all. It’s a cabin, not a lean to in the woods.
You mold and moisture issues bc you put the insulation in backwards. The vapor barrier always faces the condition space . If you install it with the vapor barrier to the sheathing you will have mold. That's why they have the folded corners to be stapled to the face of the rafter. Also if you don't have a ridge vent that baffling will do nothing. You needed venting at the eves and peak if not it won't vent
builder don't get it wrong building inspectors want to see the R rating to make sure the right size was installed if you did that house backwards like that I'm sure you failed inspection or you didn't have it inspected example your using r 30 for the attic if i turn the paper inside i could just use r 22 rip you off and the inspector fails you and i don't care because i made a extra 300 bucks for putting r22 instead of the r 30
I used non faced insulation because I installed a separate air/vapor barrier. The R value is stamped on the non faced insulation. I passed my inspection.
