Monday, March 30, 2009

Heating and insulation underneath...

With the duct extended and now terminating in the crawl space, it was time to route it to where it was needed - a floor outlet under the big westerly windows. I could have routed an insulated flexibled duct, a quick install, but they really do not last, and the last space I want to have (heated) air leak out of a duct is outside the heatid living quarters (do not care as much is a duct is leaking inside there, the air still heats the house).

Routing the rigid duct and mounting it was not too tricky, after that we insulated it and built a box around it. Also added an electrical conduit for futre outside lights (easier to do it now than to put an ugly one on the outside).

With box finished, really left to do was to insulate the floor with R-30 fiberglass batts. With dad cutting batts outside, I pushed them into place and it did not take ling until the entire place actually also started to look good. Since this is going to be an "active" stiorage area, we covered it all up in OSB boards and could carry in all the stuff (mainly firewood and lumber) that we removed in order to be able to work there.

Upstairs, one could note a difference in that the floor no longer had that "canny" sound to it, but a more dampened "thump". Insulation is not "only" for energy efficiency...


BTW, also added a conduit for a fire alarm/heat detector here. Not needed by code, but it can be a cheap piece of mind since there is a lot of wood stored under here.



Duct from upstairs


Running under joists


Insulation, insulation


Cranky two-dimensional bend since I wanted the duct hidden up in between floor joists where possible.


Mastic underneath and notice the metal ties that secure the duct tape. No leaks here - ever!


Stringer anchored to the contrete wall. Notice how the batts are allowed to fully fill the cavities. OSB will be put up here as a "Celing" since this is after all a "working" storage area, and insulation needs to be protected.


Box is taking shape


See, bend is gone, hidden...

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