Home Insulation

Okay, you're getting ready to put some insulation in a job and you're thinking it can't be really

too tough. Well it's not. There's just a few things I need you to remember, but remember before you get started, make sure you have the right safety equipment. Insulation doesn't

bother me, but you may need to wear a long sleeve shirt, you may need to wear a mask

and it might not be a bad idea to have some light cotton gloves on and maybe some eye

protection. There's two types of insulation. There's insulation that has no facing on it

and there's some that does. Okay, the difference, the facing is merely just a vapor barrier

I prefer to work with the insulation that is unfaced, and I add my vapor barrier, clear

polyethylene plastic, just before I'm ready to drywall. Now, here's some things I want you to

keep in mind. The insulation comes from the factory pre-cut for width in many cases. That

That means if you have standard stud material that's 16 inches on center, the cavity between

the studs is 14 1⁄2 inches. The insulation comes a 1 inch wider so it friction fit Keep that 1 inch in mind because when you cut it for length you also going to cut your insulation a half inch longer than it actually needs to be

Now how do we cut the insulation? There's two ways. If you're lucky enough to know of someone

who's got an insulating cutting knife, get that. If not, just use a standard razor blade or a razor

knife, but you're going to need a board to compress the insulation to make it easy to cut it

Really simple task to do. One or two swipes of the razor knife is all you should need

Now when you get ready to install it and you've got electric wires in your way, it's really important

You need to split the insulation on the backside about halfway so that the insulation wraps around the wire

If you don't do that, you end up with a void space or a cavity, and that's where you can have some heat loss

Just tap the insulation into place. If it's cut right, it's nice and tight at the top

Keep it fluffed up a little bit. Don't worry, your vapor barrier is going to cover it and your drywall will hold it in place

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