Driveway Apron and More Insulation

 The concrete guys who did our garage floor last October did a 32' wide by 23'deep concrete apron in front of our garage yesterday. Today the owner came and cut lines it the slab to make it less likely to allow any future cracks from crossing the whole piece. They did a great job.

I finished up the last of our insulation today. This is the interior of the workshop within the garage. After this photo I finished up that corner behind the ladder and a couple other spots. Tomorrow I will buy another roll of R-19 and do the wall the big garage doors are in.

Insulation and Other Stuff

 I started on insulating the walls Monday. Hal wanted to use a mineral wool batt by Owens Corning, but it's hard to get, he bought one pallet a couple weeks ago and then I ordered the last 2 available the other day. As it's looking like it's not going to be available in the near future, we'll have to finish using regular old pink fiberglass. The mineral wool has a better R value (R15 for each 4 inch batt vs 13/15.), and has better resistance to mildew, though it is pricier. I suspect the stupid pandemic has its hand in this insulation shortage, but what can one do?

So far I've gotten 2 eight inch walls finished with mineral wool, and added the remaining few pieces to other walls. There are 2 layers of mineral wool in these walls, two 4 inch thick batts.

Guest Bedroom wall

3rd bedroom wall

Those short 2 x 4's in the middle were requested by the drywaller because he needs blocking at the 54" level due to our non standard 9' 6" walls.

Now that I am out of mineral wool, I started on the garage today using faced R19 fiberglass. This 6 inch wall is between the utility room and the vehicle portion of the garage. 

The utility room side

Other tidbits; Hal has run speaker wire in the 4th bedroom, aka the TV/media room as well as some in the living room where I intend to mainly use it for music. I will have to purchase new speakers for that room.

Another fairly big tidbit, the 2 septic tanks were placed last Friday. Now we just need the inspector to come back for a 3rd time to approve a different location for the drain field, as the septic guy thinks it is a better location than the first 2. But here they are.

I will try to post more news tomorrow. Time for bed now, I have another day of insulation work coming and it's miserable work in the heat.

Let There Be Light

 The white J-blocks came in to Home Depot the other day and Hal was able to install the 3 lights next to the garage doors. It took him a couple days as he had to do some carving to fit things around the ridges in the metal siding. I think they look rather good.

I also finished the furring strips last week. Now I am putting up window screening above the exterior walls attached at the top to the nearest purlin (rafter). This will keep blow-in insulation from flowing into the soffits and preventing the attic from staying well ventilated. It certainly is going much, much faster than the furring strips, I've already finished the house in 2 days and started on the garage.

I secured it top and bottom using a roofing nailer.