We're on the next (and trickiest) step on the long path toward getting the upstairs playroom/media room finished. When we bought the house, two rooms on the 2nd story were "finished". That is to say, they had drywall and trimwork, but no heat. There are capped-off gas lines in each room, including the bathroom, so it's likely there were little gas radiators upstairs that have since been removed. The only air conditioning comes from two ancient window units. Not ideal.
Over the last two years, we have had all new electrical circuits, outlets, and fixtures installed in the whole house, including the upstairs - see our earlier posts about our discovery that one-quarter of the house was fed by a single circuit! We had four can lights put in the ceiling of the media room and have been planning the next steps.
Over the last two years, we have had all new electrical circuits, outlets, and fixtures installed in the whole house, including the upstairs - see our earlier posts about our discovery that one-quarter of the house was fed by a single circuit! We had four can lights put in the ceiling of the media room and have been planning the next steps.
The next step, before finishing the room, was to put insulation under the 3/4-inch hardwood floors upstairs. There is no insulation in the upstairs of the house (!) and since the downstairs HVAC units are only rated to condition the downstairs, we thought it would be a good idea to keep the conditioned air where it was designed to be - downstairs. We'll have to add a third HVAC system to the upstairs before next summer.
In preparation for all of this, we hired Home Depot to come and blow-in insulation underneath the floors of the two partially-finished rooms upstairs. David was instructed to take up two floorboards running the length of both rooms (see the first picture above) to give access to the cavities beneath the flooring (see above picture). As you can see, these cavities are quite empty. They are about 9-inches deep and as much as 16-feet long.
In preparation for all of this, we hired Home Depot to come and blow-in insulation underneath the floors of the two partially-finished rooms upstairs. David was instructed to take up two floorboards running the length of both rooms (see the first picture above) to give access to the cavities beneath the flooring (see above picture). As you can see, these cavities are quite empty. They are about 9-inches deep and as much as 16-feet long.
Just imagine - these cavities have sat empty for nearly 100 years! The wood looks almost-new. The white is the plaster from the dining room ceiling. The joists were doubled-up, we imagine, when the flooring was added.
The two-man crew spent about 1.5 hours feeding the hose into each space in-between two joists, pushing it against the far wall, and slowly backing it out. The end result? Two rooms and 500 square feet of insulated floor. The cavities didn't get completely filled to the top - they are anywhere from 6-8 inches filled with fiberglass. This gives the space a conservative estimate of an R-22 value. Now we just have to put insulation batts in the walls, hire a drywall crew, fix the holes in the flooring and paint - piece of cake! :-)
One guy stayed on the truck and loaded bales of fiberglass into the "fluffing" machine.
Daniel would have loved to watch this - he was at school, though.
Finished!
1 comment:
Very cool! We just finished adding a room to our home and upgrading the electricity, adding a new back door, ect. We get 14 new windows next week. That will be half of the windows in the house done. We would like to go on fixing everything but, are soooo out of money. Oh well, we will get back to the window replacement and THE KITCHEN someday in the future.
Blessings,
Dawn
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