2x4 or2x6

[Willy]

Willy what type of blown in did you use and how did you like it? I'm surprised that the inspector like faced with poly! technically that's wrong? I'm not surprised that the insulators used it, it always seemed to be cheaper then unfaced and was easier to install, the better contractors would slash the facing if they installed plastic. Unfaced needs the bays to be just right to get a tight fit and that is where I think the trouble with batts lies, any voids and you got trouble. I have opened many walls with water damage even with seemingly intact vapor barriers. In winter you would have frost and wet frozen insulation inside walls. I switched to vapor barrier paint also, because I thought that it was almost impossible to install plastic with out some kind of holes, also at the time there were people saying that one nail hole would let in a quart of water or something like that. I wasn't completely sold on the vapor barrier paint either even with gasket-ed dry wall and plates. You had to have it mudded all the way to the floor and apply the paint before baseboard, window trim I thought. Just let to much room for error and if you didn't do it your self you had to depend on the integrity of some one else. That's why I liked foam as far as sealing for infiltration. I'm just not sold on it being out side that was always considered wrong back when I was studying this stuff. Being outside though is what makes it easy to get air tight. John has posted about vapor barriers and it sure seems to make sense!

I have been reading about people using dense pack cellulose with Larsen trusses and no vapor barrier? suppose-ably the cellulose can take up and let go of a lot of water with out any damage? There are some people over Vermont way doing this, anybody have any info on this I saw it on the Fine Home Building site but let my membership expire, I had to much trouble using the site! Luddite me. Anybody use Bib's or that new spider insulation, think glen posted about that.

Hey Don does your energy calculator mention (OK Glen here's another fat one) the crack factor?

Mike 

It is white and not eitchy at all. Moisture is not much of a problem where I live. We only get a few inches of rain a year. Under my home it is so dry it is dusty and I oly hve 6 vents open and there under my wrap around porch on 2 sides. I have to put water on the wood stove whenit is in use. During the winter my fire wood is not covered and never gets wet. It is sorta freeze dried and burns great. On the washington Coast side of the mountains it would be moldey and moss grows on every thing! My fire wood had to be coverd and if you did it to well it would rot and turn white and stink. I live in what they call a desert step area so not much moisture in the air. It is not un/common to be 2-3% humidity in the 10 hour fuels during fire season! Mark

[MountainDon]

It is white and not itchy at all...... It is not uncommon to be 2-3% humidity in the 10 hour fuels during fire season! Mark

Pure white or a grey-white. I blew in 10 inches of cellulose on top of the fiberglass that was already there a few years ago. That was a loose fill, blown in as well. The cellulose was more grey than white, and you could see bits of printing (newsprint on bits of it). The additional insulation made a difference we could see in the gas (heat) and electric (A/C) bills.

fuels moisture.... That's much the same what we see here in the Jemez where our property is. The local RAWS is currently running 6-7, though the national map shows our area to be lower. It'll go down into the 2-4 range, even lower in a bad year, and then leap to 25+ when the monsoons start in July and stay there for a few months.

[Willy]

It is white and not itchy at all...... It is not uncommon to be 2-3% humidity in the 10 hour fuels during fire season! Mark

Pure white or a grey-white. I blew in 10 inches of cellulose on top of the fiberglass that was already there a few years ago. That was a loose fill, blown in as well. The cellulose was more grey than white, and you could see bits of printing (newsprint on bits of it). The additional insulation made a difference we could see in the gas (heat) and electric (A/C) bills.

fuels moisture.... That's much the same what we see here in the Jemez where our property is. The local RAWS is currently running 6-7, though the national map shows our area to be lower. It'll go down into the 2-4 range, even lower in a bad year, and then leap to 25+ when the monsoons start in July and stay there for a few months.

It is pure white like fluffy little cotton chunks. Right now this miniut it is 12% on are RAWS that is one mile from my house. It has been 10-12% all day with the humidity at 51% tonight. Pretty low concidering there is still snow on the ground around me in places!

[MountainDon]

It is pure white like fluffy little cotton chunks.

Not sure what that is. Now that you mention it though one corner of my attic has some of that... as if the installers had some left over.