Drop Ceiling Insulation Pros, Cons, and Options...

All 6 sides were foiled.
Yes, I foiled all my cuts.

 

All 6? Holy crap! Going through all that extra must have made a difference. I guess if it reflects the heat back into the living space, why wouldn't it reflect the cold out, huh?

 

except now it condenses and trap the moisture between the foam and band board...............................

 

There was no band board, just the exterior sheathing. How it was built. Even the floor joists were trusses. There should also be no condensation. There's no warm moisture laden air meeting cold with all the insulation. That was the whole point of taking the time to air seal.

 

It's not for heat reflection, it's to protect the polyiso.

 

I do not..................yet.

After seeing the pics DexterDay added to my nc30 thread I believe that will be going on the summer project list.

 

Just got done stuffing rock wool in the space above the wall that separates the basement from the garage. There were spots where there was nothing there but open air. When my folks built the place they put rolled fiberglass along the top of the wall. It didn't do a great job of filling in corners and along the beams. Hopefully this will show some improvement on sending heat up the steps instead of out the ceiling. I was essentially heating the garage without trying to

 

So this is the ceiling of your basement? And it attaches to the garage...like under the garage floor, or??

Is the house and garage on the same elevation...maybe that would be a better question...not that it matters for sealing up your insulation, just trying to understand what I'm looking at...

BTW, I have that same mechanics creeper...hate that piece of junk!

 

The house is a double wide set on a poured foundation/basement. The garage takes up about 1/3 of the basement area. It is not a true walkout basement in the sense that the basement does not walk outside but in to the garage. Then the garage has two roller doors and a side man door. The whole basement/garage is about 6 feet below grade.

I agree about the creeper. I dont know how many casters it has left but it rarely gets used anymore. I would almost rather play a piece of cardboard down than fight with that thing

 

Understand that when you run the wood stove, it will draw combustion air from the easiest place. After seeing and reading your explanation of the open areas between the basement and the garage, I'm thinking that this was the easiest place for the source of combustion air. So, there was cool air coming in and warm air replacing it (from the garage).

Stuffing the voids full of insulation should help out noticeably...……..but...….where is the combustion air gonna come from now? Maybe you'll notice a change in the performance of your stove..????

 

Thank you for pointing this out. I have been thinking about whether this would effect the stoves performance. It does not seem as though it has. My understanding is (could be wrong) that rock wool will only form a thermal barrier. Air will still get through. I'm also sure I did not get the far corners stuffed as tight as I would like because of having to climb all over things in the garage. I am thinking I will try to stuff some in the gaps on the basement side as well to kind of form a 'pocket' above the wall.

I guess I should say I have noticed a change in stove performance but that is from the wood I brought in Sunday. Apparently it is not as dry as what was stacked higher up in the stack

I tried opening the door to the garage to see if that would help and it makes no difference. I will have to deal with a few junk pieces

 

Unless you build with wind sealing a priority and seal everything there are far too many places for air to ingress and egress. You won't be short of air for your wood stove in the basement. Most garage doors are not all that weather tight.
An OAK can give you peace of mind that turning on other devices in the home which (temporarily) exhaust heated indoor air into the outside of the home via vent won't be trying to use your wood stove chimney for make-up air source allowing CO into the home possibly setting off a sensitive CO alarm. You'd be surprised how many homes' gas and oil furnace/boilers chimneys backdraft when the furnace/boiler isn't running. The wind may have to blow from the right direction outside in some cases among many other variables, but it happens. There's no CO to worry about, but that's a pretty big hole allowing cold air in. Can get a pretty good flow going if a ceiling is not weather sealed, has lots of penetrations and the ceiling is essentially a chimney allowing warm air out.

 

That will be the main reason for the OAK. It will not be installed until after everything is sufficiently tightened up.

 

Quick sealing question...

Would it be best to remove the insulation that is currently in place, buy new insulation boards, cut them to fit the rim joists and seal them up with 'great stuff' or just seal up what is already there with 'great stuff'?

I was kinda thinking about replacing what is there since I am unsure of what kind of insulation board was used. However it would save me some money if I could just seal what is there.

The other option I thought about was to buy new insulation board and cut to fit the joists then stuff it behind what is there. I would then seal up around the new insulation.

Just trying to come up with the best solution here...

 

To me, it would depend on how good of a job they did before...quality materials and a decent fit that you can seal up with expando foam...then reuse it...if not, or you dunno for sure, tear it out and start over...it really wont cost that much in materials, and you can probably do it all in 1 good day...

 

That's why I'm not worried about tearing it out if necessary. I only need 3 sheets if my figuring is correct. That will leave me with a bunch left over for any mess ups.

What about putting new in behind? Would there be an issue with condensation between the two pieces if I didn't seal up the outside one?

 

Well, as I understand it...you want the rigid foam right against the wall or rim board (or whatever its called) and everything sealed up tight so there is no real airspace there for condensation to happen...if you put another layer to the inside it should be ok if its not sealed up real well...but I don't know that there will be any real advantage to doing so...

 

Tear one out and see what you've got ?
They make an low-expanding foam with something in it mice don't like the taste of.

 

I'll have to see if HD has some of this. Mice like to find there way in every fall