Cathedral - Vaulted Ceilings FIX - Upgrading to Cellulose Insulation
Video Summary
Cathedral - Vaulted Ceilings FIX - Upgrading to Cellulose Insulation
Cathedral ceilings can be a real nightmare for energy efficiency because first of all you have all of that space that your heating that you can't feel. And you know obviously heat rises, so the heat is going to go up to the top and you're not going to feel it unless you blow it down with a ceiling fan. On top of that, the seem to be poorly insulated because there's only so much space to put insulation in there. And that creates pretty much a disastrous situation for a homeowner because you're going to basically have a lot of high energy bills. You're going to have an uncomfortable room with a really pretty ceiling that's neat to look at. But this is one fix.
I've torn this whole entire ceiling apart, put a level up there and cut a line in the wall and snapped a chalk line back to the other side. And cut and removed the drywall that was up there. As I go through I'm removing all of the insulation.
And what I'm doing is I'm building a new ceiling. Right here you can kind of see it and get a perspective on it. So, that is my new ceiling and what I'm doing is building it back one piece of drywall at a time. I add the framing right here and tie that into the existing framing.
I have this little area where I can insulate and get in here. So this is what it looks like. Welcome to my world for the next couple of days or the next day or so. I have a mountain of insulation that I'm creating and building this up. Over here on this side, you can see what it looks like to me, right here is the ceiling and up in here is my little peep hole where I can see down in and I can blow mountains of insulation down there. So there is the drywall at the bottom, that is the edge of the drywall and there's the old insulation and I'm topping it off with another 10 inches of cellulose insulation to beef up my r-value in here.
The good news is that when I cut this hole in here it gave me the opportunity to air seal, replace the recessed lights with IC rated, Insulation Contacted rated recessed lights. I had the ability to air seal around a couple of the skylights and some other places. So I went through probably at least 15 cans of Great Stuff just on this room alone.
I would not say this job is for the faint of heart. First of all, I've gotta get drywall 12 feet into the air, I'm doing it by myself. And I'm also blowing the insulation by myself and I'll show you how to do that if you're interested. But it's slower and it's really a lot faster when you have somebody else, but they seem to get really board while I frame the rest of the ceiling out. So I've just been kind of doing it one bag at a time and blowing it in.
But this is the best way to get cellulose in there because it's going to create a nice even layer that's going to go all the way across my ceiling. You can see I've got 4 more sheets to go and so I'm going to get back up on there and get at it. But I thought I'd take a second to show you what I'm up to.
If you're sick and tired of spending too much money on your energy bills, stop by my website at HowToHomeInsulation.com. You'll find the videos and information you need to start saving money on your energy bills right now. My name is Corey Binford. Thanks for watching.