Attic's Done!

Finished the attic today. Pulled up the last bag of insulation (I think that's six or seven total? Roughly $300) and distributed the batts.

So glad that's done.

Won't have to go up there until Jen wants new ceiling fans or a whole house fan.

While I was finishing that, Jen started the leaves.

I think we've got one more weekend of leaves, though I won't be around for a weekend for quite a while.

- b

Two Jobs Today

Before I could get up in the attic and finish the vents, I had to fix the hole in the ceiling of our master bathroom.

It's not so much a hole as it is a gap. It was created last May when my Dad and I moved the wall forward six inches (see that here).

My plan was to simply add a bogus ceiling joist (the red), cut some drywall and screw it up there.

As I'm running up into the attic, in the bathroom and downstairs measuring and cutting stuff, I'm explaining to Jen we won't be able to put a center light in the shower because there's a real joist running right through the center. We'll have to offset a light or two around the center... and the bogus joist I'm putting up there she points out.

Damnit. That won't work, so she suggests I cut the hole all the way back to the center joist and put up a bigger piece of drywall.

So I start cutting.

I cut so much, I broke one of my razor knives.

Not related to the broken knife (I have plenty), but for some reason I pulled out the dremel to do some fine tuning of the cuts. What a mess that is.

Since the dremel was out, I decided to cut off some screws that were sticking too far through the wall. Sparks!

Then it was time to cut the new piece. Lucky for me, I have plenty of un-used drywall just hanging around the house.

Surprising it fit pretty well the first time. Sure there was some trimming required, but the new piece went in fairly easily.

Ok, so that one's done.

Run to the distributor and get a case of beer so it's cold when I'm done for the day.

Next job.

I had nine more soffit vents to put up in the attic. What a blast. I hate this job. Though it looks kind of cool and cozy with all that fluffy insulation, it just sucks up there. It's filthy. Oh, and the constant risk of falling through the ceiling and landing on your head on the floor below.

Though some things find it homey.

Figures this was in the last soffit area. I cleaned out the nest, slid the vent down and stapled it.

That was it for the vents. The entire attic is now vented.

I had a bag of insulation, so I spread those hoping to finally cover all the attic with R 40+ something, but one bag wasn't quite enough. I'll have to get another bag and get back up there some other time.

And that was it for today. Well almost. I had to clean this up too.

Hopefully that beer's cold.

- b

The Attic Sucks

Since yesterday was supposed to be rainy and semi-cool (70° F isn't exactly cool, but it was raining), I decided to get up in the attic and hopefully finish that job.

You may remember last spring I started putting in rafter vents so the air from the soffits could more easily travel between the rafters up to the ridge vent. This is done for two reasons. In the summer it helps to cool the attic. In the winter it helps to dry the attic. When our roof was replaced in 2006, I think nearly half the plywood was replaced because it was rotten from too much moisture. The previous owner stuff the insulation too close to the soffits, thus stopping the air flow and trapping moisture in the attic.

I had something like 30+ of these vents to install. I wanted it done and over with so I didn't have to go in the attic again. I put on my attic garb and headed up.

While working at the western most part of the roof I found this.

I put my sweaty fingers near it and the wood felt damp beyond the dampness of my fingers. When I could hear the wind outside, I could feel it on my fingers. Crap.

Have I mentioned how much I loved our roofer.

For comparison here's a spot that used to be wet, was fixed, and has since dried.

I climbed out of the attic, took off my gear and went outside to investigate. The obvious part was this was happening near the chimney, so I got out the ladder and climbed up.

I found two spots that looked like they could use some caulk, so I caulked them.

While I was up there, I noticed this huge open gap in the seam of our wood siding behind the gutter. Guess what I'll be doing today?

Later, back in the attic, I was at the far western edge and checked my possible fix. I put my fingers back up to the wet spot and thought I felt a breeze, but it was pretty stormy outside. With all the rafter vents in place in that part of the attic, it's breezy in general. So I'm kind of stuck. It's a really difficult spot to get to in our attic with all the insulation I have up there. The ideal way to check if the caulk fix worked is to go back in a few weeks and see if the wood has the past wet now dry look to it like the picture above. The other option is to call the roofer and have him get up there. His work was guaranteed for 5 or 7 years, but he's a pain in the ass.

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do at this point.

Somewhere around 6pm, I got sick of the attic and came down.

My sick of the attic shot with the new camera

I got one half of the attic completely vented and insulated to R40+. All that's left is 9 or so more vents and some insulation. Hopefully I'll get to that today or sometime this week.

By the way. I also found another fossilized mouse. Nothing but fur and bones. I think that makes 30 something dead mice found in this house since we moved in.

I hate the attic.

- b