Batt Insulation - Not all are poor!

Gregory La Vardera posted this excellent primer over at Green Building Adviser on the differences between fibreglass and mineral wool batts.

As Gregory points out, ROXUL Mineral Wool batts are not associated with the typical failings of a fibreglass batt installation. This is due to the density of the product and the ease of cutting and trimming. The product also sheds water and is fireproof.

My only critique of his article is is statement "I don't need my insulation to make an air seal, because I used that good ol' housewrap on the outside. Nope, nothing wrong with housewrap — but it provides no help with the air sealing you need at your vapor retarder. The air seal in this case wants to be on the warm side of the wall, to prevent interior moisture from entering the wall cavity and condensing during the winter heating season."

This is actually incorrect, an air barrier ANYWHERE in the assembly will block air flow through the assembly.  I will talk more about this in an upcoming blog entry.  For now, I did not want to detract away from the rest of the posters review of ROXUL mineral wool insulation.

Rotting OSB - Why I refuse to perform rough-in construction during the winter!

I regularly go by a construction site where a friend of my neighbor is the G.C.   This house in out by the ferry terminal in West Vancouver and when done will be a very high cost home.

My latest visit reminded me of why I really do not want to expose my build to the winter rains.  In fact, I will try to keep all rain of the structure until closed in by installing a 60ft x 100ft tarp over a metal cable strung between two large trees.

But back to the visit, I have been visiting this property since before the old house got taken down, and in fact this is where I salvaged very nice cabinetry to use in the walk in closet, master bath, and family entrance as well as a new wall oven and a like new drawer dishwasher.  I also was able to salvage a lot of plant material from the property but so much more got left behind with the thinking it was out of the way, when in reality - they have just been trashed, such a shame.

Cabinet salvaged to be used in Master Bath

Gorgeous drawers and storage for Master Walk-In-Closet

Base cabinets to be used for family entrance

Wall cabinets to be used for family entrance

 But again I digress.  The new house has been under construction since the middle of May 2013.  The roof was installed sometime in December, but as of yesterday the majority of windows still have not been placed, and as the main floor living areas is 100% windows, the structure is very much NOT waterproof and has been subjected to many storm events leading to total saturation.  And the structure is starting to show its distress accordingly.  I noticed these symptoms a couple of weeks ago when there but was only able to return with a camera yesterday.

This dwelling is still at the rough in stage and is showing rather significant surface mould and rot fungi.  These OSB webs are now compromised **A conversation with someone much smarter than me indicated the webs should still be OK as long as this is dried out and cleaned off **.  Not only do I want to prevent this wetting with a tarped site, this is a perfect example of how poorly OSB stands up in wet environments.

 In the end, this will probably get cleaned up as the G.C. is quite conscientious, but normally, this would just get closed in and the occupants would wonder why their floors bounce a little more than they should.