We join this remodel already in progress........in our last episode, we discover we have some further water migration issues.
We have removed the bottom 6" of stone along the roof line to repair the flashing. This reveals the additional problems caused by our original chimney cap. Based on the wood damage, water had been getting under the NE corner of the cap, running behind the stone and then was trapped by all the caulk and black jack applied to keep water out of the joint between the stone and shingles. We have now removed the stone along the entire height of the NE corner above the roof, about 3' worth, cut out the rotten sheathing and have splice in new. Same process with a 12" x48" section of the roof sheathing along the chase. 4" step flashing has been reinstalled between the roof and chase sheathing, ice membrane applied over the top and out about 20" from the chase. A new cricket has been constructed with actual sheathing used on the angular pieces,instead of perforated piece of floating tin that was held in place mostly by blackjack and good intentions. New galvanized flashing installed over cricket, more ice membrane and then new shingles nailed down over the whole works. A lot of this got finished up by flashlight in a 30+ MPH gale that made tying tarps down over the still exposed chimney chase a real trick, so no photo documentation, and I'm not undoing the tarps until our mason comes back to restore the stone work.
I'm still on a quest for the proper overflashing that goes down over the step flashing and holds the stone off the shingles. Amazing that many stores know what it is and every stone veneer manufacturer calls for its use, but nobody stocks it or wants to install it. So thank god for the internet.
In the mean time, here's what I've been doing: building vent channels in every rafter cavity of my living room by tacking in 1"x1 1/2" strips of wood to hold a piece of 1.5" thick foamboard off the sheathing.
After sealing all joints with more foam blocks and expanding foam sealant, it is then covered with two layers of 3.5" mineral wool. (100 - 47" x 15" x 3.5" pieces, almost every single one had to be trimmed in some way due to the uneven and non parallel spacing of the rafters.
Whole works covered in Owens Corning "Membrane" vapor permeable polymide sheeting.
Total R value of 37.5 in theory. Total cost = under $600 in materials.
Spray foam estimate was $1800 for 4" of closed cell @ R7 per inch for a total of 28. Additional foam $700 an inch. And this would have been applied directly to our roof sheathing, meaning when (not if) the next tree falls on our house, our insulation is going to be a pain in the a** to restore. This coupled with issues with attempting to completely seal the entire system and NEVER get any moisture into it, which seemed unrealistic and the green house gas issues with the foam propellants and likelihood having to clear out of the house for at least a day made it a lot less attractive. That and needing to come up with an extra grand to fix the roof and chimney made it pretty easy choice. Sucked major a** to implement, mineral wool is easy to work with, but breaks into incredibly fine particles that get EVERYWHERE. Had to wear a painting respirator, leather gloves and hooded sweatshirt during installation. Washing clothes twice still left them feeling itchy, so they got pitched. But we can already tell it's working as the lower part of the roof retained frost the other morning while the only thawed portion was the area over the second story, where we know we have more work to do, insulation wise. Usually the whole thing melts off pretty quickly, so feeling pretty good about that.
We have one more section of ceiling to scrape the popcorn texture off, but it is above the open staircase to the second floor, so we have to reassemble some scaffolding to access it. Once that's done, we have the ceiling sheet rock replaced and the remaining wall and ceiling repairs completed, re-textured and painted before we call our fireplace installer. Stone work will also need to be completed so chimney cap can be removed with unhooking the new chimney pipe. Let's cross our fingers for some more unseasonably warm days the upcoming weeks.
