I am a newbie to hearth,.com. This is a great website - been lurking since the spring reading all the faq's, reading reviews and searching the forums for questions. I have not been able to find out enough information to help me with a decision. Here's the info:
We bought our home in the late spring. We have a 3 season porch that is awesome, but it's a 3 season porch - not much use in the winter in MA. All glass two pane sliders. We decided on getting a pellet stove so we could heat that room and have ambient heat in kitchen and for the room over the garage. Plan on using ceiling fans to distribute heat.
At the time I was figuring out which stove to go with, I had to deal with other repairs due to moisture damage of having now gutters. When I was able to return to deciding (used cardboard mockups), everybody was ordering pellet stoves. We went with Harman and told I was 240 on the list and not to expect it until March 09. Figured tough luck on my part and was willing to wait for the stove we wanted.
A couple of weeks ago, got a call from the dealer and our stove would be coming in around Thanksgiving. Had not planned on it, now we have to scramble. The three season porch is over a crawlspace with a concrete foundation and a dirt floor. Clearance from the ground to bottom of floor joist is 22". Access to it is from a larger crawlspace that is under the backhall / bathroom / backhall closet. It also has a concrete foundation with a dirt floor but is about 3 1/2' high from floor to bottom of joist. It has fiberglass insullation, but appears to be hanging lower on the wire hangars. The floors of that area of the house feels a lot colder than the rest of the house. These additions were built in 1990. The main house was build in 1965 and has a full basement with conrete walls and floor.
I also want the rim joists sprayed at the same time - (if it is not too expensive).
I want to insulate these two spaces with spray foam insulation. None of the spaces is below grade. I got four bids for the job from four companies. One was a soy based closed cell, one was another closed cell 2lb foam and the remaining two were for Icynene.
For the same money I could get an R9 rating for the soy based closed cell or go with a R30 rating of the Icynene. For 50% more, I could go with a R19 rating of the other closed cell foam - plus they would do a quick scimcoat down to the plastic liner on the floor.
I had researched bobvilla, toh, diy on spray foam. When the closed cell vendors were at my house, they said to use closed cell and stay away from open cell because of moisture. When the open cell vendors we at my house, they recommended Icynene, I asked if I needed closed cell because of the space between the ground and the joists under the three season porch. They said no, but added they could spray closed cell if I really wanted to, but it would be 50% more expensive. They said for what I wanted to do, Icynene would do the trick.
So my struggle comes down to am I better off with a R30 of Icynene open cell spray foam versus the closed cell benefits, but with only a R9 rating.
We had major amounts of rain this past summer and I did get water in the main basement. This was due to a combination of a lack of hose on the sump pump (now remedied) and no gutters (now remedied too). But I did not get water in the crawl space - higher than the basement floor. So I don't think I will get standing water next to the open cell insulation.
Sorry for the novel, but wanted to make sure I provided enough information. Thanks in advance! This is a great site - definitely learned a lot, was instrumental in my research of a pellet stove...
Bob
We bought our home in the late spring. We have a 3 season porch that is awesome, but it's a 3 season porch - not much use in the winter in MA. All glass two pane sliders. We decided on getting a pellet stove so we could heat that room and have ambient heat in kitchen and for the room over the garage. Plan on using ceiling fans to distribute heat.
At the time I was figuring out which stove to go with, I had to deal with other repairs due to moisture damage of having now gutters. When I was able to return to deciding (used cardboard mockups), everybody was ordering pellet stoves. We went with Harman and told I was 240 on the list and not to expect it until March 09. Figured tough luck on my part and was willing to wait for the stove we wanted.
A couple of weeks ago, got a call from the dealer and our stove would be coming in around Thanksgiving. Had not planned on it, now we have to scramble. The three season porch is over a crawlspace with a concrete foundation and a dirt floor. Clearance from the ground to bottom of floor joist is 22". Access to it is from a larger crawlspace that is under the backhall / bathroom / backhall closet. It also has a concrete foundation with a dirt floor but is about 3 1/2' high from floor to bottom of joist. It has fiberglass insullation, but appears to be hanging lower on the wire hangars. The floors of that area of the house feels a lot colder than the rest of the house. These additions were built in 1990. The main house was build in 1965 and has a full basement with conrete walls and floor.
I also want the rim joists sprayed at the same time - (if it is not too expensive).
I want to insulate these two spaces with spray foam insulation. None of the spaces is below grade. I got four bids for the job from four companies. One was a soy based closed cell, one was another closed cell 2lb foam and the remaining two were for Icynene.
For the same money I could get an R9 rating for the soy based closed cell or go with a R30 rating of the Icynene. For 50% more, I could go with a R19 rating of the other closed cell foam - plus they would do a quick scimcoat down to the plastic liner on the floor.
I had researched bobvilla, toh, diy on spray foam. When the closed cell vendors were at my house, they said to use closed cell and stay away from open cell because of moisture. When the open cell vendors we at my house, they recommended Icynene, I asked if I needed closed cell because of the space between the ground and the joists under the three season porch. They said no, but added they could spray closed cell if I really wanted to, but it would be 50% more expensive. They said for what I wanted to do, Icynene would do the trick.
So my struggle comes down to am I better off with a R30 of Icynene open cell spray foam versus the closed cell benefits, but with only a R9 rating.
We had major amounts of rain this past summer and I did get water in the main basement. This was due to a combination of a lack of hose on the sump pump (now remedied) and no gutters (now remedied too). But I did not get water in the crawl space - higher than the basement floor. So I don't think I will get standing water next to the open cell insulation.
Sorry for the novel, but wanted to make sure I provided enough information. Thanks in advance! This is a great site - definitely learned a lot, was instrumental in my research of a pellet stove...
Bob
