Heh and here I was trying to be to the point :vs_smirk:
Code for Alaska is R30, but R35-40 is recommended [from online sources anyway, I haven't called anyone about this yet as I prefer to have a good enough idea what I'm gonna do before I yap at the super busy folks up here. Earthquake repairs have them over booked and frazzled heh]
I'm not set on anything in particular. I was looking at "slow rise" closed cell for the exteriors because that's supposedly the best compromise for insulation + sound on exterior walls. Foam seals air holes better I'm told, so I'm good with that too. That said, I just want the Rvalue and the sound coverage - ya know, all the things...
I have projects that are slightly different; improving my existing house and building a new detached shop.
The existing home has 2x4 16OC walls centered on 8" wide CMU perimeter - excepting the 21' x 20' attached garage, we have a 6' unfinished basement/crawl space that's quasi-heated via the living spaces baseboards.
I mostly want better sound absorption as we lost a couple huge spruces in the front yard last summer and now we can hear traffic a lot more. Unfortunately it's a 1970s home so the rooms are all on the smaller side, two of the upstairs bedrooms are barely functional as more than closets, and two are a tight fit for King beds with more than a dresser, so I can't really add a second wall inside as is oft recommended. (That would actually take the two bedrooms down to 7' wide...)
--
As for the shop, the current one's slab got wrecked by the quake and split in half. We figure since we gotta go through the nightmare of emptying the thing out, we might as well demo it and make it bigger/more suited to our specific wants/needs. AKA I want an actual woodshop and he wants the ceiling height for a car lift. We have also been considering replacing our septic system as it's 17-18 years old, and I'd really like to bury our power lines. So basically we're looking at digging up the entire back yard anyway.
The shop will be all new construction and I'm trying to figure how thick to plan the walls. Typically we do 8" CMU perimeter up here, and I want a 12" thick reinforced concrete slab.
Sound absorption is important here as the neighbors don't need to listen to my power tools. I also wasn't planning to keep the Nat Gas connection to out there. Black pipe had rusted out and we had a leak with more than a few people smoking over by the leak for who knows how long
- I'm keen to get rid of that particular black pipe entirely, it goes currently goes through the basement of the house. So the shop'll be 100% radiant heat, but it's going to have large & high spaces so I want to go big on the insulation.
Thing is I'm not sure I can go over 8" cavities because of the CMU's. I've been told I can't double them up (something about high water table and frost heave? I don't recall exactly as it was like 15 years ago.) Fully poured foundations aren't really a thing up here, concrete is typically kept to a bare minimum because (I'm told) it doesn't shift well with the ground. They're probably already going to be grumpy that I've got such a big slab, I was thinking I might break it into two "pours" since I want a wall between my husbands area and mine anyway (we do not share shop space well at all) and I might as well have another support point for the roof/snow load.
... And yep, wall of text. Sorry >.<
Code for Alaska is R30, but R35-40 is recommended [from online sources anyway, I haven't called anyone about this yet as I prefer to have a good enough idea what I'm gonna do before I yap at the super busy folks up here. Earthquake repairs have them over booked and frazzled heh]
I'm not set on anything in particular. I was looking at "slow rise" closed cell for the exteriors because that's supposedly the best compromise for insulation + sound on exterior walls. Foam seals air holes better I'm told, so I'm good with that too. That said, I just want the Rvalue and the sound coverage - ya know, all the things...
I have projects that are slightly different; improving my existing house and building a new detached shop.
The existing home has 2x4 16OC walls centered on 8" wide CMU perimeter - excepting the 21' x 20' attached garage, we have a 6' unfinished basement/crawl space that's quasi-heated via the living spaces baseboards.
I mostly want better sound absorption as we lost a couple huge spruces in the front yard last summer and now we can hear traffic a lot more. Unfortunately it's a 1970s home so the rooms are all on the smaller side, two of the upstairs bedrooms are barely functional as more than closets, and two are a tight fit for King beds with more than a dresser, so I can't really add a second wall inside as is oft recommended. (That would actually take the two bedrooms down to 7' wide...)
--
As for the shop, the current one's slab got wrecked by the quake and split in half. We figure since we gotta go through the nightmare of emptying the thing out, we might as well demo it and make it bigger/more suited to our specific wants/needs. AKA I want an actual woodshop and he wants the ceiling height for a car lift. We have also been considering replacing our septic system as it's 17-18 years old, and I'd really like to bury our power lines. So basically we're looking at digging up the entire back yard anyway.
The shop will be all new construction and I'm trying to figure how thick to plan the walls. Typically we do 8" CMU perimeter up here, and I want a 12" thick reinforced concrete slab.
Sound absorption is important here as the neighbors don't need to listen to my power tools. I also wasn't planning to keep the Nat Gas connection to out there. Black pipe had rusted out and we had a leak with more than a few people smoking over by the leak for who knows how long
- I'm keen to get rid of that particular black pipe entirely, it goes currently goes through the basement of the house. So the shop'll be 100% radiant heat, but it's going to have large & high spaces so I want to go big on the insulation. Thing is I'm not sure I can go over 8" cavities because of the CMU's. I've been told I can't double them up (something about high water table and frost heave? I don't recall exactly as it was like 15 years ago.) Fully poured foundations aren't really a thing up here, concrete is typically kept to a bare minimum because (I'm told) it doesn't shift well with the ground. They're probably already going to be grumpy that I've got such a big slab, I was thinking I might break it into two "pours" since I want a wall between my husbands area and mine anyway (we do not share shop space well at all) and I might as well have another support point for the roof/snow load.
... And yep, wall of text. Sorry >.<
