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BobK207 BobK207 is offline
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Default Attic insulation questions

On Nov 13, 6:55*am, the_tool_man wrote:
Hi all:

My house is about 15 years old. *The center of the house has a
cathedral ceiling two stories high. *On either side of this area, the
ceilings are standard 8'. *The vertical wall separating the attic
above these spaces from the room with a cathedral ceiling is insulated
with what appears to be R-19 fiberglass batts. *The walls are studded
with 2x4's, which leaves some of the insulation protruding on the
attic side of the walls. *The builder used clear polyethylene plastic,
stapled to the studs, to hold the batts in place. *After 15 years of
attic heat (I live in South Carolina), the plastic has begun to
literally fall apart. *Very little of the insulation has shifted, but
I am concerned that it will. *I can see the paper vapor barrier
against the back side of the drywall, as is typical in my climate.
Presumably, the paper is stapled to the studs on the drywall side, but
I can't tell for sure. *Even if it is, there are a couple of places
where the insulation is separating from the paper, so I need to find a
way to support the insulation.

I want to replace the plastic, but I am concerned that if I use
plastic sheeting, it will become a second vapor barrier, which I
understand is undesirable. *Also, I don't want to be doing this again
in another 15 years. *I found some plastic anti-bird netting at a
local home center that is supposed to be UV stable. *It's essentially
a 5/8" square mesh made from plastic. *I thought about stapling this
over the insulation to hold it in place, but I wonder how long it will
last. *I guess I could use metal chicken wire (poultry mesh, if you're
PC), but wouldn't that interfere with radio and cell phone signals?
Do they make a product specifically for this application? *If so, what
is it called? *Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance,
John.


John-

imo the fastest, cheapest, easiest & longest lasting would be "stucco
line wire" (similar to DPB's suggestion)

I'd start a few inches down from the top & nail in a row of dry wall
nails across the wall studs......repeat the process about even foot or
so....ending with row, again, a few inches from the bottom.

After all the nails are in starting from the upper left (if your right
handed) wrap the wire around the first nail. Continue across the
studs, givining the wire a wrap or two at each nail.

At the far end, don't cut the wire, just jump down to the next row of
nails. If you're concerned about wire breakage (in the future or
want the make the wire runs more independent...nail down end of row
nails once the wire is wrapped around them.

This will be super fast, never need to be redone & cheap.

I don't remember the diameter of line wire (like 18 or 20
gage ?) ......something like 1/32"? but anything you can buy cheap
in the .030" to .040".

The stuff is dead soft & easy to work with.

cheers
Bob