Wednesday, July 23, 2008

More on the attic

This is a project list more than a list of work done. Call me on it if I haven't followed up on any of this stuff in the next month.

1) I'm planning to replace much of the wiring in the attic - some of it is just old, the insulation on a couple of pieces appear to be a little gnawed (a while back - there's no signs of a recent critter infestation up there), and none of the old stuff - which is most of it - is grounded. Plus this is the easiest section to reach and replace since it's all exposed. Of course, it's probably over 100 degrees most days up there.

2) Once the wires are taken care of I figure I'll put in some more flooring as wanted to access the whole attic easily. I'm looking into insulation numbers too. A friend said that you typically need something like 7+ inches of blown insulation to achieve a satisfactory rating, but that would require me to either scrap all the flooring or build rails off of the joists and lay flooring on top of that. I'm wondering about the insulation factor of 2x4s, pink foam (or maybe those eco-friendly recycled blue jeans), and perhaps carpet or foam layers over the wood.

3) Question: How bad is this?


4) And here's a fun one. The house was built around 1894, remember, so it originally had gas lights before electricity was run sometime in the 1900s. The previous owner pulled out the old piping in the rooms he renovated, but there's still a long stretch in the attic. Actually it used to be longer, and interfered a little with the attic entrance, but half an hour with some Liquid Wrench and a real wrench got rid of 10' and an elbow joint. I'm looking forward to pulling up the rest, including an old valve that's still attached to one length up there. That'll go in the curio cabinet.

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