08 May How To Install Multi-Layer Insulation – Part 1
Yellowblue installer Eric Mortenson breaks down the detailed process behind one of the most popular yellowblue products there is: multi-layer reflective insulation. See how this insulative material can reduce home energy consumption and create a more cost-effective, comfortable living space for all within the home. Part one of the series.
Check out Part 2 here.
We’re getting ready to make our initial voyage into the attic and go ahead and get our attic stocked with our material. As you can see, we’ve got our insulation sitting here. What I wanted to talk to you guys about — what we want everybody to do — is to only take enough material out of their truck van or vehicle to do the job that we’re on. We want to make sure that everybody’s accounting for the material so we want to go ahead and go over how much material is on each one of these rolls. This is our Eco shield and there’s 500 feet of square footage on this roll. This is our energy shield and there’s four rolls in here that have got 200 square feet apiece. So, there’s 800 total square foot in this bag — 500 total square foot in this bag and another bag of energy shield which has got another 800 square feet. So, we’ve got 800, 800, and 500 for a grand total of 2,100 square feet. Now, Jason’s inside and he’s got our attic access all prepped so we’re gonna go ahead and get this attic stopped
Now, a good way to keep your job-site clean is to open these bags with care and just not make a long slice in it. We can use this bag as a trash bag and, if you do need a drop cloth. you can also go ahead and open this up into a square and use that as a plastic drop cloth. But we’ll save that for a trash bag.
We’re just gonna go ahead open up that bag and we’ll do the same thing with this one. What we’re doing now is go ahead and stock our attic. We want to make sure that we’re well stocked with not only our material, but all the tools that we’re gonna need so we don’t need to make any extra trips in and out of the attic. So, Jason’s already up here. He’s got one extension cord up there. I just gave him another one. We’re gonna give them our 4-way plug-in in case we need to add any more light to the attic.
This is your best friend. This is our telescoping-installation-pole. Here’s our two-foot rolls of energy shield. These have got a hundred square feet on each two-foot roll of energy shield. These are our four-foot rolls of energy shield. These have 200 square feet per roll.
So, we’re well-stocked. I’m gonna grab my mask in my light and we’re gonna head up and get started.
One of the first things we want to show you is this: we talked about establishing a path on our way into the attic to make sure we keep ourselves safe. We don’t do any damage to the building. As you can see, Jason has located the ribbon. If it’s attached to all the bottom cords of these trusses, that’s going to be our main path on this whole job.
Jason did a good job of exposing the path to keep us safe. Now, what we’re going to need to do is send in some two-foot pieces. There’ll only be maybe about a foot to two feet long to make sure that we get our material out over the top plate. Jason’s getting himself in position.
I’m just gonna cut one piece for Jason. We’re gonna check it for link before I go out and cut all of them. What Jason’s going to do is use his extension pole to get the material out where his body can’t go. He’s pushing nice and lightly as not to compress any of that blown-in insulation.
He’s going to sweep some of that blown-in back when we’re moving.
This is definitely one of the things everybody that differentiates yellowblue from other reflective barrier reflective insulation companies. We’re going to always work really hard to make sure that we get our material out over the top plate.
The reason I had Jason check that piece for length is this material is very expensive. We don’t want to overlap any more than we need to.
Now, this particular roll is 50 feet long. It would be very difficult for Jason and I to work this piece on opposite ends of a 50 foot piece. So what we’re going to do is cut it down into a more manageable size and we would like to work with pieces anywhere from 10 to 15 feet. It doesn’t have to be an exact length to start — you just want to make sure that you finish cutting your piece appropriately and not using any more overlap than you need to.
As I unroll this material, I want to make sure that I roll it back up tightly. This is very very important. The reason that’s important is as I go to install this piece — if I’ve got this piece turned into a big role — it’s going to be very difficult for me to get it into position.
Typically, if you do that and roll it up three or four times about halfway up your body, that’s going to end up to be about 10 to 12 feet approximately. We’re going to go ahead and use our scissors.
Before we go installing these we don’t want to chase ourselves back and forth across this attic. We’re just going to go ahead and cut a few pieces and get them in the vicinity of where we’re going to be working.
Now, I am compressing this blown-in insulation in the area that I’m working, so it’s also going to be highly important. When we’re done and as we’re exiting this attic — any insulation that gets compacted or compressed — we want to make sure that we go back through with our telescoping pole and we’re going to rake it back up and fluff it back up nice and neat like we were never here.
These are just general length pieces and we’ll overlap these as we go and when we get to the end, we’ll cut a piece that’s exactly the length that we need to so that we’re not overlapping anymore than we need to.
What we found is that it’s very smart and very effective to work in pairs. While Jason’s over there in the corner, I want to make sure I get him all the material that he needs. I don’t want him to have to come all the way back here to get any material.
I’m going to do the same exact thing, but we’re going to use these rolls here. There’s no sense in me grabbing those and taking them down there, so I’m just gonna bring a roll with me and I’m also going to grab my pole.
I’m going to go down here and help Jason. One thing we’re very big on is to always leave a home in as good a condition or better than when you found it. We don’t want people leaving their trash and cardboard up here and this is also a good way to account for how much material we’ve used. If we bring all our empty tubes out, we can count them up and make sure that we haven’t left any rolls behind.
We’re going to leave this right in our road and we’re going to take that out with us on the way up.
Before we go ahead and start moving down the road, I’m going to take some two-foot pieces so we can go ahead and connect ourselves back to the field.
There’s going to be almost a two-foot area here until we get to what we call the tangent point of our framing webs. We needed to run a two-foot piece parallel with our four-foot piece. Not only that, it looks like that allowed us to make our two foot connectors about half the length. We’re going perpendicular with the framing at every opportunity and we’re overlapping absolutely everything. So, the reality is there is not that many seams on a completed installation by yellow-blue.
A very good method is to let one guy place and the other guy cut material. It seems to work very good. As you can see, we’re trying to work one area without moving a whole lot. We always like to clean any loose-blown insulation that may end up on top of the blanket off. We’d like to sweep it off and the reason for that is insulation can get saturated with heat and begin to conduct. We want to keep as much of the thermo-blown insulation below the blanket as possible.
We just finished fluffing the area and it almost looks closer to a new state of a blown-in job after.
It looks like I need to provide another two-foot piece to go parallel again.
It’s highly important to never waste a trip across the attic. You should always be trying to take something with you or take something out.
I’m now rolling off slack for Jason because I don’t ever want him to fight against the weight of the roll. I’m rolling off plenty of loose material and he can pull it into place as needed.
It looks like we need to head back out towards the perimeter. Always remember, with every move, take your scissors with you and take your pole with you on every move. This technique keeps our body from having to go into these smaller areas and still allows us to do this job.
It’s always good if the guy placing material stays in communication with you and lets you know if your pieces are a little long. That helps protect our business and our expense of doing the job.
Another thing we can use our poles for is getting material to each other. Rather than making Jason reach for his next piece, I can hold it over my pole and get it close for him. What you always want to do is make sure the guy that’s in the most difficult place to work does not have to move very much.
