Well, as progression on the build has continued, so has progression of the seasons. Here’s the tiny house yard in the dry mid-late summer days:
But, progression and progress go hand-in-hand (hopefully!), and we continued on our build. Next up was insulating the ceiling.
I was really excited about insulating the ceiling as we decided that, despite some extra weight, we were going to go with more healthy and environmentally friendly wool insulation. This was soooo much better than the foam board insulation we placed in the walls. I had also found an awesome semi-local (130 miles away) company, Havelock Wool, that sold wool insulation. Not only was their business wool insulation, but they also shared many of my and Eli’s values: environmental consciousness, healthy living, even enthusiasm for alternative living spaces! Their accommodation of van retrofit projects meant they also weren’t fazed by our request for a small scale order (something we often run up against building a tiny house in a gargantuan house obsessed society – in general, the building industry has little time, patience, interest, and willingness to assist in small building). Havelock Wool also has a really informative website with a number of explanatory and how-to videos. When we discussed the shipping of our order and our inquiry about the cost-saving potential to pick up our wool at their location in Reno instead of shipping it, the Havelock rep even went a step further and proposed an option of picking up our wool in a town closer along our route! So, we didn’t even have to make the full two hour trip! Awesome! Havelock’s website lists a multitude of benefits to natural wool insulation, and we’re in complete agreement. I was elated my endless internet searching (about this and every element of this build) begot such a fruitful find. 🙂 Thanks, Havelock Wool!
We went with Havelock’s batt insulation (as opposed to loose-fill insulation), purchasing three bags, which would be more than enough to insulate our ceiling. Our rafters are 24-inch on center, and Havelock had an option for this width for their batts. So, all we would need to do would be to cut the batts to length. We were originally hoping we could have one full length batt in each rafter bay that would span the entire ceiling width, but alas, the batts weren’t quite long enough for that. So, we had to cut the batts so they’d run from the eaves to the ridge on each side.
We were lucky to have some assistance in the ceiling work as my parents were in town visiting! And, they were oh so gracious in their willingness to again help with the tiny house build! Eli and my dad got to work tackling the insulation batt prep. Apparently cutting the batts wasn’t quite as easy as we had hoped, but my dad and Eli rigged up a system. Unfortunately, I missed all the cutting and didn’t get any photos of the process. 🙁
One of the awesome things about wool insulation is that it’s non-toxic and non-harmful, so doesn’t require any special protective clothing or equipment to install. As you’ll see in the photos, Eli did wear his dust mask, mostly because he didn’t like getting little fibers of wool in his mouth. That didn’t bother me, but since we were working with the wool over our heads constantly looking up at it, I preferred to wear my safety glasses to keep those same fibers out of my eyes!
The first step in installing the insulation was putting up something to hold the batts in place. We’d purchased wire supports to hold the batts up, but weren’t happy with their performance. But… we’d also just bought some netting to put over our peach tree to protect it from fruit-piercing birds, and Eli unwittingly purchased 100 feet of it! (our peach tree is not large and only needed maybe 10 feet of netting to cover it!) It occurred to me the bird netting might work great for holding the insulation. It turned out to be perfect! It was even already the proper width to just run it along the length of each side of our ceiling.
Eli and my dad continued their work as “Team Insulation Installation”. They rocked the wool installation, making short work of getting the batts into place. It took a bit of finagling to work each batt into the bay over the netting. Our ceiling/roof is vented with vents along the eaves and ridgeline, so the wool doesn’t completely fill the bay, but needs an inch of airspace above the batts for proper air ventilation. So, while installing, they had to be sure the wool wasn’t bunching anywhere and filling that airspace. Particularly along the eaves where it got tucked in over the top plate of the walls. We did end up putting one wire support in each bay over top of each batt right by the eaves to provide further assurance that the insulation wouldn’t block the eave vent. We also stapled the wool to the rafter beams to keep the batts in place.
I found it quite fun to play with the wool. I was very enamored with this natural building material and just kept thinking about the sheep who shared their wool with us (even if unwittingly). Much nicer to think about sheep than plastic or petroleum when considering the origin of your insulation.
Because we had to trim the batts, there ended up being lots of little pieces piled around. I couldn’t resist taking them and stuffing them into cracks and crevices to insulate our house just a wee bit more. In a tiny house, even tiny contributions matter! 😉
I’m so stoked to have gotten to use this material, even if for only a portion of our insulation. I think it will help the house breathe nicely, and even do a bit of air filtering for us. Thanks to all the sheep of the world!
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