[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: vapor retarder/barrier?

[Keith Winston]

If you want, go crazy with conduit, etc. But there's no real need. 
Cellulose insulates well around pipes and wires: that's one of the 
things that distinguishes blown from batt insulation. As long as you can 
see any actual holes in your wall, which you'll have to do anyway, you 
can run your wires (communication and otherwise) just in the wall. Using 
airtight electrical boxes is a good way to do that. If you aren't 
careful about interior wall/ceiling & wall/floor penetrations, you can 
get leaks through interior-wall electric boxes too..

If you anticipate changing wiring regularly, perhaps your chases make 
sense. But in these days of wireless internet, I'm not even fanatical 
about demanding everyone install ethernet anymore. As for repairing 
cellulose walls, well, it's easy to gather it back up when you have to 
open up a wall, the only thing is that you probably won't have a blower 
around. So that adds some complexity.

Keith

Jefro wrote:
> Hi Lawrence, thanks for the advice. 
>
> We have been planning on wet cellulose but we're having trouble finding 
> a contractor.  We do plan to wrap with Tyvek immediately after 
> sheathing, as we are quite worried about the rain.  Once it starts on 
> the northern California coast it doesn't really stop until April, 
> although February was dry this past year. 
>
> We want the winter to work on the interior.  I like the idea of doing 
> this from the outside, but as it will probably be raining, the inside is 
> more likely.  :)  We will be pouring the perimeter early next week, to 
> give you an idea of where we are right now.
>
> We are also debating when to put it in.  I would like to sheathe the 
> outside and wrap, and then let the inside just breathe for a while, as 
> we are using a lot of lumber that we milled onsite and it is very green 
> and wet.  It's one thing to have "breatheable" walls, but another to 
> actually seal up the wall before the moisture level is down as far as it 
> can go.
>
> What do you think of the idea of running all wires in conduit, as some 
> folks do with cellulose?  We won't have any plumbing in outside walls, 
> but if so I would probably sleeve it to make it easier (possible) to fix 
> later on.  I imagine pulling a cellulose wall apart is a bit messier 
> than one stuffed with batts.  I'll definitely run communications wires 
> in conduit, but haven't decided about romex yet.
>
> thanks again
>
>   
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>>     
>
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-- 
Keith Winston
Earth Sun Energy Systems
3927 Madison St.
Hyattsville, MD 20781
301-980-6325
keith at earthsunenergy.com
www.EarthSunEnergy.com