[Greenbuilding] friction & insulation batts

[David Wentling]

Years ago I needed to install thick batts in openings. To assist me ensure the batts were square to the opening and not compressed I created a wooded knife shaped stick. I would press in one side of the batt along the long edge then swing the batt into the opening using the ‘knife’ between the batt edge and the joist or stud. The ‘knife’ allow me to reduce the friction when sliding next to the wood and provided a tool to compress the batt the full depth of the batt to ensure the back edges were square to the opening. We used unfaced fiberglass.

The wooden knife was a board about 16” long, more of a small machete, that was belt sanded to a thin rounded edge and a rounded handle for easier handling. I had to make several of the them over the renovation project and used lathe strips pulled from the house. Looked like a large wooden letter opener.

Don’t for get the PPE!

David 

On Mar 25, 2015, at 2:34 PM, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com> wrote:

The situation is as follows: 
a ceiling with 7-1/4"x14" bays, 11 feet deep
car decking below, fir T&G flooring above, rough sawn 2x8s in between. 

I can get Rockwool/Roxul batts that are the right height and will figure out a way to trim them to the right width. My question is whether anyone has a suggestion about how to devise a sleeve or baffle to reduce the considerable friction all those rough sawn or at least not particularly smooth surfaces will present to the batts being shoved horizontally through those bays? 
I expect to be able to access both ends for this purpose, which should increase the options for friction-reducing aids. 

Any ideas?

Thanks very much.

Reuben

Oh, and I nixed the blown in cellulose idea because of the challenges of creating the necessary back pressure on a bay that deep/long. I'm sure with a suitably devised baffle that I could gradually back out the nozzle & this problem could be overcome, but it is not a large job (11'x12') and the batts seemed easier.
_______________________________________________
Greenbuilding mailing list
to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org

to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org