On Tuesday we told you about our plans to insulate and organize our furnace room (which you can read here if you missed it). Today we took the first step towards insulation domination by cleaning everything out of the room, taking measurements, and heading to the Home Depot to purchase all of the supplies. And by we, I totally just mean Dain. This project is his brainchild, and $300 big ones later, he is ready to tackle this project over the weekend. And I have my fingers crossed that it’ll be done by Sunday as promised by my handyman.
Our old storage system left much to be desired. We basically just piled things on the few small shelves that came with the room with no rhyme or reason.
Dain started by taking everything out and vacuuming up the many cobwebs and dead bugs. He also took out the shelves in preparation for insulating everything. We are left with a barren, unfinished room that is ready to be turned into Dain’s tool cave.
Where did everything go that Dain moved out? Well of course it went right into our other (and equally cluttered) storage room also known as the laundry room. Obviously this is just temporary until the furnace room transformation is complete, but once that room is up and running, we will be organizing this room too once and for all. Because both of these rooms work for storage, but it sure will be nice when they have a little more functionality built in too.
After taking everything out, Dain made a rough sketch of the room and wrote down the measurements of the two outside walls that we will be insulating.
After some calculations, he determined how much wood and insulation would be needed to cover the walls, along with some other necessary items and a few random items that we need to keep this house running. He also calculated an estimate for me as any good contractor would do. The only problem was that it came in $225 over his original estimation. Boo. The wife wasn’t happy, but apparently “foamular” is expensive.
Despite the misleading estimation, Dain bit the bullet and picked up all of the items in a marathon Home Depot trip. The supplies included 21 2×2 boards, 7 2×4 studs, and 4 treated 2×4 studs.
5 sheets of 1″ tongue and groove insulation foam, and 8 sheets of 1 1/2″ insulation foam
8 sheets of 3/16″ plywood.
And 3 different types of adhesives: 1) latex caulk for putting in between the tongue and grooves of the insulation; 2) foamboard adhesive for adhering the foamboard to the concrete wall; and 3) Liquid Nails for adhering the treated 2X4s to the floor. It sounds excessive to me, but the trifecta it is.
It’s amazing (and sad) how many materials are needed for such a small room. We know why so many people leave their basements or part of them unfinished, but for us, our house is so small that we need to maximize the space. And while I wish this was a more glamorous project, it has to be done sometime. All of Dain’s new wares are currently residing in the sun porch and the basement, but he plans to get started on this tomorrow and carry the fun right through Sunday. If all goes according to plan, we can share our progress next week.
