I need to consider what I am going to put on an in my walls in order to keep me warm in forty below and cool in the summer heat. I do not plan to put in an air conditioner.

I am about to rip up some 2×10 boards I have had sitting here for a few years. I need to cut the boards into 3″  wide pieces in order to not waste any wood.

My Tiny house is going to be 22′ long the walls are near ten feet high. The two long walls need 440 square feet of insulation. The floor needs 220 square feet. The ceiling needs probably 300 square feet.  Add 160 square feet for the end walls. Wow a whopping total of 1120 sq. ft. of insulation.

My options were:

Aerogel  R value of 10 per inch space age stuff.

wool from sheep (keeps the sheep warm would it keep me warm and safe)

Hemp insulation          nope you can’t smoke it.

mineral wool    slag wool

Blue Jeans           Make those sweat shop built Levi’s keep your house warm.

fiberglass

eps (styrofoam or equivalent)

polyisocyanurate

Open cell spray

Closed cell spray

Isocyne spray made from caster oil and cashew shells I think.

Biofoam

Cellulose

Sips Structural Insulated Panels.

Radiant barriers  looks like chrome bubble wrap.

Mushroom        yes Mushrooms grown into the walls.

i think there is enough information here to split this post into  few daily sections I will try to contact different manufacturers to get the info directly from them so I do not misquote what I find. But as always check the info I write about I could be wrong.

Now I will have to probably mix a few different approaches in order to achieve my goals. I can’t see putting anything loose into my ceiling due to the weather and the curve. I also need to keep access to my floor area incase of plumbing problems etc. So spray for the floor won’t work.

My walls are thin so I will need something I can slightly compress and not lose the highly sought after R-VALUE.

One big concern is health. I am sitting in a unfinished living room. I can see evidence of black mold. I have seen some of that  on the boards I am planning to use already. I don’t want to see mold or have to worry about it. I don’t want anything that will hold moisture. My walls will be thin enough to have a possible condensation problem.

Is it carcinogenic? Will I die of cancer because of my choice of materials. I am building a small space this is a consideration.

Thermal bridging a term I have heard about. The lumber I use for framing will transmit cold to the inside. It was clear that I would also need a layer of some kind of insulation on the outside of the walls.

That opens another can of worms. And that is condensation getting trapped on the outside of the wall and rotting whatever material I use for cladding.

Here is the biggest factor on my project. Money. I am not a rich man by any means. Money seems to be scarce right now.

Having someone to come in to do my insulation for me is out of the question. That in itself will rule out some of the different types out there.

Availability another problem. Having large amount of product shipped from a long distance would not work.

With all that said I will try to write about all types of insulation as if they were easily available to me .

Is it eco friendly I am not really a tree hugging hippie. But I do care about the environment, If it makes sense.

Sometimes the “eco friendly” products are actually doing more harm than good. A term you should research is “greenwashing” over hyping the eco benefits while omitting the environmental nightmares in producing the material. Does the methane that sheep produce actually outweigh the benefits of the insulation. I am not sure I am intelligent or eloquent enough to find those answers. Maybe you already know. If you drop a comment at the bottom of the page.

The other thing I have seen is product bashing. Buy our product because the other product is unsafe. Its funny since I have seen the two opposing sides say the same thing about the other. You would think that they were in an election.

Fire will my tiny house burn more quickly and hotter as a result of my choices. I remember throwing a styrofoam cup into the fire pit, camping when I was a kid (Before I knew I was destroying the ozone). Wrapping my house in a layer of that does scare me a bit.

In my final post about insulation I will tell you what decisions I have made about my choices for my tiny house.

Next article  Wool Insulation I am very interested in this.

Take care and keep pounding nails.

Rod