LittleHouse – Building the Winter Cave

 

LittleHouse – Building the Winter Cave

by admin on Nov.05, 2007, under Insulation

Winter Cave
03 November, 2007.
It’s getting close to winter, and we thought it would be good to have a warm place to sleep this year.

We decided to temporarily install insulation around the bedroom of the cabin, and sleep in there this winter. That will also be a good place to warm up in between work sessions outside.

We started by using some extra roof underlayment to close off the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom. This is from the bathroom side…

 
Air Barrier

Winter Cave
03 November 2007.
We then installed 6-1/4″ insulation in all of the walls of the bedroom. We also installed 6-1/4″ in the ceiling of the bedroom.

The Owens Pink-Plus insulation is pre-cut to fit snugly between the 16″ studs. This means we didn’t need to staple it in place. That was a real advantage, considering this is a temporary install.

 
Bedroom Insulation

Winter Cave
04 November 2007.
Next, we installed 9-3/4″ of insulation in the floor of the bedroom.

We covered the floor insulation with metal screen, stapled in place to discourage rodents from taking up residence under there. I think this will work through this winter. If not, we will cover this with 1/4″ steel mesh screening, which is quite a bit tougher.

 
Floor Insulation

Winter Cave
04 November 2007.
You can see how we attached the screening such that there were no holes large enough for mice to squeeze through (we hope!).

 
Bug Screen

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