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110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME  04353 | 207-232-7600 |  tim@lackeysailing.com

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Phase 3:  Finish Work

Shop Home Page
Shop Planning
Phase 1:  Site Prep and Foundation
Phase 2:  Framing
Phase 3:  Finish Work
Phase 4:  Shop Setup
Insulation and Wall Coverings

Early in the planning process, I decided to seek an insulation contractor to do the insulation in the building.  Costwise, it is often less expensive--or the same--to hire this work out than it is to buy the materials and do it oneself.  When building my shop in North Yarmouth a few years ago, I was unable to find an insulation contractor who would even consider bidding the job; all were so busy with the local building boom that they weren't even entertaining one-time jobs.  So I installed the insulation myself, a thankless job.  This time, I vowed, would be different, and fortunately Bob knew a good insulation contractor, and sought an estimate from him for the job.  I never even hesitated to accept.

For a while, I wondered if the insulation would ever be installed.  Delay after delay plagued the construction, and though I worked hard myself to ensure that all interior work was complete in plenty of time for the insulation, no firm booking date was ever presented.  At the beginning of January, it seemed as if I still might have to wait a couple weeks for the job to begin.


Then, just at the lowest point, things looked up.  During my visit to the site one Friday (January 6), Bob mentioned that he had talked to Neil, the insulation guy, and that he might actually show up later that day to at least look at the job.  (Though he'd committed to the job, he'd never seen the building.)  That sounded great, and suddenly it seemed that the job was back on track; with insulation soon to be had, that meant that we could get the heat installed and up and running soon too--something that I was anxiously awaiting.

My visit that day was a relatively quick one, to plow the recent snow and check up on the job, as I hadn't been onsite all week.  The next day, I decided to head up and deliver some windows that I had picked up.  I was completely taken by surprise when I walked into the building.  Not expecting anything, it took me a second to register that there was a bundle of insulation on the floor ahead of me.  I was just beginning to comment on that when I happened to glance around and noticed that one of the walls in that bay was not only insulated, but covered with my white plastic!  Looking around further, I noticed that many of the walls were already stuffed with insulation.  Obviously, Neil had gotten off to a good start.  I was thrilled.

Work remaining included completing the exterior walls' insulation, the ceiling, and hanging the white plastic, which Neil had agreed to do, although I was prepared to do this myself if needed.

 


         

         


It took two more weeks before the insulation was completed, during which period the heating plant was installed and energized.  I became a little annoyed at the delay in the final insulation, particularly once the heat was up and running, but fortunately we experienced a week of above-normal temperatures that surely eased the pressure on the heating plant while the bulk of the shop was uninsulated.

However, it finally got done, with batts in all the walls and blown-in insulation in the attic spaces, and Neil and his helper Josh hung the white plastic over the ceilings and exterior walls, leaving only the interior walls for me to cover with plastic.  Since I was on site the day they finished (they were finished by 1300), I jumped right into the plastic hanging on the remaining walls, so that I could be done with the pipe staging and so that the bays would be ready for use.  Hanging the plastic alone went extremely well, and I was pleased with how easily it went.  The plastic finally defined the various bays and spaces in the building, and made a huge difference in the overall feel of the place.  Thanks to the new high-output shop lighting that I had installed earlier in the week, the bays were blindingly bright.

This time around, I selected white 8 mil shrinkwrap plastic for the walls and ceiling.  The shrinkwrap had the added benefit of being available in 16' and 20' wide rolls, meaning that there were no longitudinal seams on any of the surfaces.  I purchased 2, 160' rolls of the 16' plastic and a single 200' roll of the 20' plastic, which were more than adequate to complete the job as needed.

 
 
 
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This page was originally posted on January 8, 2006
Updates

1/23/06