Plugging Away

Got moving on the attic project a little today.  The weather was good and it just seemed like too good a chance to miss.  Pretty much all along I've thought the most difficult part of the job was going to be moving materials.  There's a flight and a half of stairs from the garage to the front door.  There's two flights of stairs from the first floor to the second.  After that there's another flight and a half's worth of attic ladder.

That's a lot of up.

To ease into it I started with insulation.  The moving equivalent would be boxes of pillows - leave the books for later.  Even with very little weight, eight times up and down like 40 steps I did start to feel it.

The first step in the actual work was to install the insulation on the existing wall.

It doesn't look like much but it's a start.  I have to take a half a second out to give a plug for the plastic encapsulated JM ComfortTherm insulation.  I'd been dreading the insulation part of this job (if you're keeping track that's the second dread) and this stuff is awesome.  Through all the work you basically don't ever touch the batting and the cover serves as a vapor barrier so you can skip that step.  Also, the casing has flanges on the side that ride over the studs for staples.  It was a little more expensive but for me it was 100% worth it.

Since the ball was rolling and the weather was odd (mid 50's the first week of January) I decided to move to another step.  I could have moved 2x4's up to the attic or I could go buy drywall.  I opted for drywall.

I'd been dreading moving the drywall (#3).  Partly it was because I wasn't sure how it would fit on my roof rack.  I'd danced around the job for a week trying to decide if I was going to buy a new roof rack for drywall.  Obviously I opted for a DIY solution over purchasing what I found would have been about a $300 commercial rack (although I think it might still fit inside the number the contractor quoted me).

Somewhere along the way I'd forgotten how heavy this stuff was.  I really should have brought a helper to the home center.  I think I'd talked myself into thinking it wouldn't be difficult because I'd found 1/4" drywall as opposed to 1/2".  Unfortunately the 1/4" was a dollar more per sheet than 3/8" and even after I'd talked myself into the cost I determined that the stuff was so brittle that I'd never get it moved.

So 7 @ 4x8 3/8" dual drywall sheets - 90# per pack.  I loaded it onto a dolly myself as packs.  When I got to the car I split them into individual sheets.  When I got to the very last sheet a Home Depot guy showed up to help - thanks.

Unloading at home was easier than loading at the store.  I have not one clue as to how I am going to get these things up all those stairs.  Certainly have to do some pre-cutting (I don't think a 4x8 will pass the attic access anyway).

Wish me luck.