INSULATION
Passed plumbing & gas, HVAC, & electrical rough-in inspections, with only some minor browbeating. The City doesn't have much experience with HRV-powered, direct ducted ventilation systems.
Domestic water lines passed pressure test and are live now, as is the new water meter installed by Epcor (I threw out the old one... accidentally). We decided to frame out a custom shower on the main floor instead of going with a fiber glass drop-in.
Also, we've been having trouble finding a nice, small (<15" side) corner sink for the attic WC. Meg found a great sink on HOUZZ, and we decided to test what the import duty would be from the US. Turned out to be $50 on a $150 sink, pretty decent considering the price of local alternatives. The sink arrived and it's perfect, we may buy more finishing items off HOUZZ, knowing that the duty isn't extreme.
With inspections complete, the insulating marathon began.... 2 weeks later we were finished, rather itchy, and rather unimpressed with fibre insulation. Most of the frustration was based on NONE of the original stud walls being framed accurately, every single piece of insulation required cutting.
We used Roxul on all external walls, 5.5" downstairs and 3.5" above grade. The 5.5" was nice to work with, note that the $5 mineral wool knife is definitely worth it. The 3.5" was less than nice to work with... the consistency of bundles was wildly variable, ranging from excellent to very clumpy. Even the good bundles were difficult to install.
We used a bunch of random fibreglass batt bundles, that we came across for free, to help with internal sound dampening, some of which turned out to be the Knauf product that meets the Living Building Challenge's Red List! It meets the list by having no Urea Formeldehyde in the resin, which typical batt insulation includes.
Big milestone here, after 14 months, we're ready for drywall!
