Tiny House Episode 10: Insulating the Tiny House

With the majority of the electrical wiring out of the way, the time had come to install the insulation. Originally, I thought I would use the remaining foam board we had used to insulate the trailer to insulate the walls but after spending a few tedious days cutting foam and sealing it with spray foam I changed my mind. The process was just too slow especially with having to cut a variety of pieces for the many small spaces in our framing. Since the 2x4 walls don't have the width of a standard house, I wanted a product that would perform better than standard fiberglass insulation. After considering a few possibilities we finally settled on Roxul insulation.

Roxul insulation had a good mix of properties for our purposes in addition to being easy to cut and install like fiberglass batting. It is made from volcanic rock and is, therefore, very fire resistant. It has a slightly better insulation value compared to fiberglass batting and does not absorb water. It also tends to dampen sound better than fiberglass.

Installing the Batting

One characteristic that made the batting easier to install than the foam board was that it was already cut to the perfect width to fit between the studs and trusses. Since it had a bit of give to its structure, it would self adjust to fit slightly narrower or wider spaces. To cut the batting I was able to use a regular utility knife.

The Roxul batting was tight enough that it held itself up in the ceiling. Two full pieces left just a small gap that needed to be filled.

I used several different methods to work the insulation around the wiring which usually involved separating the insulation by hand or cutting in some type of flap to fold the wire in. Below are several examples.

Separating the batting to go around the wiring was fairly simple.

A couple more examples of separating the batting to slide around the wiring.

Sometimes it was easier to cut a flap in the batting than to separate it and try to pull it around the wires.

Even though we were happy with the Roxul batting, we did still used 3" foam board anywhere we were putting intake or exhaust vents through the walls. Using a hole saw through foam board makes a very precise hole for the duct that needs nothing more than a tiny bead of spray foam to have an air tight seal.

This piece of foam board is installed approximately where the stove vent will be located.

*Left: Completed section of batting. Right: Bundles of Roxul batting waiting to be used.

Insulation Video

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any questions about our insulation or the weather conditions we were preparing for, leave a comment below.

Next up in the Tiny House series I will be covering the vapor barrier installation.

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