Matt McSpadden

I think I gained about 2 degrees overall. Nothing earth shattering, but a little better.

I had some rockwool insulation left over, and I used it to tuck in around the base of the shed this evening. We will see how it helps. The temp has gone up 1 degree so far, and typically at night it is going down. I'll keep you posted on how it does with just that. I will be finishing the inside insulation for the second room, which should help some.

R Scott wrote:They make blow-in mineral wool insulation.

You can skirt the shed, then drill smallish holes in convenient places in the floor or the tallest skirt, and blow the whole crawl space full. I would only do this with mineral wool, any other insulation holds too much water and isn’t bug proof enough. Mice will still chew through mineral wool to nest, though, so you need to seal the skirt.

Now there is an idea I had not thought of. It wouldn't take too much since it is so low to the ground. Like you said, rodents can and will still nest in it... but it less pleasant of a thing to chew, and if I sealed the edges, it might not be too bad.

J. Syme wrote:If you're not apposed to paint, there is an additive to paint that might help. back in the 80's when i was studying ceramic engineering some folks were experimenting with light weight thin insulation ideas and they came up with making tiny bubbles (microspheres) in clay dust particles, then putting it into paint. Do an internet search for ceramic microspheres paint additive. there are industrial applications of this tech being used to limit corrosion on high temp pipelines. HyTech and Super Therm are two that i remember using to cool a metal roof.

I am trying to avoid any paint that would offgas, so this may not work for this situation... but that is a really cool technology that may work for other things.

Nancy Reading wrote:
We haven't addressed the tiny heater side yet ....

How often do you go in the drying room?

Probably not more than once during the drying cycle, because so far, the drying room is always far warmer than outside of it. So I don't want to drop the temp too much.

Nancy Reading wrote:Would taking in some sort of heat battery (like hot rocks, or liquid wax) be an option?

I think these would work a little on the shoulder season... maybe help even out the heat a little during the summer. But in the winter, I would need to get the heat from somewhere else first and then move them into the room.

Nancy Reading wrote:What's your climate like in winter - sunny days for solar space heating perhaps (I'm wondering about trombe walls...)?

See... this is why I ask questions. I can think of these things for other people, but as soon as its mine, I forget :)

I don't think I could put one directly in the drying room, because it would create too many extra holes for bugs to creep in... but I could build one for the room next door... which would slow the heat leaving the drying room next to it. Good idea.

Nancy Reading wrote:How warm is the room next door? You describe it as a shed, so I'm assuming less warm. Is the door to that insulated and sealed too? If warmer - can you steal some of the warmth from there somehow.

Unfortunately it is not very warm right now. The wall between the rooms is insulated. But the outside walls of the second room has not been insulated yet. I plan to... just had to finish electrical stuff first. It acts as a bit of an air lock for the drying room. You have to walk through it to get to the drying room. No heat to steal... but I can certainly finish insulating it, and that should help some.

Anne Miller wrote:

Simple, would 2 inches make that much difference in height?  Use a 1 x 2 for the floor joist.  Two inches of some sort of insulation material is better than none.

Or use 1 x 1 as one inch insulation material is better than none.

The  ultra thin emergency blanket down first will have some value even if used alone.

You know... an extra half inch might not be too bad. I would have to re-measure. If I kept the insulation to 1", could use a 3/4 or 5/8 flooring over it. Hmmm....

I forgot the most important part of my suggestion. You mention leather not being very waterproof. Historically they would rub tallow into the leather on a regular basis to keep it soft and keep it water proof.

Think positive!

Hmmm, I had not thought about cork. I'm going to have to go research that.

The walls and ceiling are insulated with R15 rockwool batts. Then covered in 3/4" pine boards. There is some space between the ceiling and the roof, a triangle space. I have only sealed the vents in the roof. Nothing more yet. There is an outside door leading to the front half of the shed... then a room with another outside door to the outside.

So the two half ideas that I thought of were to use the 1" thick rockwool comfortboard 110. This should be dense enough to stand on... and then I could put a floating floor on top. My issue is I haven't been able to find 1/2 inch boards... and I'm trying to avoid plywood.

My other idea was to perhaps mix in a bunch of perlite or vermiculite into clay and put a thin earthen floor over it. My worry with this method is that if I put in enough perlite to help with insulation, I worry the clay would not hold together well enough. Also, since it is a drying room, I worry the clay would get too dry and crack.