Planner shavings for Insulation

[Steve_M]

I am needing to insulate a building that I started to heat last year.  30x50x10 pole shed with metal roof and walls, concret floor, and radiant heat.  Trusses are 10' apart.  My idea is to use a gridwork of 2x6 and 2x4 to put in a celling and attach either ridged foam board or osb to make the celling.  Was going to get the bales of cellelous and blow in insulation on top, but then I thouoght about planner shavings instead.  Anybody ever done this?  Maybe I would be better off to forget the celling and just go to the roof and attach 2" foam board.  If anybody has any better ideas or advice let me know.

Steve         

[Modat22]

Wood shavings equal about 2.5 R value per inch, just make sure it stays dry and that there aren't any codes against using it. Its not very fire, fungal or rot resistant.

[Cedarman]

My shavings are fungal and rot resistant, but make a really nice fire.

[mike_van]

Steve, that sounds like the circus tents they used to treat with petrol. products to make them waterproof, they burned well too - Just my 2 cents, but I wouldn't do it - Even when oil was cheap, insulation  paid you back  fast for what it saved. Today's oil prices - insulation is well, priceless - 

[Tophat]

Seems to me it would be too hard to keep the pests out of it. Mice, rats, not to mention termites...

[Larry]

Don't know nothing bout wood for insulation but have some thoughts on your ceiling.  Use liner tin...it will easily span 4'...maybe more.  Just the tin by itself will lower summer time temperatures by 10 to 20 degrees.  Lot easier to heat winter time also.  Use white and with a few fluorescents it will look like a hospital operating room.  Goes up fast also...I can hang 12' sheets by myself.  Built two this way.  B-I-L used rigid foam board...looks like hell...no good way to seal the seams or paint it.

Another thought...energy tax credit this year...maybe next year to.  A tax credit is mucho better than a tax deduction.  Might be able to get insulation on the cheap.  Not real sure how this deal plays out, so maybe if I'm wrong a smart person will correct me.

[Sprucegum]

Shavings were used in ceilings and walls before styrofoam etc. were invented. It was fine for a few years, then the shavings would settle and you would get a "cold zone"  on the top foot or so of the walls.

[submarinesailor]

There's an old ice house out in Nokesville, Va that used sawdust in the walls, both above and below ground.

Bruce

[junkyard]

Before my time the local excesior mill sold as much product to home owners as to packers. Several old early 1900 are still insulated with excesior. Planer shavings should work just as good. All of the old ice houses used sawdust.
           Junkyard

[woodbowl]

I've wondered about other insulators as well, but worried that shavings would settle over time and weigh heavy and compress, especially at the bottem. Dead air space is what is sought after in a form that isolates itself from itself.

I'm thinking that plastic bottles within the stud walls could be used as insulation. Soda bottles, medicine bottles even milk jugs that have been semi flattened with the cap still on.

Perhaps shavings could fill the remainder of the void and displace the weight of itself to avoid most of the settling.

Can't even begin to think what the R-factor would be.

[Coon]

I have used planer shavings for insulating purposes before.  There is one important thing with this process that wasn't mentioned.  One very important part of using planer shavings to insulate a building is that you need to mix in alot of lime with it.  The lime will act as a pest retardant and will also help for settling of the shavings. 

When I insulated my garage walls I was using 1x6 boards to sheath.  I was nailing them all up but when it came to the top board I used screws instead of nails.  Thus I would be able to remove it every year or couple of years and top up my insulation.  After six years of repeatedly checking and topping off I no longer see sufficient settling that requires more to be added.  However I still check on a yearly basis.  I have even insulated above the ceiling with 6 inches the first year and another two the following year. 

I use a basic strategy for mixing the shavings.  When we haul it home we shovel it by hand into an old half-ton box trailer.  As we shovel it on we have one person sprinkling the lime and the mixing it in with a rake.  We simply put two 50 lb bags to a rounded load and cover with a tarp for the ride home.  When we get it home we use a beefed up insulation blower to fill the walls and ceiling.

;D ;D  Give it a try.  It's cheap and it worked for this hillbilly. :D :D

Brad.

[DanG]

Cellulose insulation is just bits of paper that have been saturated with Boric Acid. Why not soak the shavings down with Solubor?  That way, you'd eliminate the bugs and fungus, and make it fire resistant, too.