The framing inspector showed up around 11am and took a look around. He said, "You could have insulated too, and I could have done the framing and insulation inspection at the same time." Well, that's just great. When I called and spoke to the city a few weeks ago, I was told that the framing and insulation inspections have to be done at separate times. Alas, I passed the inspection, even though I was supposed to receive the plumbing inspection first. Oops. He noted on the permit, "OK to insulate after plumbing approval.", dated and initialed it, and was on his way.
So I wait the rest of the afternoon, and... no plumbing inspector. The office closes at 4, and I figured the inspectors would work until that days' inspections had been completed. 5pm, 6pm... around 7pm I finally give up hope.
At that point, I had already started insulating all of the stud cavities except for the ones where the plumbing runs through them. The only insulating I've done before were the rim joists in the basement, and I had done that with regular fiberglass insulation bats. It was a mess, a pain, and not very easy to do. I'm not sure how much of that was because I was insulating just a few inches high, 7' over my head, and how much was because of the fiberglass. All I know is that I had the entire kitchen insulated (except for the few cavities with plumbing) in just a few hours, by myself. So many of the cavities were odd size, either due to windows, or the beginning or end of a wall not lining up at 16" on center, but most of the batts I had to cut to size. My drywall T-square and a $1 serrated bread knife was all I needed. Also, because the Roxul is dense, it's easy to cut out pieces to put behind outlets, to make sure there's insulation there too.
72 cents per square foot for Roxul insulation and 6 mil plastic vapor barrier, versus 47 cents for the fiberglass equivalent with a kraft paper vapor barrier. I think the extra $30 I spent was worth it.
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| Starting to look like a room again! |
Thursday morning, I gave the city building department a call. Explained that I had an inspection scheduled, and that nobody came. She said that in the system, it showed my plumbing inspection as approved. She asked if I was looking at the permit, and could I confirm that there was no signature on the plumbing line. I confirmed that, indeed, the line is blank because nobody showed up. I'm guessing she's thinking that I'm just the homeowner, and we hired a plumber for the work, and maybe I wasn't there, and the inspection did happen, but the plumber just didn't tell me. Nope. She put me through to the plumbing inspection supervisor. I left him a voicemail, and he called me back shortly afterwards. Again, they asked if there was a signature on the permit. Nope. He apologized, and was definitely not happy that the inspector approved something without seeing it. I can't say that I think the no-show inspector was malicious. I mean, every time I get an inspection, the inspector signs and dates the permit, and they look to make sure previous inspectors have signed and dated it too. He had to know that as soon as the next inspection happened, the previous inspector was going to go, "Uh, why didn't you get the plumbing inspected?" So, I don't know. Either way, the inspection supervisor was apologetic, and said he'd work with me to get the inspection done on my schedule, and he would inspect it himself. We came up with noon on Friday as a good time.
Noon on Friday arrives, inspection supervisor calls letting me know he'll be there in a few minutes. Already better than Wednesday. 10 minutes later, he shows up, walks in, looks at it for about a minute, says it looks good. Explains to me that they're investigating the inspector for signing off on un-inspected installations. He leaves, and I'm good to insulate the rest of the wall behind the pipes!
Saturday morning, I finish installing the insulation. The denser Roxul is so much nicer to install behind the pipes than fiberglass. You're not supposed to compress fiberglass, so how you would get it to stay behind the pipes is beyond me.
A couple more cuts to fill in the rest of the space, and insulation batt installation is done! I had just enough with the 2 bags of Roxul to do the kitchen, with 1 batt and some scraps leftover. I may buy another bag to insulate the ceiling where it slopes down. I'm still making decisions on that. Next is the vapor barrier, and I'll be ready for my insulation inspection.
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| Done. |
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