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New Roof, Insulation Change, Silverfish - Order of Things

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Aug 7, 2013
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New Roof, Insulation Change, Silverfish - Order of Things

I’ve recently moved into a home where I’m redoing my roof with new plywood and shingles for the entire roof. I also need to have an insulation company come and replace all the insulation as we found an infestation of silverfish in the attic and suspect most of the eggs and population are coming in from the skylight and attic since they are mostly around that area.

In addition, the top floor of our house has a boat load of pot lights in each room which probably wasn’t properly sealed in the attic.

I’m assuming the correct order of work here would be as follows:

1. New Roof/Shingles
2. Electrical work to add two new pot lights on top floor (we are removing one of the skylights permanently and adding these additional two lights to match the other existing pot lights
3. Insulation Company to remove all existing insulation and seal every single gap in the attic
4. Pest control company to spray or dust the attic with boric acid
5. Insulation company comes back and installed new insulation in the attic

Is this the correct order? Should I change anything and any comments on spray foam vs fibreglass vs cellulose especially in light of the silverfish issue?

I’m also wondering how the heck I’m going to coordinate all these trades so that all do the work is done in a very timely manner. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
6 replies
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Apr 14, 2009
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Vaughan
Remove the Insulation before anything.
They Should be first and last.
[OP]
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coffeeguy wrote: Remove the Insulation before anything.
They Should be first and last.
Even before roofing and new sheathing is done?
Sr. Member
Oct 14, 2012
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Woodstock
When they did our relatives it was
1. remove all insulation
2. new plywood, new roof, new vents for first ever bathroom exhaust fans including the duct down from the roof but not attached yet
3. put in first ever bathroom ceiling exhaust fans
4. make sure soffits actually open not blocked with old insulation; new baffles to direct air flow through and above new insulation; new insulation added; check air flow going from soffits up and out the roof vents

The roofers worked routinely with an insulation co. Both were highly rated etc. The two companies actually coordinated the timing of these steps between themselves because they said with no insulation up there the house would get impossibly hot really quickly in the summer so they wanted to be able to schedule the work day after day with no long wait times.

They were glad they paid a few $ extra to get high quality roof vents and exhaust vents. Many in the neighbourhood have plastic ones that are cracking after a couple of years.

Not sure how your lighting works but it can be very difficult to put things like fans through the ceiling drywall if there is insulation up above that can shower down through the new hole. So easier to do when the insulation is out, if possible.
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Jan 27, 2006
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Jagstyles wrote: Even before roofing and new sheathing is done?
You should have a talk with the contractors to verify what works for them.

Ideally, I would think that if they tear the roof off (complete with the old plywood), then the insulation folks would have an easier time to access and remove the old insulation as they won't have to truck the stuff through the access hatch (ie they can just throw it out as there's no roof in the way). Once all of the insulation is gone, you can either do the pest control or the electrical. You might want to check with the pest control folks to see if they need their own timeslot for the application of the pesticide and how long does the pesticide has to sit there before anyone can work in the area. Once done, seal gaps, and install soffit baffles. If you are using batt insulation, you might want to put the insulation in before the roof goes on as it's easier to put batt insulation in (at least put the bundles in the attic) without a roof than going through that attic hatch again. If you are going blown in, then it's probably the other way around - ie get the roof installed and then blown in.

Also, now would be a perfect time if you want to install some solar tubes.
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Jan 27, 2006
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BetCrooks wrote: They were glad they paid a few $ extra to get high quality roof vents and exhaust vents. Many in the neighbourhood have plastic ones that are cracking after a couple of years.
Absolutely get metal everything. It's just dumb to install a 30-year roof and have the various vents and the like be good for 5 or 6 years before replacement. If it's not metal, then do a hard pass. As for cost, the cost shouldn't be too much more if any. When I did my roof, I insisted on metal everything and the price didn't change.

Another option is ridge vents instead of the normal box vents. Yes, it's a bit more but the airflow is much more uniform across the roof and you don't have to worry about cutting holes for the box vents.
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Apr 26, 2003
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Depending on what type of insulation you have currently, having roof access would be much easier than going through the hatch opening. When I got mine removed and replaced, we lucked out being able to have them bring in the vacuum hose through a window instead of having to snake through the house. They were able to keep the work area isolated to a single room.

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