Mr. Green Jeans
July 1st, 2009
If you grew up in the 1960s or ’70s, then you must remember Captain Kangaroo’s sidekick, Mr. Green Jeans, who would bring cute little animals on the show?
Well, this post isn’t about him, but it is about being green with jeans, as in Bonded Logic UltraTouch Natural Cotton Batt Insulation, made using the by-product of blue jean material. If you decide you’ll never fit into those size 32 Levi’s again, you can also donate your old blue jeans.
We used the UltraTouch batts in the interior walls that weren’t sprayed with Icynene®, such as the bathroom and laundry room walls, because it is supposed to have good sound barrier properties.
We didn’t have a lot of wall area to cover, so it was worth the additional cost to me, versus fiberglass. Being able to install it without skin protection, unlike fiberglass, is also a big plus. It was easy to tear to fit around electrical receptacles and pipes, but from what I understand you could also whip out the handy electric knife that Dad brings out once a year at Thanksgiving if you want to make clean cuts.
At Green Depot (formerly Greenmaker Supply at 2500 N. Pulaski in Chicago), where we purchased the insulation, someone suggested a pizza cutter, but it didn’t work for me.
We were also fortunate to be able to add some insulation to the exterior wall in the kitchen. Since the adjacent wall was removed for the attic stairs, the tile backsplash was partially removed. They removed the entire backsplash to install the new drywall, which I was very happy about.
While there was some original plaster (under a layer of drywall that the PO installed), it was in sad shape and overall unsalvageable. Just like StuccoHouse recently posted, our original plaster also had the look of subway tiles pressed into the plaster. (The pink paint must have been a late ’50s/early ’60s style.)
While I’m all for restoring certain aspects of the house to their original splendor, I’m not a true purist, so in this case drywall behind the cabinets is fine with me. I plan to use subway tiles for the backsplash, in a modern nod to the past.
But I digress. On the plus side, we now have some insulation between the exterior brick and the interior wall. The 10 sheets of newspaper we found behind the plaster from the June 12, 1963 edition of the Chicago Daily News really didn’t cut it. I think this will work much better.
In the attic, we added some to the soffit overhang behind the kneewall. Günter gives it his “Very Cozy!” stamp of approval.
