After finishing the exterior of our waterfront cabin, the next major step before we could start on any of the interior finishing was getting the insulation done. Since we wanted the cabin to be usable year round, getting the insulation right was really important. In this post I’ll walk through how we insulated the walls, ceiling, and ICF foundation of our tiny cabin — including what products we used and why we made the choices we did. This is Part 7 of our waterfront cabin build series. If you missed Part 6 where we finished the exterior, you can find that post here: Finishing the Cabin Exterior – Waterfront Build Series Part 6.
Electrical, Plumbing, and Interior Framing
Before we could start insulating, we had to finish the electrical, plumbing, and interior framing first. These steps aren’t the most glamorous part of a build, and for this cabin we did everything very similar to the way we did it the first time around. If you’re curious about the details, you can read about that process here: Cabin electrical wiring, framing, and a finished loft floor.
Ceiling Insulation
For the ceiling insulation, we used five inch thick rigid foam insulation. We bought it used off Kijiji for the original build. It was a little dirty, but it still does the job well. We were able to reuse a lot of it from the original cabin build. Tony cut the foam to the right width on the table saw. We pushed the pieces up between the roof rafters, and once everything was in place, Tony went around with cans of spray foam to fill in any remaining cracks and gaps. This gave us an R value of about 25 which is important for a cabin we planned to use year round.
Wall Insulation
For the walls, we used Rockwool batt insulation. We used Rockwool in our original cabin because it’s mold and mildew resistant, fire retardant, and has a higher R value compared to standard pink fibreglass insulation.
Installing batt insulation is a pretty straightforward job. The batts come in widths designed to fit between studs spaced 16 inches apart. You open the bag, place each batt between the studs, and make sure it fills the space without being compressed. For smaller areas around windows and doors, an insulation knife makes cutting easy. Rockwool can be a itchy to work with so it’s a good idea to wear as mask and gloves.
Vapor Barrier
Once the insulation was in, I installed the vapor barrier over top. I used Acousti-Seal, Tuck Tape and a stapler to get the insulation completely sealed up tight. It’s not the most exciting step but it’s an important one for keeping moisture out of the walls.
Basement ICF Foundation
As a reminder, the basement walls themselves are already insulated as part of the ICF construction. If you want to read more about that, you can catch up in Part 3: ICF Foundation for a Tiny Cabin. To finish off the basement insulation, we added Rockwool between the floor joists above the basement. Then we installed a vapor barrier overtop. This helps keep the main floor warm and prevents any cold air from the basement from working its way up.
Storage Container Update
If you’ve been following along since the beginning, you’ll remember that back in Part 2 I talked about how we rented a sea container to store all the materials from the original cabin when we took it apart piece by piece. We packed the storage container to the top at the start of this build. By this point in the build, it was almost completely empty which felt like a milestone in itself. All those carefully labelled pieces of siding, framing, and finishes had found their way back into the cabin where they belonged.
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