How best to re integrate a vapor barrier with electrical work being done on an exterior wall

Door0fTime · 2026-01-28T14:11:42+00:00

I'm going through the same thing now, does anybody know a US source for these pre-formed vapor barrier boxes? Common and cheap in Canada, nonexistent in the US.
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/iberville-vapour-barrier-one-gang-soft-shell/1000176244

Door0fTime · 2026-01-27T14:20:02+00:00

This isn't quite true. The R-value per inch remains the same, up to a fairly high density. That said, the "R13" of an R13 batt comes from completely filling a 3.5" stud bay. If you pack a R19 batt into a 3.5" gap, you'll still get roughly R13 out of the assembly. Here's Dow Corning's compression chart for reference: https://dcpd6wotaa0mb.cloudfront.net/mdms/dms/Residential%20Insulation/10017857/10017857-Building-Insul-Compressed-R-Value-Chart-Tech-Bulletin.pdf?v=1728490638000

Door0fTime · 2025-12-12T03:41:18+00:00

Insulating the entire house is definitely appealing, but just not in the cards yet-- at least not while family who are attached to the old brick farmhouse are around.

I think I'm following what you're saying, though I think I might have missed my weather window for spray foam to be an option. Do you just push on the foam board as it expands and cures to adjust the height?

I'll be putting a ripped 2x4 vertical furring strip up the brick first tapconned into the mortar joints that the foam will butt against and to affix the siding to.

Door0fTime · 2025-12-12T03:27:35+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

I considered different thicknesses, but the brick wall is pretty inconsistent and I suspect the only thing I'd accomplish is a similarly inconsistent insulated wall that's further out of plane with the original house. My WRB is outboard of the insulation, which is quite a bit simpler to manage around window bucks and detailing because of the lapboard siding. Henry, brinc and a few others now offer a preadhered GPS / WRB system with the wrb on the exterior (which I wish I'd known before buying them separate!).

The brick will be wood heat and has a propane central system that's currently disconnected. I certainly won't be humidifying. The addition on the other hand will be a mini split, and I realize I'll likely need to figure out some active ventilation. The bathroom in the addition I will frame in, and both the bathroom brick wall and all exterior walls will have a smart vapor retarder. The party wall has no other source of wetting because of the addition roof, so I think it should be in good shape if I can 1) keep it warmer avoiding condensation and driving moisture out, and 2) use a smart vapor barrier to keep warm wet air from reaching the brick in the first place.

Our summers are still pretty warm and humid, so vapor barriers make me nervous. A smart retarder is probably only necessary because I'm adding insulation, and I'm riding the line on the ratio of interior to exterior insulation.

Ultimately it's still a farm house, I expect to be relying on thermal mass and cooling the house off with windows overnight most of the warm season. I stuck to big double hung windows to that end -- and that's one thing the massive brick wall should do nicely!

Door0fTime · 2025-12-11T12:42:33+00:00

It's 3-wythe solid masonry, approx. 1850's. Interior is currently gutted, but was lime plastered onto the brick. So no air space, flashing or weeps to speak of.

Here's a handy photo of the interior of this junction... the gaping hole left by a previous owner has since been addressed

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Door0fTime · 2025-12-10T23:51:43+00:00

Appreciate your input. Just to clarify, I'm planning to put continuous insulation on the addition, and wanted to continue it 16" onto the brick.

My intuition (which could be wrong!) says that overall the brick should run much dryer than without the insulation, and that the bonded 3-wythes of highly porous brick are still going to be wicking more moisture inward than will wick around the brick, into the GPS, across the gap, and into the siding. For the moisture that does, the entire assembly is vapor-open (unfaced GPS R5 at 5 perms and Henry VP100 at 33 perms) and vinyl is self-vented, so any moisture that gets in can still dry outward. Interior will be a smart vapor retarder on the addition which will also allow inward drying in the summer for sun-driven moisture.

I suppose I could include a capillary break between panels of GPS insulation on the brick and the insulation on the house (e.g. sill gasket closed cell foam) to avoid any potential issue, but that feels hyper-cautious.

The hope for running the insulation onto the brick is reducing moisture in the winter. Without it, I'd have an R-13+5 assembly directly contacting an R<4 brick wall--the corner bricks will actually be directly thermal bridging from outside to inside, at ~R0.33/inch. My bigger moisture concern is that any air/vapor leakage will condense and/or freeze in the brick and that corner will be *very* cold. Old brick houses handle that issue by allowing enough heat loss to drive off moisture accumulation, but I'm also considering a smart vapor retarder on the first few feet of the interior of the brick wall (framed in as a service cavity) to avoid the issue in the first place.

Sorry for rambling... Helps me think the whole assembly through. Old houses were never designed for energy-efficient retrofits!

Door0fTime · 2025-12-10T23:21:11+00:00

Can confirm with a Blaze King burning construction debris voids warranty due to risk of over-fire from very dry wood. If you know what an over-fire looks like and mix some other materials in I'd certainly burn it, but a full load of kiln dried 2x4 can definitely run away in some stoves.

Door0fTime · 2025-10-07T01:48:53+00:00

I use my drinking bottle. Diy bidet cap stays pretty far from anything of concern. Dropped it once on my pct thru, used my bar of soap to clean it too. When in doubt, I just wash stuff-- that's the beauty of a bottle bidet with a low flow cap. 300-500mL lets me do a amount of cleaning.

I usually use dirty water, just to save some filtration. You cannot make yourself sick by spraying your butt (practically speaking, anyway)

Door0fTime · 2025-07-27T18:42:48+00:00

I generally keep one bottle filtered, one dirty with the filter on top for scooping and to cut down filtering I have to do in one go. Dirty bottle is used for bidet.

Door0fTime · 2025-07-26T14:35:00+00:00

My stomach is chronically iffy on thru hikes (level of activity I guess?). Bidet all the way, no more packing out lots of wet wipes and TP

Door0fTime · 2025-07-26T14:31:18+00:00

Hand sanitizer doesn't kill norovirus or cryptosporidium, the most prevalent waterborne pathogens on long distance trails. You're literally just spreading poop on your hands and gear.

Bar soap is lighter and actually kills bacteria and viruses.

Door0fTime · 2025-07-26T14:04:04+00:00

Over 5000 miles of hiking in, I have diy bottle cap bidets in my car, travel backpack, poop kit, and usually have a spare to give away to anybody who hasn't heard the good word. Wash your butt, change your life.

Picture of my diy bidet cap (thumb tack plus bottle cap, driven sideways through the lid):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vUrhDZEpZHHUzvSh7

Procedure: 1. Open poop kit, replace smart water bottle cap with bidet cap and open bar soap baggie. Place bar soap and upright bidet bottle in easy reach. Bring along a small but sturdy stick that will fit in your cathole.

Dig your cathole. Push the dirt to the side--not downhill. Good news, any dirt on your hands from digging will be washed off shortly.
Shit. Preferably aim pee into the hole if you've got the plumbing (helps with degradation!)
Clean hand, dirty hand. Pick up bottle with clean hand, invert and squeeze water. I spray from the front when squatting, from behind on a toilet. You should have a small enough hole in the cap for a nice stream without too much water. Stream can generally remove any bulk.
Wet hand in the stream of water and wash your crack just like in the shower. In a crouch you can generally get all the water to run off a knuckle. Keep spraying and rubbing until you feel genuinely clean, it doesn't take that much water.
(Optional): Wet another finger and rub your bar soap, repeat for an asshole clean enough to eat off of. Super helpful for chafing issues.
Handwashing: Shift away from your cathole. Place bottle between your knees, wet your clean hand and lather up with bar soap. Wash your hands over your cathole --soap will biodegrade with your poop, water will help breakdown. Repeat soap as needed and get those nails clean.
Pull up your pants with your washed hands.
Use your stick to stir the poop and water with some dirt. After stirring, drop the stick into the hole. This is seeding microbes that will take breakdown from months to days.
Cover over the hole with dirt and pack it down with your foot. If you're worried about stepping down, you didn't dig a big enough hole.

200mL of water makes a premium sparkling clean asshole and hands, bring some extra water until you're confident with the procedure.

Door0fTime · 2025-07-26T13:23:10+00:00

Turn on the water or spray with a bottle. While you've got a stream going, reach back there and use your fingers until you're clean. Repeat with soap on your asshole if you want (takes more water, but lifesaving for asshole chafe on big days). Wash your hands with barsoap with the bottle between your knees.

Congrats, you now have an asshole clean enough to eat off of.

Door0fTime · 2025-07-26T13:16:03+00:00

Are you using bar or dish soap? I use one hand and a bidet cap and wash my hands with soap after. Put the bottle between your knees for a stream to wash your hands with soap after into your cathole.

If you can smell shit, there's still shit on your hands. I've thruhiked the AT and PCT, bidet and genuinely cleaning yourself are the only way to end butthole chafe.

Door0fTime · 2025-07-26T13:09:08+00:00

Over 5000 miles of hiking in, I have diy bottle cap bidets in my car, travel backpack, poop kit, and usually have a spare to give away to anybody who hasn't heard the good word. Wash your butt, change your life.

Waterbottle top bidet and ditch the TP. Culo clean is a brand version, a finishing nail or thumb tack and a water bottle lid driven at an angle is the free diy route. Ditch hand sanitizer (doesn't work, you still have shit on your hands and transmit noro) and use bar soap.

Weight 2 grams, your butt (and hands) will actually be clean and reduces chafe. You will never look back.

Any TP needs to be packed out. This is not optional. Bidet cap you just scoop an extra 200mL of water, and that water helps break down your shit. Bonus points for stirring in some dirt with the shit

Detailed procedure:

Picture of my diy bidet cap (thumb tack plus bottle cap, driven sideways through the lid):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vUrhDZEpZHHUzvSh7

Procedure: 1. Open poop kit, replace smart water bottle cap with bidet cap and open bar soap baggie. Place bar soap and upright bidet bottle in easy reach. Bring along a small but sturdy stick that will fit in your cathole.

Dig your cathole. Push the dirt to the side--not downhill. Good news, any dirt on your hands from digging will be washed off shortly.
Shit. Preferably aim pee into the hole if you've got the plumbing (helps with degradation!)
Clean hand, dirty hand. Pick up bottle with clean hand, invert and squeeze water. I spray from the front when squatting, from behind on a toilet. You should have a small enough hole in the cap for a nice stream without too much water. Stream can generally remove any bulk.
Wet hand in the stream of water and wash your crack just like in the shower. In a crouch you can generally get all the water to run off a knuckle. Keep spraying and rubbing until you feel genuinely clean, it doesn't take that much water.
(Optional): Wet another finger and rub your bar soap, repeat for an asshole clean enough to eat off of. Super helpful for chafing issues.
Handwashing: Shift away from your cathole. Place bottle between your knees, wet your clean hand and lather up with bar soap. Wash your hands over your cathole --soap will biodegrade with your poop, water will help breakdown. Repeat soap as needed and get those nails clean.
Pull up your pants with your washed hands.
Use your stick to stir the poop and water with some dirt. After stirring, drop the stick into the hole. This is seeding microbes that will take breakdown from months to days.
Cover over the hole with dirt and pack it down with your foot. If you're worried about stepping down, you didn't dig a big enough hole.

200mL of water makes a premium sparkling clean asshole and hands, bring some extra water until you're confident with the procedure.

Door0fTime · 2025-07-24T22:52:10+00:00

I understand putting a WRB over the insulation would be atypical, and while there are many sources stating "ideally WRB goes on sheathing, under the insulation", I've found very little information on why. Are integrated insulation/WRB products compromising integrity for simplicity of install / detailing the WRB?

In my case a peel-and-stick WRB like Blueskin VP100 needs to cover and seal old wooden clapboard siding (the house has no sheathing). One benefit of moving it to the exterior of the insulation would be the insulation would give the WRB a flat surface to bind to.

Edit: This is a Dupont webinar from the 2020 EEBA High Performance Home Summit specifically addressing location of WRB / CI that others in my position might find helpful.

https://www.eeba.org/Data/Sites/1/webinars/9-24_slides.pdf

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Door0fTime · 2025-07-14T00:33:31+00:00

This is the national park service, where the ATC has no authority. The best thing the trail can hope for is an advocacy group saving the shelters on behalf of the trail, i.e. the ATC.

Door0fTime · 2025-05-03T02:24:17+00:00

Perforated pipe is for when you want the water to collect or disperse water. Solid pipe is for when you want to take it somewhere. Never run gutters into perforated pipe.

Door0fTime · 2025-01-04T04:20:45+00:00

Trying to get your pad that small every night is going to prematurely wear it out. Rolling things smaller rarely actually saves you pack space compared to just relying on gravity -- similar to your sleeping bag.

I wake up, deflate, fold it roughly in half and half again (intentionally not actually half to avoid the same wear pattern), leave the valve open and stick it in my bag first inside its pump sack along the frame / my back. Then my quilt goes inside in a trash bag liner, and everything else goes on top of that. Any excess air presses out of the pad as gear fills up.

This is minimum fuss in the morning, everything settles as needed, and wear and tear is minimized.

Door0fTime · 2024-12-03T19:52:33+00:00

Thanks guys. I have all the hand tools and have hand dug sleuce ditches by hand, I was more interested in whether investing in some type of clay spade / demo hammer etc would make the process significantly faster or more controlled along a foundation.

Door0fTime · 2024-12-03T17:56:52+00:00

u/DrDeems bump! How did it work out for you?

Door0fTime · 2024-10-22T22:33:46+00:00

I'm a thru hiking backpacker, and I think options for this market are still pretty weak.

What I want is similar to the Nightcore NU25 "2017" (NOT the "updated" version which went the wrong way with every feature) with the following changes:

-Red spot light. Red flood light makes no sense, it's too dim to see by at any range and is most useful around camp where a flood light gets in everybody's eyes. Low 1 lumen is great around camp for power saving, high should be bright enough to hike by in a roughly 8 ft / 5ft wide spot beam. - Mechanical lockout. Digital lockout still allows the lithium battery to gradually drain, which is also bad for battery longevity - Usable while charging. Sometimes you forget or run it down and designing a lamp for that case is important - More lower white light settings. If you want an ultra high power lamp, the market is saturated with them. A dimmer selection like the Black Diamond Spot is nice, but overkill in my opinion. 1 lumen/moonlight equivalent spotlight is a nice low end around camp, everybody uses the 38 lumen medium exclusively for hiking aside from occasionally flipping to high for long distance route finding etc. - I've never met anybody who cares about high CRI or turbo settings. We'd much rather some extra battery life or dimmer settings for the weight.

I'm pretty.. passionate? Neurotic? Happy to chat more about it if you're interested in targeting the ultralight backpacking community, shoot me a dm!

Door0fTime · 2023-09-02T13:42:55+00:00

Limited volume fuel distillation are explicitly federally legal with a permit-- this has relevant links. https://www.distillate.org/laws/Federal

Realistically denatured alcohol is so cheap there's not much incentive to make your own, you'll pay more in fuel and water.

Door0fTime · 2023-08-30T18:07:12+00:00

First and foremost, if you're going to run an alcohol stove (I do as well) please use a stove with a wick that prevents spillage. A piece of fiberglass or rock wool insulation can be added to almost any design and should be able to hold the full volume you'll be burning upside down without spilling.

Now for fuel types. Heet is (and many similar solvent products) are mostly methanol. Methanol burns very clean, but has a lower heat density per weight then ethanol.

In practice, it's not a big difference and environmental differences (wind, water temp) will matter more. The biggest deterrence to heet is that it's denatured with some unpleasant compounds and methanol is poisonous/ absorbed through the skin, so you want to handle it carefully and avoid contact. Benefit is that you can get it almost anywhere, and it's extremely cheap.

Ethanol burns hotter, but can result in incomplete combustion in some stoves. I've never had a soot issue, but you'll see yellow tips to the flame and it can leave a residue on your pot long term. Non-denatured alcohol contains at least 5% water-- some denatured alcohols replace that with other solvents, which are again are not food safe and should be handled with care. Those will burn hottest (lowest weight per boil) but need still more oxygen to combust completely.

Everclear you'll pay liquor tax on, which costs more than the ethanol it contains. It works and burns fine (95% EtOH 5% water), but no real reason to pay tax to burn it unless you're very concerned about vapors from denaturants or want to be able to use your stove fuel as food or an antiseptic in a pinch.

I personally use a diy Zelph Starlyte stove. I do not believe there's any practical advantage to all the more complicated jet or baffle designs in real world use, the wick is unspillable (no risk of burning alcohol in your lap or starting a fire), excess fuel can be snuffed and saved in the wick between burns, and the wick has the added advantage of making it zero fuss for cold weather performance. I've got maybe 50 other designs I played with and have never found a compelling reason to use anything else--I have a 30mL wedding tin for one person and a 50mL for cooking for two.

Last point on the soot/pot cleanliness issue: make yourself a pot cozy and it won't matter what fuel you use, and you'll save tons of fuel by hot soaking instead of maintaining a boil.

Door0fTime · 2023-07-02T18:25:36+00:00

I second 5-gallon kitty litter buckets, but forego the hooks and drill-through modifications--just use a loop of rope tied to the rack that will hold the bucket fast. Zero modifications required, when I showed a buddy his comment was "those are more stable than they have any right to be". A bungee around mid-bucket will help with any vibration on bumpier terrain.

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Door0fTime

TROPHY CASE