Ceiling Insulation & Panel Test

The summer sun is out and has gotten me thinking about ceiling insulation!! It tends to put some heat into the coach. Anything I can do to help prevent that is worth doing.

In addition to preventing heat, I’ve been itching to get moving on several interior items. However; I’ve been sort of stuck as these things require a certain order. For example; ceiling panels. I want to get them done so I can start thinking about window valances and such. Well… to finish them, I need the insulation up. However; I also need to get the satellite TV antenna mounted and coax routed. The two existing emergency hatches are going to be ‘filled’ with framing to create two 14″ square holes. In each of these, I am installing a Fantastic Vent and an air conditioner. Of course, each of those require some power and control wires. The A/C requires ducting. Then I question whether I really need air conditioning – I’ve gone this long without it… Plus other things… All of this ‘complexity’ often stops me in my tracks.

Analysis Paralysis, right John R! 🙂

I had previously installed 1″ foam board insulation to the front half of the ceiling. I purchased this insulation in Minnesota last summer at one of the big home improvement building centers. When I went looking to purchase more here in New Mexico, there was none to be found. Well… I found it but only in 2’x4′ panels. So, I decided to switch to the pink panther stuff. Interestingly, the 1″ blue is not quite as thick as the 1″ pink. I was not aware that color affected thickness but clearly it does. Not a big deal though.

I am currently out of the 1″x2″ furring strips that are used to secure the foam boards to the ceiling. Two hours from the nearest store sort of precludes a quick run to get more. So, I did the best I could to make it stay until I resupply. It seems to be working.  As you can see, there are some bits to work around and some filling still required.

I’ve also been kinda stuck on the ceiling panels (discussed here). Not only the panel but how to attach it to the ceiling so the fasteners are hidden. I finally decided to get one ‘white board’ type panels and install it with plain ‘ole screws so I can see what it looks like. I was expecting it to be too bright, too white, too shiny, and not like seeing all the screws.

Now that it’s up??? Well… I like it far more than I had expected. It’s at the front of Missy so a little hard to see how it works with the cabinet and other colors – at least for my eyes.  The thing I like is that there are a huge number of interesting possibilities for accents.  I can imagine a slightly dropped panel with LED back lighting to create some sort of interesting feel.

The other thing I like!  It should be easy to clean off spaghetti sauce splatters!!! 🙂

Obviously, LOTS of trim work is missing at this point.  The corners at the sides will have a sort of ‘box’ that will include the window valances and maybe be used for some wiring and/or air ducting.  The curtains are still temporary… and on and on… 🙂