DIY Rockwool Insulation For a Stone House!

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:06]All right, and we're back after an abrupt interruption. Had to take care of a work call. So, now we're back at it today insulating the roof. So, what we've done is we vacuumed the roof, got rid of all the dust and debris that was on top of the wood. Then, we passed our xylophane on top to prevent any kind of insects or mushrooms from growing. And now we're gonna continue with insulating with our favorite rockwool. So over here we have our rockwool.

[00:00:38]It's a 20 cm thickness. You can see that. And it's rigid panels. So it sticks into place. So although it sticks into place, you know, Sir Isaac Newton has some different opinions about what's going to happen with it over time. So, just to make sure that gravity is not pulling it down, we're going to protect the insulation in place with these rails running across perpendicularly to the rafters here. So, that's going to hold anything from falling further.

[00:01:11]>> One question, Nathan.

[00:01:12]>> Yeah.

[00:01:13]>> So, do you remember initially in the house when we bought it that was here the hallway to the bedrooms, right?

[00:01:23]>> Yes.

[00:01:23]>> That was just one bedroom, right? but with like a divider wall and we decided to knock down the the wall to make it a huge room, right? But here was a smaller door and we made it like a wider opening obviously using these big doors. And look at the floor now.

[00:01:42]Some hardwood floor is missing here. At least up till here. Can you fix that, please?

[00:01:51]>> I'll put on my to-do list.

[00:01:55]Can you explain what we're installing in this area here?

[00:01:59]>> Yes. So, this is going to be a temporary receiving area, I guess you would call it, or more traditionally a living room.

[00:02:08]And we're going to have those Moroccan couches that you saw in the other video, installed here and over here as well.

[00:02:14]>> I mean, we're going to reinstall our kitchen here. So, in my opinion, it's more of a loft.

[00:02:21]>> Yeah.

[00:02:22]>> No, no, no. It's more of a penthouse.

[00:02:25]>> Okay.

[00:02:26]>> No, you don't think we have a penthouse?

[00:02:29]>> I was thinking more of a studio.

[00:02:32]>> It looks like a New York penthouse.

[00:02:35]>> Yeah, we are on the top floor. So, >> we are on the top floor. Some old brick/ stones are appearing, you know.

[00:02:44]>> Yeah, >> we have industrial style windows. Every all ingredients are guttered.

[00:02:50]>> Exactly.

[00:02:52]Good luck.

[00:02:53]>> All right. Thank you.

[00:03:02]>> Okay. Our rail is a little bit long, so I'm going to cut it down to size so it fits just how we want between the two support beams.

[00:03:30]piece here.

[00:03:41]I have my safety goggles on because I'm going to be working above my head and this stuff really does fall in your face when you're working with it. So, it's important that you put something to protect your eyes.

[00:04:09]So this next section that we're going to work on here, it's a little bit narrower than this one, 50 cm. So I'm going to cut another panel off, shut off 10 cm, so it fits in place. These roofs were just, you know, handmade using approximation, not perfect measurements.

[00:04:27]So you kind of gota work around it and make it custom fit into place.

[00:04:57]Okay. Okay. So, this panel I'm going to shave off the 10 cm long ways. And I'm going to do it from this side because this other side here has an indentation that's actually meant for the rafters.

[00:05:12]This specific rock wall is called the rock comb.

[00:05:16]And all that means in France is the part of the roof that's kind of lost. It's hidden.

[00:05:24]So that's why they have this piece for the rafters.

[00:05:41]I even take off a little bit less about 9 cm just so it's a nice snug fit.

[00:05:59]Technically, there is a saw specifically for cutting this, but I figure this works just fine.

[00:06:09]This is actually a Japanese wood saw.

[00:06:13]So, you have further spaced apart blades here and finer space apart blades on this side.

[00:06:36]Are you tossing this, Nathan?

[00:06:39]>> So, when we're working with this rock wall, there's really no waste. anything that I cut off. For the bigger sections where it's wider than 60 cmters, which is the width of these rigid panels, I'm going to stuff the extra insulation between the 60 cm panel and the rafter.

[00:07:18]Okay. So, here's some of the hardwood floor that we salvaged. Does this look good for what you want?

[00:07:24]>> Yeah.

[00:07:25]>> All right.

[00:07:26]>> Perfect.

[00:07:27]>> Just need to cut it down to size.

[00:07:29]>> Yeah. Is this one going to fit? Well, I need to cut it down to size, but yeah, I made myself a note here. So, I know this is the 44th plank in the line. And here we have plank number 43.

[00:07:47]So, this is technically the next one I should use.

[00:07:50]Nathan, it's full of nails.

[00:07:53]>> Yeah.

[00:07:58]So, if I understand well, this is exactly this this plank that was there.

[00:08:04]>> Yes.

[00:08:05]>> Wow. This is crazy. Nathan, you number them all.

[00:08:10]>> Yeah, just in case we ever put them back perfectly the same.

[00:08:14]>> You are a control freak.

[00:08:18]>> Look at this guys. He numbered all the planks of the hardwood floor. He removed like everywhere.

[00:08:28]the other room, too. The closet.

[00:08:30]>> You did that?

[00:08:31]>> Yeah.

[00:08:32]>> Wow. I don't know how I missed that detail. Anyway, okay. Since the opening is wider than the original one, >> I think just two.

[00:08:42]>> Just two.

[00:08:46]>> Yeah.

[00:08:47]>> Okay. So, you're going to like do it.

[00:08:50]You don't have to do it now, right?

[00:08:53]>> Uh, not the second, but >> Do you have nails?

[00:08:56]I have some Yeah. flooring nails.

[00:08:59]>> Okay.

[00:09:00]Perfect. Then I'm happy.

[00:09:02]>> All right. If you're happy, I'm happy.

[00:09:05]Whoa.

[00:09:05]>> All right. Last night I did my final row here. Got these four five panels in. I forgot about the one over here. So, we have this section of the roof almost done.

[00:09:19]I just have this small piece remaining here. And then after that, I'm going to pass through all these openings here and stuff in between. So all these panels are going to just look like one piece so that we know we're blocking any kind of thermal bridge.

[00:09:36]So I've been working on this insulation about uh I'd say a couple hours a day after work. That's the time I'd set it aside for doing insulation. And I'm on day four now. The first two days is rain, not too hot. So, Saba, but the past couple days and for the upcoming week, it's a heat wave. I think it's 36° I think around like 97° F.

[00:10:06]So, the first two days I wore a jacket to protect my arms from the insulation, but it's just not worth the trade-off anymore. It's way too hot. So, just doing cold showers after I'm done.

[00:10:25]Just doing some measurements for my final panel here.

[00:11:04]Hey, hey, hey, hey.

[00:11:34]Okay, so here's just a final shot of this side. All the gaps are filled. Uh we fit in between the rockwool fiberglass just because that's what we had on hand and some parts rockwool as well. So now that we're done filling this side, I could start the other side.

[00:11:51]However, I'm totally out of any kind of insulation. So I'm going to run to the store real quick and come back.

[00:12:01]All right, and we're back from the store. We have our fresh insulation. And I have a fresh new shirt because the old one was soaked.

[00:12:10]All right, let's get this done.

[00:12:53]Okay. And now we're done closing all the gaps on the second half. So, now it's time to put up our double-sided tape and put up our pear vapor, aka vapor barrier.

[00:13:30]Now, we're going to get started working on our vapor barrier. I have my double-sided tape here and my PAR vapor here. So, where the tape is going to go is right on those metal rails up above us that we put perpendicular across the rafters. And then I'm going to pass the PAR Vapor over that double-sided tape that's on the metal rails. So, it's going to hold into place going down the line. This is just to help prevent all that indoor humidity we get just from living in a stone house and during winter the warm air trying to escape to the cold. And like the city we live in, Bordeaux, O is literally the word for water in French. So, you can imagine we have plenty of it. All right, let's get started.

[00:15:33]Nathan, this is funny. You start from the bottom.

[00:15:37]>> I always do.

[00:15:38]>> You always do?

[00:15:39]>> Yeah. I would I would have thought you would start by the top, cut a piece, and go down, but you're the expert.

[00:15:50]>> The idea is to cut at least possible.

[00:15:54]>> Yeah.

[00:15:57]And just so you know, guys, Nathan planned on insulating even more on top of the ceiling like what we did in the bedroom. Nathan, in the bedroom, we insulated like 40 cm or 30, right?

[00:16:11]>> Uh, >> for the roof.

[00:16:15]>> 20 on the roof and 20 on the ceiling.

[00:16:20]>> No, 20 on the roof and 20 on the ceiling.

[00:16:22]>> That's what I just said.

[00:16:23]>> Oh, okay. Yeah, >> Nathan, this is sweat around your neck.

[00:16:32]>> Yes. In my back.

[00:16:35]on my chest and my arms.

[00:16:37]>> It's 37° again today.

[00:16:57]>> How is it going, Nathan?

[00:17:01]>> It's going.

[00:17:02]>> It's going. It's extremely hot, so I'm a bit lethargic.

[00:17:08]>> Yeah, you're almost half done, by the way.

[00:17:13]>> I would suggest you to stop. It's 9 plus something p.m. and it's still 30 plus degrees.

[00:17:21]>> Yeah. Well, we have to get it done. So, Heat. Heat.

[00:18:15]Hey.

[00:18:46]Okay, so that pretty much does it for the roof.

[00:18:51]I'm just going to bridge this small gap over here.

[00:18:55]But then the rest of this is good to go.