Hello All, I have a new 2 story house being built in Northwest Indiana (cold snow climate). I am trying to find the best solution/cost for insulating my house. Here is what we have right now: Vinyl siding - Tyvek House Wrap - Waverboard - 2x4 walls. As of right now the house is open on the inside and we can do as we please. Here is what I want: 1/2" Spray Foam Closed Cell Skim Coat with Wet Cellulose overtop for all exterior walls. Basement walls 4x8x2" Foam Sheets taped and sprayed in corners along with 4x8x2" foam floor sheeting with plywood overtop Master Bedroom/Bathroom is completly over the garage and I want 1" Closed Cell Spray foam on the garage ceiling/bedroom floor with R40 Blown cellulose in the garage ceiling. I think this will give the thermal break, leak break and help keep the room at an even temp Garage and common walls Wet cellulose with vapor barrier Box Sills, Rim Joists, etc: 1" Spray foam with fireretardant with wet cellulose Attic with flat and cathedral ceiling, I would like either of the following: Spray foam Closed Cell on Roof deck and blown cellulose in the attic. Conditioned attic and move the 2nd furnace to this area or R49 Blown cellulose and keep attic vented. Keep the 2nd furnace in its current location The quotes from the various insulation companies are within a couple hundred bucks of each other and I am trying to see what will be the best option for my new house. Please feel free to comment and if you need more info let me know. Thanks

Use InSoFast in the basement, easy, cheap performs well and you can attach drywall.

So the HVAC system isn't installed yet? If not, you need to figure that out first. IMO, It would be best to keep everything out of the attic. Keep all returns and supplies in the conditioned space. If you do that, the plans for your garage ceiling/mb floor might change. Are you using floor trusses or TJI's? In the garage, consider hanging XPS from the ceiling and blowing in cellulose above it. Hang your HVAC runs as high as possible and also run your DVW pipes as high as possible. I'd consider the garage as the exterior, so you'd want to keep the vapor retarder (xps/cc foam) to the garage side of the floor system. Depending on the depth of your floor system and what you have running in their, insulating that area can get tricky

Question: what is waverboard? Is that the black fiberboard that's used in place of OSB/plywood?

I've still don't buy into the roof deck spray foam insulation and "conditioning' the attic. Depending on the roof type, there could be a lot of air to condition. Why not just focus on conditioning the air you live in . . . .Plus, I've heard too many horror stories of delamination of the spray foam from the underside of the deck, then condensation, then rot. It doesn't need a roof leak for this to happen. I'd have to believe this scenario is worse in climates where there are great temperature and humidity changes, which is where I live. In the summer it'll hit 95 with high humidity for weeks, then in the winter it'll be dry and in the teens.

If you are doing some spray foam, you might consider spraying the box sills and rim joists to control air leakage.

The waver board was a mistype on my end. It is just particleboard outer exterior than tyvek and the vinyl siding.

No HVAC as of yet, but we plan to have 2 setups. 1 for the basement and main floor. This unit will be located in the basement with all runs in the floor

The second HVAC is going on the 1st floor and ducted up to the 2nd floor rooms or along the floor joists (whichever is easier to do and provides the best return and flow)

All of the box sills, rim joists will be spray foamed and covered with batt material (our local code requires it, even if it has the fire retardant in it)

For the basement I am using 4x8x2" pink foam boards that I can get for $6ea, than build my 2x4 walls on the outside of that. Plus I will add batt material to the 2x4 wall for even more insulation. I will than put foam on the floor and cover it with plywood sheets.

I think I am going to just do blown cellulose in the attic at least R49-R50 and make sure they put in the baffles and have good air flow.

Our house is also going to be tested by a local engineering company to see if our house meets the energy star rating for HVAC, insulation, etc ($500 is not bad for the testing they do)

Well my home was tested and It came back with a rating score of 51, so our house is 5 Star + rated.
The only issue that was found were the can lights in the 2nd floor ceiling allowed 185cfm of air through, but after we caulked the can lighting/drywall that was significantly lowered.

Our 2 furnaces are 45k btu with 2 ton 13seer AC units. We also have a fresh air intake system (saving up for the HRV)