This metal isn't very thin, and I already know it's easy to bend. Of the sheets I have examined, there are no nail holes. I did find one sheet that has what may be a water stain on it. One bit I found was cut down, but I do not know from what or for what. I'll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow. Today went a bit sideways as Sean was called into work, so I shifted my house plans accordingly. I have some magnets, so I can test that as well.phil wrote:the kind of zinc they use on roofs is thin , it looks like oxidized aluminum but it is quite soft, you'd be able to easily bend it with your fingers.. the stuff suitable for a countertop would be quite a bit thicker. if it were leftovers from the roof it might be full of nail holes? it could be some aluminum flashing too. if it is tin it would be attracted by a magnet but lead, aluminum, and zinc and nickle will not attract a magnet.
when my cat catches mice she seems happy to bring them to show off.
I've been reading up on how to seal up the gap around our chimney, and I wonder if maybe the metal was to be used as flashing for such? It's an awful lot of sheeting for that, but I still have no idea what they were thinking at the time.
Oh. When I was poking around in the attic to suss some things out, I realized that the foil like backer on the attic side of the ceiling got scratched up a bit here and there, likely when they added the gable vents. There was one section (under the east vent) where it appears they actually used the reflective paint, so maybe there was a patch done later because of water or perhaps the foil backer got really mucked up. Not sure. Can't see any signs of water intrusion, though.
I did read up on attic gable vents, and although it's killing me how much cold air is pouring in right now (and hot likely going out), especially because we do not have a fan in the full bath yet, I don't think it's a great idea to close them.
Which leads into Sean. He also has already filled up the other day he was to have off, so we had to plan a work-around to help me be able to continue the work in the attic as intelligently as we can manage. He stopped by Lowe's today to return that burner coil that didn't fit, and picked me up another bale of insulation plus a much needed better respirator with replacement filters. I tried it on as soon as he came home, and it fits pretty good though my glasses don't seat well on the bridge. Tomorrow, I'll be gathering up all the big pieces of whatever, then when he comes home I'll send them down in our bucket in one continuous stream until it's all gone.
If I still have time before he gets home, I'll get back to the cleaning up part. I did take up the wider knee board today, and it's exactly what I needed. I did manage to bring down what I'm still pretty sure is an old wooden ironing board, though I wondered then if maybe the padding was for knees and it was the original attic knee board. I'll take a pic later today or tomorrow.
Out of our three kitties, Og used to just sit on them after he'd catch them, Mendel would play with them, but Kira was always the killer, often grabbing them away from the boys. I've actually been pretty amazed at not having seen any mice or recent mouse sign here. Oh, that reminds me...NO BATS. None. I spent quite a bit of time checking all over. But I think I figured out how the one bat got in. The screening (soft nylon) in the gable vents is all too easy to push around. I'll have to get some rubber tubing or the like to fix that problem.
Also, the knot I saw knocked out apparently happened when they added the roof ridge vent. I can see the back of the tarpaper (?) from inside, and when they did it, like the gable vents, they just hacked away at the wood planks. At least their cuts were straighter up there.
I'm steadily working around the house with the rope caulk, and already I'm feeling quite a difference from both that plus the door gasket we added. It amazed me how much warmer the parlor got despite my having pulled two storms from there to put in the office since it's currently the second coldest living space (right below the rad-less guest room.)
I did not have a chance to take a pic of the Frankenstein door today. I have to do something. The cold air coming in is crazy, and since we're missing some of our sill blocks (and haven't put in insulation there yet because I haven't finished the attic), that cold air is likely just getting sucked right up the walls.
Still, every bit I manage towards air sealing and insulation, the closer we get to stopping that sort of thing.
This was the respirator I got, which I figure will carry through to other projects later: