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" There&amp;#039;s a barn I&amp;#039;m renovating\u2014and will be renovating for the remaining years of my life. It&amp;#039;s 30 years old, has a concrete-block first floor and gambrel roof, it&amp;#039;s in great shape\u2014and it&amp;#039;s slated to become my shop, which now takes up temporary digs in the basement of the house. Some might be satisfied with the basement\u00AC\u2014but that&amp;#039;s another story. Now, this is a real barn\u2014it has stalls for horses\u2014and the last owner had sheep, too. It also had an insulated room with a long-gone woodstove, about 10 feet by 14 feet, and it&amp;#039;s lined with 1/4-in. plywood and thin pine battens that covered the seams. Like most heated spaces built from the &amp;#039;70s on, this one was insulated with fiberglass batts. The walls of the room came down fairly easily\u2014except for the fact that outside panels were secured with construction adhesive as well as nails. And the R-11 foiled-faced batts almost looked like they could be used again. In fact, I thought twice about removing the ceiling\u2014after all, it was already insulated. But, ceilings come down easier than walls, I figured, so I headed up the ladder with a pry bar and hammer. The first smallish panel produced a torrent of dirt and insulation\u2014and what I first thought to be a tiny light bulb with a delicate filament coming from it&amp;#039;s base, extending to\u2014a ball of fur? It only took a moment for the light bulb to turn on in my head, and I immediately took off for the hardware store to check out dust masks and the latest in hazmat suits. Within an hour or so, I had the ceiling\u2014and what remained of the insulation\u2014 down on the floor. And, I can tell you something\u2014mice like fiberglass. In fact, it&amp;#039;s clear that fiberglass is one of their preferred construction materials. They move it from here to there, bunch it up and hollow it out. They nest in it, use it as a bathroom and, as far as I know, they may eat it, too. I bring this up, because barns aren&amp;#039;t the only structures with mouse-supporting potential. I have a feeling that your everyday attic will work just as well. Think you have R-19 worth of fiberglass that was installed during the last energy crisis? Maybe so. By the way, the new shop will be insulated with foam\u2014rigid and sprayed-in-place. I&amp;#039;ll let you know how it holds up.\u2014Tom Klenck Glass Ceiling: Deteriorated foil facing of R-19 batt shows an empty joist cavity above. The Big Dig: Rodent engineering at its best. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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