Insulation stapling question

[Peter Langevin]

I was at a friend's new home the other day looking around, and the insulation various parts of the house was stapled differently. If I remember correctly, it was face stapled in the basement, ie: the flaps were folded over the studs and then stapled. It was also face stapled in a couple rooms on the third floor, but the rest of the house was inset stapled, ie: the flaps were set back on the inside of the studs and stapled to the sides, leaving about an inch between the drywall and the facing of the insulation.

I looked around tonight at a few sites, and have found it suggested both ways. Fine Homebuilding's site says to inset it, but others say the face stapling is the ideal vapor barrier.

So is there a right way and a wrong way, or is it just the installers preference? And drawbacks for one over the other?

Thanks all.

[Joseph Meehan]

The only real wrong way is to have bird eyes where it is not flat.

You get a little better vapor barrier with the flaps over the studs and a little better insulation if they are against the sides (assuming the fiberglass does not fill the cavity

[willshak]

On 1/25/2005 10:52 PM US(ET), Peter Langevin took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

In my brief experience as a carpenter, the insulation was always stapled to the insides of the stud, as instructed by the GC that I worked for. The paper facing on the insulation was just used for stapling and was not considered as a vapor barrier since we always stapled up clear vinyl over all exterior walls, and on ceiling joists for cathedral ceilings or where there was an unfinished attic above.