Extra Insulation?

[littlebitfarm]

I am looking to tighten my house up a bit more. House is about 20 years old. 1/3 (entire east side and 1/2 the south side) of it sits about 4' into the hillside and has 8" walls. I have good windows and doors. Added a 3 season room onto about half the south side. I have already had the crawl space sprayed with insulation, made lots of difference. Added extra attic insulation, now about 2' up there.

What I am considering doing is ripping drywall and insulation out of the 2 spare bedrooms and having spray foam insulation put in. One bedroom has a west wall and the other room has a north and a west wall. So my walls with the least insulation have the most winter exposure. The living room is big enough that I can frame up another 2" X 4" wall on the west wall and I won't miss the space.

I know I won't break even anytime soon on the costs. But I am thinking comfort wise and long term savings. Would it be worth the hassle?

Kathie

[ldc]

Yes! Just spent 15 yrs in a house w no insulation (except attic, that I did) that came w my job. Even in a much warmer climate, it was uncomfortable each winter. Go for comfort!!! ldc

[samm]

i want to add more insulation to our attic too
but on the wall that you are adding the 2x4 extension to make sure that your elect. outlets have enough wiring to pull out that far.

samm

[fantasymaker]

Dont rip it out just add a new wall and insulation.

[kimmom2five]

I think sometimes you don't have to rip out the whole wall, just small holes to spray the insulation into.

[Ross]

If you're going to do it then don't go cheap. Rip it out, fix any problems, run any new electrical, spray it and put in new. JMO

[littlebitfarm]

I don't want to add new 2 by walls to the bedrooms. Those are small rooms and I don't want to give up the space. Would go with all new drywall, not trying to save it, drywall is cheap. Electrical is fine but I may add a couple outlets.

Just don't know how much I gain going from 3 1/2 batts to spray insulation. Just know that even with plastic I'm betting there is less air infiltration with the spray insulation.

Kathie

[Ross]

Roughly going from R12 (assuming fibreglas) to R 15 considering rated factors (R5 per inch for foam with some product differences) but yes you're sealing up air infiltration and doing a better job on a vapor barrier. Again some foams are better than others. The gain will be much more than the R3 difference, with the air containment. Tough to offer a guess but it could be very substantial if there are serious leaks in the outer wall or insulation faults

[mamaof3peas]

when we added spray insulation , they went in the outside of siding and blew it in and added little plugs where they added it

[TNHermit]

One inch foam board glued to drywall and 1/4 in drywall glued and finished over that and your up to R18 Minimum work. Lose an 1-1/4 50-100.00 per wall

[Ross]

You can get foam board with strapping notches too so you can screw the foam to the wall and have something to support pictures and the drywall after. You could sprayfoam the edges of the foam board for a faster cheaper method. I am wondering about vapour lock though

[ET1 SS]

We ripped the interior walls down and filled the bays with insulation in one home we had. It did wonders for us.

Also spray-on foam is much better then foam board.

[SolarGary]

Hi,
You might look at the Mooney wall as an alternative:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...MooneyWall.htm

Gary