Insulating walls

[unregistered65598]

Not to hijack the other thread about winterizing an old home. I thought maybe you all would have some ideas on insulating walls that are already dry walled. I don't believe we have any insulation in our exterior walls. In the winter you can actually feel the cold air coming in through them. So is there any way we can add some insulation with out ripping down the drywall? I was thinking about drilling small holes and using spray foam. Will that help at all? Or will we just be wasting money?

[fishhead]

I would recommend blowing in cellulose insulation. You will probably have to remove a couple of strips of siding to reach the wall.

I had walls with no insulation. I put 1" blue foam insulation board on the outside after removing the siding. Then I put the siding back up. I also replaced the windows at the same time. Once that was done I removed the buffalo board, insulated the cavities with fiberglass and then put up new sheetrock. It made a world of difference.

[unregistered65598]

Thank you for your input but....

We can't take the siding off as it contains asbestos. I don't want to go through the work of ripping out all the drywall inside, so I was hoping for a simpler solution.

[Wendy]

We had insulation blown in our house. The guys would drill a hole between every stud on the outside of the house & blow the insualtion in. They then would put a cap in the hole to plug it. Made a world of difference.

[Nimrod]

I had a stucco house in with no insulation. I drilled through the lath and plaster on the inside and blew in cellulose insulation. You need to make a hole on the center of each cavity, so 16 inches apart. There may be horizontal 2X4s for fire blocks so you may have to make a hole in each bottom section and each top section.

To fill the hole you cut a piece of lath or plywood that is smaller in width than the hole and longer than the hole. Insert one end in the hole and push it in until you can slip the other end into the hole. Hold onto it so it doesn't slide down inside the wall and attach it with 2 sheetrock screws. Take the circular piece of sheetrock from your hole saw when you drilled the hole and put it into the hole and screw it in with a couple of screws. Mud the whole area with sheetrock joint compound, wait for it to dry, sand, and paint.

This process is messy and time consuming but the alternative is to strip off the sheetrock, insulate, put in a vapor barrier, and re-sheetrock.

The idea of foam is generally not a do-it-yourself project. The little cans are very expensive and don't go far. Also, if you get the cans of expanding foam it can break your wall apart. You can have your walls foamed in by a professional but it's spendy.

Do you still have the windows with the rope and counterweight system? These let in a lot of cold air. Check with your building center on how to insulate them.

[kirkk]

try hy-tech thermal paint additive. Its a product developed by NASA for the shuttles, and recently came on market. Its a ceramic product you add to your paint that insulates. The ceramics are actually tiny ceramic spheres that are a vacuum in the middle. Its like applying a layer of thermoses onto your house that effectively blocks thermal transfer. two coats is like R-20. Cut my heating bill by half.

[farmerj]

our house we had for 8 years, built in 1903. Someone had blown insulation in. Wife wanted new carpeting in a bad way.

I got ticked one day on spring break from the drafts freezing me no matter where I sat coming off the wall.

Tear off the sheet rock, insulate, poly and resheet rock.

It will be alot better job, less time consuming and worth the effort.

When we tore into our walls, it was found to have so much blown insulation that had settled over the years. Sometimes up to 1/2 of the wall was still empty. In others, the top 1/2 had insulation, but the bottom portions had been hollow as they blew it from the top down and either electrical wires or plaster in the lathe and plaster walls had prevented it from going down.

we had one wall which actually had an old picture window about 4'X6' in it that was studded out. Absolutely no way to get insulation into it and there was none in it from when they blocked off the hole....WTH?

[fishhead]

Yes. With an old house you may be surprised with the stud arrangement. I would suggest a good stud finder to locate those surprises.

Whatever you do is going to be tedious but shouldn't cost that much in dollars. The cellulose videos that I've watched show 2 holes per cavity. With the application proper pressure it doesn't settle.

[cowbelle]

Merks, I'm in CO also and the radiant foil, stapled up and then covered with whatever sort of fabric you like the looks of, works marvelously. It's easy, inexpensive and works. I'm stapling up oilcloth in the back door entryway - great old patterns available and another layer of plastic to block the cold air.

[John_Canada]

You may not have an insulation problem, u have a draft problem. You can use sprayfoam to fill gaps, use those gasket things for plugs and cover windows with plastic shrink wrap if you have to till spring. Also, we tend to believe heat is lost through the walls when most heat is lost thru the attic (and foundation in some cases). Remember heat rises. It is why where we are the ceiling insulation codes have nearly doubled. And you can easily access that area and solve that. You may also eventually consider an in floor heat system because you can lower the heat to about 61 and still be really cozy....AND...the heat waves are directed to the ceiling that is now super insulated.

[Yvonne's hubby]

I insulated one of my rental houses several years ago with blown in cellulose. It too had asbestos siding that I didnt want to disturb, so we drilled one inch holes in the drywall and blew it in from the inside then patched the holes. I was doing some major drywall repairs at the time so just patched everything at once. It made a tremendous amount of difference in both heating and cooling.

[unregistered65598]

I think I will check into the blown in Cellulose. Sounds like this may be our best option. Yes we cover the windows as they are as old as the house. Hope to replace them someday. I don't know how much insulation is in the attic. Never been up there. I know the snow stays on there but we also get icicle's.

[1shotwade]

Of course i'll probably go to jail for saying this but you don't need to be afraid of asbestos siding. I've done it a few times. You should only have to remove the top row.It is brittle so don't damage it. I just heep a sprayer full of water and keep it wet,even before you start the removal. If the fibers are contained with water the can not go airborne. That's where the problem exists.Once you remove a shingle place it in a barrel of water until you are ready to reinstall.
After this removal simply drill your holes in the sheeting and blow in insulation and reattach siding.

[Callieslamb]

We blew in insulation down the walls. When it was all finished, rather than fill all those holes and repaint, we simply added a decorative trim board that DH cut himself. Worked great.

[trulytricia]

Originally Posted by kirkk

try hy-tech thermal paint additive. Its a product developed by NASA for the shuttles, and recently came on market. Its a ceramic product you add to your paint that insulates. The ceramics are actually tiny ceramic spheres that are a vacuum in the middle. Its like applying a layer of thermoses onto your house that effectively blocks thermal transfer. two coats is like R-20. Cut my heating bill by half.

This is incredible good news! I'm ordering some today as we have an old house to paint.

Now if they will just invent something clear that could be used by the do it your-selfer to glaze over window glass!

[jingle5616]

I've blown insulation into almost every rental house I own. It's amazing how many houses don't have wall or attic insulation even after 100 years of being built. It's been my experience that blown fiberglass, pink or yellow, not only blows into wall cavities more efficiently, it also provides better insulation and has far less settling than the cellulose type blown in insulation. It is a bit more expensive, but I think worth the small expense. Blowing wall insulation isn't 100%. There are places that you will miss and won't know you've missed until winter sets in and you use a digital thermometer to find. It also doesn't take care of all the draft issues. But it does make a big difference in comfort and heating expense. Wall gaskets are also worth the money. Amazing how a tiny little thin piece of foam can stop up a draft point. If you have to chose, attic insulation is the best bang for your dollars.

[SolarGary]

Hi,
Some detailed info on DIY blown in cellulose for walls if you are inclined to do it youreself:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...lCellulose.htm

Gary

[agmantoo]

trulytricia

Now if they will just invent something clear that could be used by the do it your-selfer to glaze over window glass!

We have a something for that also. It is called a storm window. A quality storm window and proper sealing of the original windows will approach the R factor of some of todays best rated windows. Having the air space between the inner and outer windows will do wonders.

[unregistered353870]

The blown in cellulose is good stuff. I like it more than any form of fiberglass. Fiberglass lets a lot more air flow through it...basically like a 4-6" thick HVAC filter. But it is tricky with any kind of blown in loose fill to get it everywhere it needs to be and filled enough not to settle. Anything is better than nothing, though.

Liquid expanding foam (not Great Stuff) seals better than cellulose and can be done with smaller holes in the drywall, but it costs quite a bit more. For filling existing walls, look for "slow rise" foam. You squirt this in the wall and then it expands slowly filling the wall from the bottom up so it doesn't pop the drywall off. There are lots of places online where you can buy kits to do it yourself. Depending on your area, you may be able to hire it done for around the same price as doing it yourself.

[Cash]

If you're hiring the work done, look for someone who can insulate your walls from the inside and then fill the access holes with specially made caps that blend into the drywall. Several insulating companies around here use them. You still have to repaint the area, but it's not as messy as drilling and filling with drywall mud.