Insulating walls

I have seen where they would cut the sheetrock just enough below the ceiling, to clear the top plate of the wall. After blowing in the insulation, they would put a board or sheetrock back, then place a wide CROWN molding to cover up where they had cut the sheetrock. The only problem would be if there were fire blocks in the wall to prevent the insulation from going all the way down.

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Life......Is What You Make Of It

This place was built in 2000, however it is not well build. Thin walls with little to no insulation.
Only choice we have here, is to pull off the siding, put hard insulation and new siding up.
Plan on replacing the vinyl with Hardie plank.

Hopefully in the next couple of years.

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Shari

You say you don't think the walls are insulated. Find out before you do anything as it might just be infiltration. Drill a small hole somewhere so you'll know.

You need to be real careful about insulating a house that didn't have insulation in the walls.. .You can easily cause more damage and problems for your self than if you left is as is..

Here's an article you need to read and consider before you get too deep into this... If you live in a humid or wet climate, or if you have a lot of humidity in your house you can cause a lot of water damage...

http://www.oldhousejournal.com/Insul.../magazine/1053

There are a lot of articles out there concerning this, and ideas on how to insulate without causing this kind of damage, although, most of them are labor intensive, and cost prohibitive..

One more article..

http://bobyapp.com/blog/2009/06/myth...ld-house-walls

I'm dealing with a house right now that has some damaged walls because of insulation in the wall, with no vapor barrier, and vinyl siding on the outside.. I need to peel off all that siding and replace all the wood under the siding on one of those walls..

I've decided to leave the rest of my walls un-insulated, and fill the cracks around windows and outlets with caulk and foam for any larger gaps. Stop the drafts, and toss an extra log in the wood stove.. much simpler, cost effective, and no chance of causing more damage..

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

I don't know how far you have gone in looking inside the structure of your walls but just wanted to say I had an old drafty house at one point and decided to get on it by replacing all windows and doors and insulate and put on vynal siding.Once I opened up the wall I found this house was sheeted on the inside of the studding with nothing but clap board attacked to the studs on the outside. This allowed the cold damp air to stay inside the wall it's self and migrate through the sheeting and drywall to the enterior.
also someone mentioned the "fire wall" which dose slow down the progression of a fire to move upward but that was not the intended purpose. These old houses were built of "green" lumber and it had not "set" so would warp and bow. The "fire Wall" was just a manor of stablizing the studs and was placed in the wall at the time the studs it is attached to were put in.

In response to the OP not wanting to disturb the drywall: thirty years ago I was renting a small apt in NE Iowa, where temps dip to -30, and worse. The walls were drywalled, and it wasn't my place, so I got the 4x8 sheets of insulating styrofoam and lined the interior walls and ceiling in the living room/bedroom. It became toasty, and saved a lot on the utility bill. Covered the 4x8's up with bedspreads, and tho't it was fashion. Took the panels with me when I left, and actually used them at the next few places.

Here in LA, which has very different sort of winter, mostly damp and chilly, I blew in cellulose to the attic crawl space. It made all the difference in the world, as the walls had nothing in them at all. Blew it in about a foot deep. Worked well for 15 years.

Sorry, but this is no different than special magnets that increase your car's mileage by 50%, or any other snake oil bull. When you find independent, peer reviewed studies that can verify that any magical paint provides any significant R value in the least, please post the documentation. Since it isn't going to happen, it might take a while to provide this proof.

Fireblocking is indeed valuable to keep studs straight. However, it's called fireblocking for a reason, that's why it's there. Some of the very first stick framing used a technique known as balloon framing. In this system the exterior studs are the height of the building, and run from the mud sill to the upper top plate. The floor joists were nailed to the sides of the studs, and consequently there was often a full chase opening from the top of the foundation wall, straight through to the attic. It was not only drafty, but extraordinarily dangerous from a fire safety perspective. A wall fire essentially became a chimney and the home could become a death trap in a matter of minutes. The fireblocking not only stopped the drafts and kept the walls straighter, it was a real important part of controlling the spread of flames, giving the occupants a chance to escape. Here in the northeast, there are still huge numbers of balloon framed homes in older towns. When you start tearing them apart to remodel, they are actually a bit scary, 18' tall wall studs, a few old nails holding joists to studs, plumbing rough-ins that seriously compromise what little integrity the structure once had, and bone dry, brittle lumber.

A word of caution to those that get caught up in the hype of the purists that claim that there is no way to insulate older homes, as they will them begin to rot. Yes, there are cases of damage caused by poor insulation installation, but it's a lot more complicated than that. The bottom line is that you need to keep control of the interior humidity AND resist the urge to do something stupid like throw a layer of foam sheathing and vinyl siding on the exterior. Extruded polystyrene (I.E Dow blue foam) and foil faced polyiso (I.E Thermax) are excellent vapor barriers, and they will destroy a house if used on top of existing exterior finishes. Vinyl siding is a decorative covering, NOT a watertight skin, it is meant to go over properly detailed breathable housewrap. If you want to destroy a beautiful old home quickly, do what many do. Have a contractor nail a 1/2" layer of foam over the existing siding, then vinyl siding. In about ten years you will find rot under the corners, and window and door openings. I have seen this become so extensive that the exterior walls were failing structurally.

There are no quick, easy solutions to these issues, but I have spoke to several experts who have insulated thousands of older homes, and are quite clear that the "if you blow insulation in the walls, the place is ruined" crowd, is simply full of it.

I can't see that cellulose allows air flow. Fiberglass yes but not cellulose.

I'll be using it to insulate my next home.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

I really don't need to provide the documentation, it's on their site. I don't produce the stuff, I don't market the stuff, I just tried it after someone who had used it recommended it to me. From personal experience, I found that it worked.
I have always found that studies that prove things like organic food is not better for you, bumble bee's can't fly, hormones in meat animals are safe, vitamins are a waste of money, and that all energy saving products are snake oil may be somewhat scewed, especially if it benefits big business.
Wisdom is acheived by experimenting for yourself. Either way, you learn something.

No it didn't work. It's no different than any placebo that a doctor hands out. You want to believe that it works, so in YOUR mind it is effective. In reality, it isn't doing a thing.

Thermodynamics is not witchcraft. R value testing is a simple affair and EVERY legitimate manufacturer of thermal insulation products can provide documentation that their products R value rating is legitimate, independently tested and certified. Obviously, magic ceramic paints, and other sham products cannot provide this proof since they are fraudulent. In the case of the paint, there is actually proof that it does absolutely nothing, zero....zip. Empties your wallet, and performs exactly as well as the cheapest latex paint you can find.

If you need further proof, take a look at the following article. It covers the adventurers of an idiot who not only is a distributer for this garbage, but built a million dollar, 7000 sq. ft. house that he intentionally failed to insulate. He sprayed the stud cavities and ceiling areas with the junk, and proceeded to fail horrendously. He froze in the winter, baked in the summer, couldn't keep the interior above 48* in some rooms, and generally made a fool of himself, blaming his ignorant failure on everybody involved with the construction of his home.

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/...is-own-product


Don't forget, what this guy did was not only stupid, but it can be dangerous. It doesn't take long for heated air to infiltrate empty wall cavities and start to condensate. At that point, mold, air quality issues, health problems, and a massive mitigation project are heading your way.

P.T. Barnam was right.

I guess you can take your arguments to NASA, and let them know they're frauds. I'm sure that their thermodynamics people would be pleased to hear how all their astronauts froze, but didn't realize it due to the placebo effect.
As for me, I'll continue in my ignorance, and enjoy the lower heating bills that I've had for the last three years.

BTW, you do realize that the link you provided is for a product called super therm not hy-tech? Thats like me making a statement about Ferrari's and you claiming it to be false with a link for a Suzuki Swift. With your deliberate misleading of the facts, I can't help but wonder if you have some ulterior motive?
I think most people, with average intelligence, can figure out with a fair degree of accuracy, how much energy they use. Telling people that they are incapable of doing so, because of the placebo effect is somewhat insulting and demeaning. My question to you,... have you personally bought and used HY-TECH thermal paint additive, and personally found that it didn't work? If you have no personal experience with the product HY-TECH, what is your motive for making claims and using misleading proofs against it?
As I mentioned before, I don't produce the stuff, I don't market the stuff, there is no advantage for me to say it works, if it doesn't. My motive simply is, this can help people save energy costs.

My father used to say that "a house needs to breathe," and I really didn't appreciate the accuracy of that statement until after I insulated and installed a vapor barrier in a roof that was part of the wall of an attic room in my house. Worked great for more than 25 years, then one day last spring my brother noticed that the roof looked strange. We tore off the paneling inside and found that the roof was rotted out from underneath. We ended up tearing off and replacing that entire roof last fall -- properly vented this time, and with no insulation in it.

Not surprising in the least. Regrettably, strongly held beliefs with no factual basis, and the refusal to admit the possibility of being swindled, are pretty powerful obstacles to overcome. That fails to change the facts in this case. There is no such thing as a magical paint with any significant degree of thermal resistance. It defies the laws of thermodynamics, and it does not exist. Sorry if the reality of physics is somehow demeaning or insulting, but it's science, not emotion. There is a huge body of scientific evidence to refute your claim, and much of it is easily available, and easily understood. You can't soften water with magic magnets, you can't put mystery devices on your fuel line to double your vehicles MPGs, and you can't insulate your dwelling with magic ceramic paint......... all of these would be wonderful if they were real, but they are not.

As for your claim that I am somehow "disparaging" the "Hy-Tech" brand of magical products, please be aware that you didn't capitalize the product name in your first post, thus I had no idea that you were recommending a specific product. Also, be aware that I really don't care what brand of magic you recommend, it's all a fraud. Perhaps you might want to look at the following review from the fine folks at Scientific American.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...sulating-paint

In particular, it's pretty hard to beat this quote............


“The Internet is rife with claims of paints that dramatically reduce heat transfer—usually based on some technological magic spun off from NASA. While these products may have some relevance in the extreme conditions of outer space, manufacturers of paints containing [insulating additives] are making claims that defy the laws of physics…when they claim they can save significant energy in buildings."

The DOE is unable to find evidence that the products justify their own cost, much less provide any measurable benefit.

Final, regarding my motive and alleged " misleading of the facts" and ulterior motive, sorry but you won't find one, as I have no hidden agenda here. I have spent a lifetime as a professional builder, and have quite an accumulated base of experience and knowledge in this area. I have done professional consulting and expert witness work on thermal insulation issues. Therefore, when somebody appears here making unverifiable claims, I have no issue injecting facts and science into the thread to help prevent others from wasting their money on worthless miracle cures. That's all. Doesn't matter if you are selling it out of your garage, or claiming that you are a customer who loves it, and it has cut your heating bills by huge amounts. If I have helped educate other members here that there is no such thing as a magical paint, I have done my job.

I am not sure whether it would work or not, but you can even use plastic coated paint. Have you heard about that before. It appears like that has been laminated.

From what I have read and seen on TV,
CERAMIC INSULATING PAINT is a scam.
see the following: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/...ble-homeowners