Insulating walls in an old home

[drewcifer]

Just like many of the This Old House (TOH) projects I have plaster walls that are in pretty good shape. The major problem is there is absoluetley no insulation in the walls so my heating and cooling bills are pretty high during the peak hot and cold seasons.

I have seen on TOH that the have used a foam insulation to fill the gaps in the walls behind the plaster. On TOH they busted holes in the plaster walls to spray the foam in and this seems to be the standard way of doing it. I would rather not go this route because I don't want to have to fix all the holes or clean up the mess.

Does anybody have any experience with this foam insulation? I assume it is not very cheap and I will have to pay a certified professional to install it. Are there any other suggestions that people have besides the foam insulation? Would the cellulose insulation they use in attics work in the walls as well or is their potential for too much moisture in the walls?

What are your thoughts on this?

[Billy B]

My mom bought a hundred old home 10 years ago and we made (square)holes as high as we could on the outer ground floor walls and blew in insulation. In fact Home Depot rental is offering 10 free bags of insulation with the rental of the blower system.

It was the only way we could get those walls insulated from the Colorado weather.

Some guy offered to sell me some insulating paint, you may want to try that...hehehehe :7

Good luck,
Bill

[PastorPaul]

I've seen both the foam and blown-in insulation used in such cases. You remove the baseboard, cut or drill your holes, run a wire snake up into the hole to make sure the cavity is open all the way to the ceiling (or the bottom of the windows where applicable), and blow in your insulation. From there you can plug the holes and replace the baseboard, or just replace the baseboard without plugging the holes. I would recommend plugging the holes, so you don't worry about losing insulation if you have to remove the baseboards for any reason in the future.

Pastor Paul

"If they don't have woodworking in heaven, I ain't going!!!"

[TDHofstetter]

From what I hear, blown-in polystyrene (StyroFoam) beads work very well in this kind of situation. The ones that get used are almost exactly like the ones we all used to have all over our floors back in the hippy days when our beanbag chairs started to leak - except these ones used for insulation have some kind of fire retardent added. Like it makes a huge difference - your house is burning down, but at least the insulation won't catch... :)

The cellulose insulation typically used for attics is too heavy for walls; it'll settle out like the batting in your old sleeping bag after a few trips through the washing machine... and then the tops of your walls will be cold again.

-- Tim --


I believe in fires at midnight,
When the dogs have all been fed.
Golden toddy on the mantle,
Broken gun beneath the bed.
- Jethro Tull -