Insulating an old home
My husband and I purchased an old farm house built in the late 1920’s. We knew from Day One that this would be a project house and more than once we would feel as though we are in over our heads.
However one of the main selling points of the home was that despite its age that the home had been retrofoamed. Now, what they insulated beyond some blown insulation in the attic I have NO IDEA. The persons with whom we have a “life time warranty” — the company we were told “insulated” the house — are no longer in business. I take that as a strong indicator the quality of their work.
Our home inspector did not give us any indication that we would have the heat loss problems that we have. More than likely due to the fact that he just looked at the blown insulation in the attic and assumed the same was in the walls. An error that we are now paying for by way of MASSIVE heating bills.
We do not suffer the tell-tail signs of winter heat loss: icicles. In fact, throughout this insufferably cold Michigan winter, we barely had any icicles at all.
However what we do have are “COLD SPOTS”, and generally it is safe to assume that anything attached to an exterior wall will be cold. Although it’s nice having chilled dinner plates and wine glasses ready and waiting in my kitchen cupboards, an ice cold bathtub is less than a treat.
Due to the age of the house there is no plumbing or electrical running through any of the exterior walls of the home. Behind the drywall we have slats or lath in every room of the home.
What would be the most effective way to insulate our house? Will we have to remove all drywall and plaster?
Lauren
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
Lauren,
No one can answer your question without a site visit. There's no way to tell whether your stud bays are empty or filled with some type of insulation product.
It's quite possible that your problems stem from air leakage issues and bad windows, not an insulation problem.
Step one: You need to hire a home-performance contractor to do an energy audit of your home. Ideally this audit will include a blower-door test and an inspection with an infrared camera. Good luck.
yes, hire someone
pay the money for a firm that doesn't go out of business and knows what they are doing
your home is far more complicated that many things in your life, like your car and what not.
you wouldn't get on an internet board and ask people to diagnose and tell you how to make repairs on your own car would you??
often your local utility will have a rebate program or a referral program to a home performance contractor with reasonable certifications if your looking for somewhere to start. you can then use the web to understand, research, and fact check or verify the results and proposed solutions of the contractor
also, don't expect miracles without a good investment. energy costs have skyrocketed and home performance has leaped and bounded as well. poor thermal performance is the norm for every aspect of nearly all older homes because it didn't matter when energy was so cheap.
Lauren,
It would be quite easy to determine the extent of insulation (or lack thereof) in your house using a thermographic camera. Many home energy auditers now have one. If your house was built in 1920 and you wish to install some cavity insulation, you are going to need to know where the framing lumber is anyway. Many of these old structures have cross members between the studs that make it more difficult to install any sort of "retrofit" insulation. Difficult but, not impossible. The thermal camera will give you a color coded image of the heat loss from your house. You already know that it is substantial so, finding the major problems shouldn't be a problem.
The second step would be to have the home energy auditer do a home depressurization test using a blower door. Once the house is depressurized, you can isolate rooms and use smoke pencils or other methods to find the big leaks. These can usually be sealed using inexpensive foam sealants (any leak greater than 1/8") or caulks for the narrow leaks.
If you aren't devoted to your 90 year-old siding, you could reside the house with vinyl or cement board siding and use an 1" of STYROFOAM under it to insulate the walls. this will give your walls a fresh new look and a good dose of insulation in the walls.
Call your local BPI Certified Professional to help determine the three or four most important areas to address in your home. It really doesn't cost that much to do an analysis and then you can prioritize based on affordability and aesthetics.
If you would like to discuss further, feel free to shoot me an E-mail. Dow has a full line of products to meet your insulation needs and they come from a town just up the street from you in Michigan.
Scott Cummings
Dow Building Solutions
BPI Analyst and Envelope Professional - Certified
[email protected]