Hello,

Like many 50s and 60s houses I’ve lived in, my current home has wood girder beams that are embedded into the block foundation wall. Each girder is made of three 2×8 joists sistered together. I know that the best practice in this scenario is to insulate on the outside, but that’s financially unfeasible for me. I wanted to insulate the walls on the inside with foam boards, but leave a 6″ gap of exposed cmu block around the beam pockets to keep them “warm”. Does this sound like an OK idea?

Edit: I think leaving a gap would create a thermal bridge and therefore wouldn’t be a good idea, but would like to hear your ideas.