Retrofit Insulation – what to look for
Houghton123
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
We’re getting ready to get estimates on getting the walls of our 1890 Queen Anne insulated. V-channel rustic siding with no sheathing, and lath and plaster inside walls; balloon framed, with no firestop in many of the stud bays. It’s located on the California North Coast, which means wet winters, and, with wallpaper on many inside walls, we don’t have consistent vapor barriers.
Local insulation contractors seem to lean heavily toward blown-in insulation rather than foam.
What are the tradeoffs of foam vs. icynene vs. blown-in cellulose vs. blown-in fiberglass? What should we watch for to identify a good contractor, who will do a good job?
Replies
use the search function as this subject has been chatted up here several times. blown dense packed cells will be the least expensive option. closed cell poly foam the the best option (IMHO) but more $. for do it yourself foam Google and you will find a couple of suppliers. I've a friend that used icynene and dramatically cut the heat and cooling $ in Iowa.
Someone just talked about your climate, with wet winters--can't remember the correct name, something like "marine northwest". Anyway, you could look at a web site called buildingsciences.com and they'll talk about your situation. I would think, maybe, that it would be best there to put your vapor barrier as close to the outside as you can get it, since it sounds like the humidity will almost always be higher on the ouside than it is inside your house. Unless you plan on removing the siding, having the VB on the outside would be hard to do. I think that closed cell foam is considered a vapor barrier. Anyway, I would, if I had enough money, go with sprayed foam in this case, rather than cellulose or even fiberglass. Cellulose, supposedly, will allow moisture to pass through, absorbing some moisture and releasing it to the dry side, whichever side that may be, but then you can't have a vapor barrier at all.