I am currently looking at purchasing a house that needs work done to the lap board siding. I am thinking of taking this opportunity to open up the exterior wall and replace existing wiring and insulation as well as running new low voltage conduit.
First question: Does anyone have a list of do’s and don’ts or maybe an artical they may have come across on this topic.
Second question: Types of Insulation. It occurs to me that spraying in a foam insulation could provide a vapor barrier which I am sure the house lacks now. Assuming I can come up with a system to prevent the foam from adhearing directly to the interior lath boards (So interior finishes could be replaced in the future if required) is there a down side to spraying in foam?
The home is in Wisconsin as was built around 1928.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Replies
I wonder if you could spray the back of thew walls with form release oil, like what's used for concrete formwork. It would take a bit longer, but you could tape up sheets of thin visqueen in each bay.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Possible but I would still want the foam to adhere to the framing in order to provide a tight vapor barrier. Maybe the use of 1/4" rigid foam would allow for this. If some of the sprayed in foam stuck to the lath at the gaps in the rigid foam it would not be horrible.
Who cares if the foam sticks to the lath? It seems to me it might make plaster walls last longer, and if/when you decide to downgrade to DW just put the boards over the lath.
FWIW I've got a 1929 house with BX wiring, no insulation and no tar paper (!), and when I gutted the bathroom I saw daylight through the sheathing.... I'd like to preserve the interior plaster, so I've been thinking of approaching insulation and rewiring from the outside.... So I'm curious to see what responses you get.....
One thing, you'll have to do foam DIY otherwise it could be horribly expensive to do it incrementally with a pro..... I'm not sure how good the DIY stuff (Handi-Foam or Fomofoam) is and if I had my druthers I've have a pro mix the foam....