Wall insulation

mudwrx

We purchased our home last January. It is an older house (built in 1928) which has been added on to over the years, we also did some major renovations. Part of what we did was knock down a wall to expand the living room area. It's a huge room now, with a massive fireplace. We really love it and are enjoying it.

However I knew when we did this it would make it more difficult to heat (we live in New England). The house has forced hot water and the wall we knocked down had a baseboard heater on it, which is obviously gone now.

Although it is not freezing, it is a little chilly in there now. I don't want to turn the thermostat sky high, so I am looking in to my options.

First, I need to seal some areas I found are letting air in. Typical areas around the windows, doors, etc. Next, I'm looking in to getting some blown in insulation for the exterior walls. In addition to the living room, I may do the entire first floor.

This is where my question comes in; Anyone have this blown insulation done to their walls? Advise/suggestions? Thoughts? Pros & cons? Go with cellulose or the foam stuff? etc...

Thanks.

madmax

mudwrx wrote: »

The house has forced hot water and the wall we knocked down had a baseboard heater on it, which is obviously gone now.

Have you considered under floor heating where you route tubes carrying hot water under the floor? Don't know much about it other than they say when your feet are warm then you feel warm. Saw it on some homebuilding show.
madmax

mudwrx

madmax wrote: »

Have you considered under floor heating where you route tubes carrying hot water under the floor? Don't know much about it other than they say when your feet are warm then you feel warm. Saw it on some homebuilding show.
madmax

I think the house structure would not lend well to that. Plus it sounds very expensive. Also, the fact would still remain that the walls need insulation (I'm pretty sure they do anyway).

mrbiron

First, I need to seal some areas I found are letting air in. Typical areas around the windows, doors, etc. Next, I'm looking in to getting some blown in insulation for the exterior walls. In addition to the living room, I may do the entire first floor.

If you are handy and looking for a weekend warrior project, i'd take the trim off the windows and exterior doors, get a couple can of great stuff or fiberglass bats and fill the voids. Finished with reinstalling the trim. You can also get small foam covers for your outlets that sit flush under the plates reducing airflow through the housing. Just a couple quick suggestions to eliminate some of your airflow problems.
As far as blowing in cellulose into your exterior walls, you should already have insulation of some sort so the blown-in won't work. If not.....get ready to do some patching either way with the cellulose or foam. Both are good products but i assume the foam will cost 2x that of insulation (never priced it).

Midnite Mick

Did not know you could do a retro fill with foam....are you sure about this. For blow in insulation they often do this from the exterior so interior patching would not be an issue. Also, are you sure you have open voids in the exterior wall. Often times in these old houses they would fill the walls with whatever is available....wood chips, newspaper, etc.

As far as heating the room, although I have no personal experience with those infrared heaters I have heard great things about them. You may want to investigate that further.

Regards,
Mike

mrbiron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcVLYhEaF-s

This is how the foam system works. Forgot they could take the siding off and go from the outside. It's guaranteed not to bow your walls as well..........i think the cost might be through the roof but you get what you pay for.

jimmydep

First off, I'm glad your taking the approach of reducing the heat loss of your space rather than just keep adding more heat.

Blown-in insulation is an excellent way of insulating an existing wall. Blown-in fiberglass or rock wool would be my first choice. I'm not especially fond of cellulose insulation as it tends to settle, and can be corrosive to wires and other types of metals in the walls.

Foam insulation is very expensive.

If you need to add more heat and don't have the needed wall space for baseboard, you could add a fan forced wall or kickspace heater which would be supplied by your existing hydronic system.

As far as infared heaters, they're not very good for in home use as they present a fire hazard with combustibles being placed too close to the front of them, and HOT spots.

Radiant in floor heating is the BEST, but retrofiting can be tricky and it's by far the most expensive to install.


Jimmy

Midnite Mick

mrbiron wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcVLYhEaF-s

This is how the foam system works. Forgot they could take the siding off and go from the outside. It's guaranteed not to bow your walls as well..........i think the cost might be through the roof but you get what you pay for.

Nice...I imagine that would be very costly.

muncybob

Def seal all air infiltration points as much as possible. We also have the foam pads inside of all exterior wall plates. Biggest improvement we had was installing new windows. Regardless if you get new ones or just seal the ones you have be sure NOT to use the expanding type foam! They make foam esp for doors & windows. Seal your doors as best you can...even better, replace with insulated doors.
I know replacement gets to be a bit of $$$, but the rise in comfort level is very noticable...we too have an old house and now the only time the window curtains move is when heat is rising from our baseboards. Also consider insulating above your highest living area ceiling. We are lucky and have a full walk in attic so it was fairly easy to blow in insulation.

mudwrx

Thanks for the input. I have since learned that my walls downstairs are indeed insulated. I asked my contractor if he recalled anything he saw when they were doing some work and he said it is insulated where he worked and can only assume it is insulated in other areas too.

So I will seal up any air leaks I find, add weather stripping where needed. I also got some of those foam pads for the electric outlets.

A future step is taking a good look at the basement area. We have a couple of crawl spaces where they bumped out the kitchen and living room, I need to make sure those have proper insulation too.

We've had the house for less than a year. I'll just keep doing as much as I can to make it more efficient as time goes by. I'll be sealing the window areas and adding the foam plates tonight.

This 'to do' list just keeps going...

Midnite Mick

mudwrx wrote: »

This 'to do' list just keeps going...

Par for the course when being a home owner.

Good luck,
Mike

VR3

How insulated in your attic?

It is recommended to have 20" ++++

I went from 4 to 24 and the difference was huge.

mudwrx

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote: »

How insulated in your attic?

It is recommended to have 20" ++++

I went from 4 to 24 and the difference was huge.

We have a huge walk up attic. There is insulation under the floor boards, not sure how much at the moment. There is also an insulation tent covering the area where the access is from the pull down ladder.

Actually, the upstairs does not seem too bad in regards to being cold. My main issue right now is the living room downstairs, as it's very big. I know for sure I have some air leaks, so hopefully fixing these will help a little.

gdb

Duh....you have removed heating equipment that was "figured into" the house's plan, now there is a vacuum, fill it. Btw, radiant floor heat was a great suggestion and can be DIYed fairly easily and cheaply.

muncybob

I've been told that radiant floor heating is not advisable if you have thick floor covering such as w/w carpet?

gdb

I didn't catch that detail. Heat will always rise though. The carpeting might be as cozy as an elec. blanket ! (and a lot safer too !):biggrin:

mudwrx

We have new hardwood in all the floors (except kitchen/bathrooms, which is tiled). However radiant floor heating is simply not an option.

gdb

Well then, i'd suggest an oil-filled electric "radiator" heater. I don't think I could get by without those little gems !

mudwrx

gdb wrote: »

Well then, i'd suggest an oil-filled electric "radiator" heater. I don't think I could get by without those little gems !

We do have one of those electric fireplaces we use in the bedroom. It is awesome, warms the entire room up in about 5 minutes.

I don't really have a place for one of those downstairs, but if needed I will look in to other options such as you mentioned.

gdb

These things have casters and can roll to anyplace you need em.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_17?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=electric+radiator&sprefix=electric+radiator

mrbiron

Buy heavy drapes and install on all your windows and sliders.
It's something that usually gets missed.

mudwrx

gdb wrote: »

These things have casters and can roll to anyplace you need em.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_17?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=electric+radiator&sprefix=electric+radiator

Thanks for the link, I'll check them out.

BTW, I'm not familiar with the oil filled heaters. Is it still electric, you have to plug it in right? Where does the oil part come in?

gdb

mudwrx wrote: »

Thanks for the link, I'll check them out.

BTW, I'm not familiar with the oil filled heaters. Is it still electric, you have to plug it in right? Where does the oil part come in?

The oil inside adds to the total mass and acts as a "heat sink". They constantly radiate heat even when the thermostat cycles it on and off.

mudwrx

gdb wrote: »

The oil inside adds to the total mass and acts as a "heat sink". They constantly radiate heat even when the thermostat cycles it on and off.

Sounds good. I may just get one...

gdb

go get one at Home depot and try it, don't like it, return it.