Putting Insulation In Old Walls

I m doing a small remodel on a 100 year old home to use as rental property.

Putting insulation in old walls.

The r value of the batt measures the thermal resistance so the higher the r value the more effectively. Your walls in their present state have an r rating of about 3. There are various grades of insulating batting for different locations in the house so you ll need a different insulation for interior exterior attic or basement walls. The advantages of insulating interior walls.

You can often leave old insulation. So can you put new insulation on top of old insulation. There is zero insulation in the walls. The third area that needs proper insulation is the floors.

So if your house was built before insulating walls became standard you can potentially save a great deal of energy by insulating. Unfortunately however builders didn t insulate the walls of most homes built before the 1980s. The grade of batting will vary depending on the wall that you re insulating. Insulating interior walls isn.

When considering new insulation installation or home retrofit insulation many dc area homeowners wonder if it s necessary to remove the old insulation first. I m not a big fan of blowing in insulation from the outside. The walls have the original lath and plaster with 1 2 drywall over that. The answer in many cases is yes.

Can you simply add new insulation on top. Fiberglass batts foam or cellulose can be used to insulate the interior walls. In a perfect world you would be able to unscrew invisible bolts remove drywall panels install insulation and reinstall the panels our less than perfect world of permanently attached wallboard means time consuming hacking away of gypsum individually removing drywall screws or nails installing r 13 or greater fiberglass roll insulation and re installing the drywall. Rigid boards work best on exterior walls along with a vapor barrier.

Walls both exterior and interior are the next area to insulate in a home. Choose fiberglass insulation batting. I really don t want to tear all that out and open the walls. Most communities have building codes that require a minimum amount of insulation in a house s exterior walls and ceiling.

According to the international energy conservation code iecc for your area mass walls ones made of thick block brick stone or adobe should be at least r 10.