Spray Foam Insulation

[Christopher]

If you're planning on living in your house for a long time, you might as well spend the money to rip off the old drywall and insulate the old fashioned way. It's also a great opportunity to upgrade any wiring or whatever. If you're only gonna be there a few years, it might be a bit more of an investment than you're willing to make. It does, however, increase the resale value as well.
Just something to think about.

[Redeemed]

Papabret I have never done that before but how long does it take and do you think it is easier than just taking the wall down to put the insulation in?

Yes, please elaborate. Thanks Charis2U for the question.

[Woffie]

I was able to do the blown in insulation from my attic. There was just a piece of wood over each channel. I took the cap off and blew the insulation in the opening. My house was built in 1917 though so. It made a huge difference!

[Woffie]

Yes, please elaborate. Thanks Charis2U for the question.

Some people do the blown in insulation from the outside and some from the inside. Either way you have to drill a 2-3 inch opening in the wall. That is where you put the tube to blow the insulation in.

[Woffie]

From inside

[Highly Favoured]

Insulation can be blown into walls as well as into attic areas. There has to be a hole drilled between each stud of the framing, so there is patchwork to be done about every 16 inches on the walls. It does leave some air pockets here and there as there is no way to be sure of filling every gap on an enclosed wall. But it is much better than no insulation as some older homes do not have any. It is a good alternative if you can't afford completely new walls, or do not wish to tear your whole house apart.

We did this to our 1948 bungalow about 6 years ago. The outer walls would be like ICE during the cold winter. And the A/C would run constantly in the hot summer.

The company came and drilled holes on the outside of our home - in the mortar of the bricks - blew in the insulation, remortared the holes. Blew insulation in the attic. We are so happy. It cost $1500 and although we will probably never make it up on the utility bills, the comfort level increased dramatically. My walls are no longer ice cold and in the summer the house stays relatively cool.

Pre-insulation we would have to run the furnace once the temps got into the 50s - because the house could not retain any heat. This would start about mid to late Sept. Most years we don't turn the furnace on until end of October/early November.

This cost us about $1500. The company that did this even sent out a rep on a very cold winter day with a temperature gun to make sure they got all the areas necessary.

Now, we have a bay window in our dining room that is still cold - but we just bank snow (when we get it!) and it solves the problem.

[Highly Favoured]

If you're planning on living in your house for a long time, you might as well spend the money to rip off the old drywall and insulate the old fashioned way. It's also a great opportunity to upgrade any wiring or whatever. If you're only gonna be there a few years, it might be a bit more of an investment than you're willing to make. It does, however, increase the resale value as well.
Just something to think about.

Most Michigan old houses are wet plaster walls - not worth the mess of tearing those off and redrywalling.

I really don't like drywalling - it creates so much dust - and we have done our whole basement - raised subfloor, studded, insulated and drywalled. There was months of dust.....

[Redeemed]

Since I live in California - it does not get as cold as some of the other parts of the US, but I am mainly focused on one wall in my sons room. My house was built in the 1963 - so it's an older home but I do plan on being here at least another 5-6 years.

Thanks for the video Woffie, that helped alot. I am sure I could borrow a stud finder and possibly get that job done. Doesn't "look" that hard, but with me, probably a skilled hand might be better.