Reinsulating your walls? Whats the best way?

gmcjimmy88

Active Member
Joined
May 15, 2005
Location
Fayetteville
I am in a 30 year old house and want to re-do my insulation. The only way I know to do it is drill holes in the walls between each stud and blow it in. But if there is already batted insulation in there it won't spread throughout. I do not want to tear down all the dry wall throughout to do it either. Any suggestions?

BTW I already plan to blow insulation into the attic sometime in the near future. Thanks, Sean
 
burrellsjeep said:
What is the outside siding on the house? If its vinyl you can pull off and see whats in the walls.
My brothers crew drills the holes on the outside and blows it in from there.
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All yeah I should have mentioned that. It is brick veneer over the most of it. The two smaller sections where it is vynil had foam installed before the vynil went up. New window about 2 years ago. I need to remove all the trim and use the window expanding foam insulation stuff instead of the insulation they stuffed in there.
 
no access from the top. You should have a double top plate along the walls. and be careful with the expanding foam spray, you can swell the windows and they won't open.
 
I have about 10 years exp. in the insulation buisness and I can tell you that if there is already insulation there that it's not going to do any good unless the batts have slid down from the top. This is unlikely as an R-13 batt in a 2x4 wall is 3 1/2 inches thick but it could have a small gap at the top. The only way to get any better than whats there is to pull the drywall down. The only other thing to do is to make sure that everything else is as good as can be. The attic needs to be well insulated (for the winter). The floors need to be insulated to keep the cold air from coming up, and check your windows and doors, they may need a beed of caulk to stop some drafts. It's very hard to bring an older house up to todays codes or just to make it better without knowing exactly what you have to begin with.
 
KrawlDaddy520 said:
I have about 10 years exp. in the insulation buisness and I can tell you that if there is already insulation there that it's not going to do any good unless the batts have slid down from the top. This is unlikely as an R-13 batt in a 2x4 wall is 3 1/2 inches thick but it could have a small gap at the top. The only way to get any better than whats there is to pull the drywall down. The only other thing to do is to make sure that everything else is as good as can be. The attic needs to be well insulated (for the winter). The floors need to be insulated to keep the cold air from coming up, and check your windows and doors, they may need a beed of caulk to stop some drafts. It's very hard to bring an older house up to todays codes or just to make it better without knowing exactly what you have to begin with.
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We are on a concrete slab with wood floors. The foam I was talking about is for windows. I know you still have to be careful.
 
GotWood said:
no access from the top. You should have a double top plate along the walls. and be careful with the expanding foam spray, you can swell the windows and they won't open.
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x2 on that spray foam. I`ve seen that stuff pop loose 1x4`s.
 
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