As I mentioned in my last post, we recently had our whole house insulated. We bought the house in mid-December and moved in at the end of January. Even with such a mild winter, we were still going through oil like crazy. We bought thermal curtains for the windows and put blankets around the doors to keep out the draft but it was still so chilly! So this spring we had an energy audit done and guess what? No good insulation in the walls!! Apparently what had been there was SO old that it basically looked like tissue paper at this point. So with the awesome credit from Mass Save we tackled the job of insulating the house. Although they were booked up for 3 months, the process couldn't have been easier. One or two inspections, and then 3 days of dirty, fluff covered guys filling the walls. Immediately we noticed a difference. The house was so silent! I definitely think that it will help this coming winter and we are very glad we did it.
Now for the bad news... Since our siding on the house is so old the guys didn't think they could take it off to blow in the insulation and replace it without destroying it. So their recommendation was to insulate from the inside of the house. In. between. every. stud. Every one!! So one day when I got home, the house looked like this:
All our hard work of refinishing those walls! Hanging that trim! Painting everything!! The tragedy!!! Here are a few more examples:
(obviously a room we haven't tackled yet)
SO MANY HOLES!!!
And the furniture! That cellulose insulation gets everywhere so for a while our house looked like this:
I will say, however, that the company we used was VERY good about cleanup afterward. Each day they vacuumed up the extra fluff. Our carpeted stairs looked better than when they arrived!!
There is certainly a lot of work ahead of us but I am proud to say that after this weekend we have at least restored the dining room and the tv room to their previous status. Whew!!
Here's proof!
Now that we've gotten those rooms re-finished we can move on to other rooms! Oh the fun... :)
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The heat loss area in the floor is about 10 - 15%. Effective under-floor insulation removes that cold air layer pushing all your heat to the ceiling. If the under-floor insulation material is also a vapour barrier, it will prevent ground moisture moving into the house.
ReplyDeleteSo the first step you need to take is to evaluate your existing insulation. First of all, find out if there is any insulation in your house. Once you've done this, assess the quality of the existing insulation.
If you need to improve your existing insulation or would like to start from scratch, then you need to decide the type of insulation that is best suited for your house.
Blankets or segments, made from fibreglass, polyester or wool, can be put into ceilings and walls, as can loose-fill insulation, like cellulose, or foam insulation. These products can go into the walls and ceilings of houses while they are being built. In existing houses, they can only be installed in accessible ceiling cavities.
For more Garage conversion tips and to learn how you can lower your home heating bills with Solid wall insulation, Interior wall insulation and Internal wall insultion today!