I own a 100-year old house. In a cold climate (Ohio). Typical mid-American foursquare two-story home, huge front porch and all, located in a Norman Rockwell-ish older neighborhood of Cincinnati. House is all-wood siding. Original everything.
Thinking about getting expanding foam insulation blown into my walls and into my roof. Reason: The heating bills are killing me! And I know much of the forced-air furnace heat that we have escapes through the walls and through the roof, because there’s little if any insulation in the walls right now at all (insulation technology not real great when they built homes in 1908).
So, contemplating having a company blow in expanding foam insulation into the walls and into the roof. My goals:
A less drafty house
A more evenly-warmed house
Lower heating bills
Anyone have experience with foam insulation? Is it worth the cost? Does it significantly lower heating/cooling bills? Drawbacks?
My aunt is and extremely low-income person in Cleveland who lives in a house very similar to yours. She gets energy bill help from the county (or city?) Instead of just paying for her energy bills, though, the whatever-agency got her a new energy-efficient furnace and also had her walls insulated.
I don’t know if it was foam or that shredded up stuff. I do know that since she has wood siding they had to push it in from the inside which meant small holes all around the outside walls, inside the house. The contractors spackled them and it was up to my aunt to get them painted over.
So, my theory is that having a very old house insulated is the smart, cost-efficient way to lower your energy bills since that’s what a government agency did for my aunt.
I like the expanding foam in that it stops drafts in ways fiberglass won’t and it will fill all the spaces. I’d be sure to have any wiring you need done on the outside walls taken care of first. You won’t be able to run wire once the foam is sprayed in.
If you significantly change the insulation of your house, don’t forget to update your air exchange, too. If you seal up your house too well, your existing air exchange might not be up to the task any longer (since part of your air exchange right now is a drafty house). Doing an insulation/windows/air exchange update all goes together - you sort of need to look at them all at the same time.
Qualified Yes. Almost any blown insulation will have positive results and ROI in your climate. Immediate quality of life payback.
The qualifications? Some foams outgas and lose their R value, some are not so healthy while doing it. It should be easy to get third party reviews on this if the contractor will divulge specifics, as he should. There are other types of blown-in insulation to consider.
The air exchange rate may not become an issue depending on fenestration quality and type of heating device. Heat Recovery Ventilators can have excessive payback time and be hard to implement in your older home. Consulting with an expert familiar with your particular conditions is advised.
Whether or not this is even possible can also be dependent on the type of wiring used. Some older types of wiring cannot handle being surrounded by insulation. My neighbor’s house was like this.
My experience is somewhat difference in that my house is brick with plaster on top of it, but getting insulation in the roof and replacing the exterior doors and windows made a huge difference.
Replacing the windows and doors made a huge difference. I noticed it immediately in terms of outdoor noise and the house is easier to keep warm in the winter. Our bills have been much lower than last winter.
That’s a good question - I don’t think they’re part of the building code. I’m just talking about your basic forced-air heating/cold air return system with soffit and roof vents, not a specific air exchanger. I second Carson’s advice to the OP - talk to someone experienced with updating and retro-fitting an old house.
I understand your problem. I rehabbed an older home in Mt. Lookout in Cincinnati as part of my rent. (The house I worked on was even older. It still had the original gas lamps in some rooms and they still worked!!) The insulation in those homes, if there was any, was cellulose, (think ground paper). In addition to being an excellent growth medium for fungus and prime nesting for mice, it consolidates over the years and falls to the bottom of the wall cavities. Since many of those craftsman style homes were balloon framed (the exterior framing members ran the full height of both floors) the insulation from two floors can consolidate in the lower half of the first floor walls. Insulating the walls would be a good idea. Your home may still have knob and tube wiring which makes any work in the wall spaces iffy. Code may require that you update the wiring if your doing any work in the wall cavity.
But if you think the walls are bad, the windows are worse. If you’re going to sink money into the home consider replacing the windows first. Those lovely divide light windows with the old wavy glass leak air like sieve, even with storm windows. Don’t forget to check out the attic insulation. In fact do that first. That’s an easy do it your self project that can return on your investment.
And to our northern friends, yes we’ve heard of air exchangers. We just don’t have to use them. Thought it would be good if we did.
Sprayed foam is far and away your most expensive option for insulating your home. On the other hand, it’s also your most versatile, most effective solution. It creates an air-tight seal in addition to providing insulation. However, as noted above, you’ll need to check if your wiring is compatible before you start. Also, as noted above, you’ll probably need to upgrade your HVAC as well – you should be changing the air in your house 6-7 times per hour, IIRC, and in older houses, which are usually pretty leaky, this is mostly accomplished by air bleeding out through the walls, windows and doors. Once the foam is sprayed in, a lot of that air loss is gone, which means your furnace has to do most of the work and, if it’s one of those old school octopus-style boilers, it’s not up to that challenge. Which brings up another probable issue: most of those old furnaces are lined with asbestos, so they require professionals to come in and remove them, which is a few hundred bucks more out-of-pocket.
If you can do it, for a house of the age you’re describing, I’d recommend going pour foam in the walls and just insulating the attic with blown cellulose. Pour foam can be put in the walls with relatively little fuss and muss, and will give you a bunch of air/vapor barrier help. The cellulose up top is a much cheaper solution, can provide you with all the insulation you need, and won’t completely block up the air exchange in your place.
Something else to consider, as far as possible scams are concerned; After a certain point, extra R-value doesn’t help you, because of the air exchange you still need to have happening in your place. If someone is trying to sell you on more than R-12 (maybe R-16… maybe – and that’s assuming you have enough wall cavity to accomodate it) in your century-old walls and R-42 in the ceiling, he’s trying to pad his profits.
Keep in mind that you lose heat in two ways;
[ol]
[li]Heat radiates out from the house.[/li][li]Hot air rises thru holes in your ceiling and is replaced by colder air being drawn in (this is sometimes referred to as the “stack effect”)[/li][/ol]
I had someone come in recently to evaluate my house (1950’s split level in Northern NJ). He rigged this big ass fan in the front door blowing out and looked for leaks with a smoke pencil. The results were surprising. My windows were fine (original windows with storm windows) except for the one window that I had replaced, which was leaky (probably due to poor installation). A big offender was the entrance to the attic. There are also often holes for wiring going into the attic where are can escape (and colder air drawn in). If you have had high hat lighting fixtures installed, these are often a source of leaks. Another place that needed attention was the area over the foundation which was both uninsulated and unsealed. Personally (just a WAG, actually), I think it unlikely that you would be so successful in sealing a 100 year old house that you would need an air exchanger.
I would proceed as follows;
[ol]
[li]Weatherstrip everything. Use a smoke pencil. Remediate your attic access & any other possible vents to your attic.[/li][li]Blow cellulose (or fiberglass) in to your attic (not more than the recommended R value for your area.[/li][/ol]
See how this works out. If you think it wise, then get insulation blown into the walls, and perhaps replace the windows. Both of these options will be more disruptive and expensive. You can also reglaze your windows. That will stop many of the leaks.