by Racine Insulation » Sat Sep 12, 2009 10:00 pm
This home was built around 1885. It had at least 4 editions over the last125 years. Amazingly, there was not an ounce of insulation in the walls or attic. Previous home owners probably could not insulate the attics because there were no access panels cut, anywhere. We cut two access areas in closets and one in a ceiling. Because of all of the additions to this home we needed three openings to access the different attic areas.
Older homes were often built with a balloon type construction. This means the joists between the first and second floor are continuous with the exterior wall cavities. You can see an example of how bad balloon construction can make an insulation job here:
Whenever you find 2x4s sticking up into your attic you can expect to find an interior wall with no top plate. This is another type of balloon construction, and these open cavities MUST be closed off and sealed with foam. If the home is a rental property and the wall is wide enough, consider dense packing with cellulose to reduce noise between walls and decrease the space that bugs like roaches may want to live.
We often find the exterior walls on a gabled end are also open to the attic. This was the case on all gable ends in this home and we dense packed these walls with cellulose from the attic using a 1 1/4" vinyl hose. This saved a lot of drilling from the outside.
Racine Home Insulators specializes in retrofitting older homes with insulation. We insulate homes in Racine, Kenosha, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.