50’s style house w/ 3/4 in. furing strip air gap/insulation question
jon56
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
Have a 50’s ranch house bedroom with 3/4″ airgap / furring strip on brick&block . Just finished full kitchen remodel and the Mrs. insists in some kind of insulation in bedroom . I’m reasonibly up to date with general spray foam insulation and kinda remember hearing about a type of insertion spray foam method for cavities . Is there any other way to insulate with out taking off an inch of drywall ? I’m looking for a short cut after a year plus of kit. remodel . I did hear about doing 1/2 ” rigid foam over top of existing wall and new drywall over that . There would still be mud work dust to deal with . Thanks in advance, Jon
Replies
1/2 or 3/4 inch foam of any kind is not going to do much for insulation.
You'd have to live in the house another 100 years to pay back the cost of insulating with electrical savings. Insulations all work by stopping air movement. You could poke holes in the drywall near the ceiling, squirt in some foam to fill the top of the furring strip gap and turn the furring strip gap into pretty effective insulation.
Any insulation helps, so 1/2"
Any insulation helps, so 1/2" to 3/4" isn't "worthless", especially if there's nothing at all to begin with. A single-layer brick wall has an R value of about 0.7, while an inch of foam will be about R5.
But much of the benefit of a good insulation job is in air sealing -- sealing air leaks, even without any actual insulation, can easily reduce heat loss in half.