Blown-in insulation

[Jonathan]

Kind of an odd question, but one I'm considering now rather than later when it's urgent.

My house was built 1959 and renovated sometime in the mid 70's. The contractor who did the 1970s work ripped off the former owners and put in fiberglass insulation 1 inch thick (no, that's not a typo - 1 inch - in Minnesota)! :devil: The walls are 2x4 with ducts and pipes in some of the exterior walls.

As you can imagine, my heat bills are enormous. I am considering some kind of blown-in insulation from the outside; DW has informed me the inside walls will remain as-is.>8)

So, if you've done a similar project, what materials did you use for the insulation, why, and what would you do over?

Note: I am not interested in siding issues. The existing siding has to be torn off and replaced, so I can reasonably tell the contractor doing the insulation not to worry about the siding. I'm planning on replacing the siding after the insulation is in, which comes after the wiring is redone in a few spots, which comes after.... :0!

[razz]

Sorry to hear this has happened. When we built our certified energy-efficient small ranch, or rather had it built by a contractor, the insulation in the attic was blown in and 20 years later seems to be effective.

Wall insulation will require replacement from the inside despite how messy it will be until completion. I truly empathize with your wife's feelings. Those who have drilled and blown from the exterior surface have found holes in the insulation (significant cold spots) due to obstacles to the installation like wiring, a nail poking out etc., some settling and regretted going the exterior route since they ended up having to remove the interior walls, insulate and replace with new interior walls in order to know that every hole or cold spot is plugged.

[kally]

we had the blown in insulation done. It would be hard to do yourself, but some people do it. Our house is 1949 and had no insulation in the walls. NONE. So we have seen a nice change in the heating bills. It cost about $3200, but we had an audit done and should get back about $1800 on a government project. It is well worth it.
I saw the guy across the street do it himself and he is a contractor and managed it; but it is messy and sloppy, and cuttng the holes has to be done just right.
We still have hole marks in our stucco, but we have mostly patched all those and are awaiting a repaint.

[Jonathan]

Yes, but what materials did you use? Foam? Rags? Fiberglass? Shredded newspapers? ?????

[Yppej]

Had it done by a contractor maybe 10 years ago - he blew in shredded newspaper. Left ugly holes in the walls so I had to wallpaper over them.

[shadowmoss]

Silly question: since you are going to redo the siding anyway, why not put foam (board or spray-on) on the outside of the walls under the new siding?

[kally]

and we went in through the outside of the house, through the stucco. It has made a world of difference, but someone, sometime has got to paint over all the holes made outside and repaint the place. It needs it anyway so maybe this summer or next.

[Glo]

Last fall we had fiberglass blown into our attic. Its made a huge difference; we can comfortably keep our temp set at 66 and our gas budget went from $138 to $69. Our best friend had fiberglass blown into their attic as well as foam blown into the sides. They did have to blow the foam from the outside and inside and it was a mess. The good news is that their gas bill went from $400 a month to $200 a month. Their house is 80 years old and 1200 square feet.