Bumping this thread to see if anyone has some more recent experiences?

Does anyone have any experience with injected/blown insulation, and contractors in the area who do it? Thanks in advance!

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@scrappe7
I would be happy to take a look at your job and give you an estimate. I have extensive experience with drywall and insulation. Please have a look at my website:

www.basilmcgregor.com


Thanks!

Looking for something similar. Any ideas on what it would cost to remove drywall, put in new insulation and then recover the walls? Let's assume a wall that is 10 feet long and 10 ft high, so 100 sq ft. No clue what drywall costs to put up.


Conservative ballpark around $4.00 per square foot. But a small job like that might be more expensive on a sqft basis.

Looking for something similar. Any ideas on what it would cost to remove drywall, put in new insulation and then recover the walls? Let's assume a wall that is 10 feet long and 10 ft high, so 100 sq ft. No clue what drywall costs to put up.

Thx

I can't find the website for the contractor who did our house three years ago. And it seems there are many new spray foam insulation products out there now. Icynene is just a brand name. I would look into soy based foams and do your research on whether the brand you choose is safe.

These guys look promising though:
http://www.sprayfoamhomeinsulation.com/

I recommend blowing in icynene.
Its a "green" product.

we had about 6-7 inches blown in when we did a gut rehab of our 100 yr. old house and it is saving us a lot in heating bills. I would guess our R-value is between 18 and 30. (ceilings have about 10 inches of foam blown in)

http://local.healthyhouseinstitute.co ... 391026-Morristown_NJ.html

Its best to do this in warm weather though, otherwise, the foam may have trouble binding to the surfaces, which is really important.

Also make sure that in general they blow in enough so that the foam expands just a bit beyond the studs. Later they saw off the excess to make it flush.

Often behind the horsehair plaster in these old place are just 3/4 firring strips nailed to the brick, and sometimes not even that, just plaster on brick. I don't think the insulation can be blown into the 3/4 space.


I figured out a way to do this with 2 component urethane foam. You get an R-value of 4 to 8, which isn't great compared to a wall filled with 3+ inches of cellulose. It is however, a vast improvement of what bare brick offers. The other advantage is that urethane foam is a true air-barrier, so it tightens up the building immensely.

I finished my last retrofit on my apartments about 2 years ago. I cut my tenants utilities bills in half and haven't had a frozen pipe since then.

Note: retrofitting buildings completely is major construction work. It involves a ton of dust and aggravation. The new lead paint rules make it VERY cost prohibitive to do a inside retrofit now.

I would offer people here quotations, but I decided to wind the insulation business down. The BPU assigned PSE&G a monopoly on the state rebate / retrofit work in the urban enterprise zones. Plus the new lead paint rules, increased unemployment insurance rates, and other issues really make it hard to land steady work and make decent money.

BTW: Beware of insulating an attic space (in particular a cockloft typically found in brownstones) without air-sealing. If you pump insulation into that attic, warm moist air can get trapped up there, causing condensation during the winter. This happens a lot in houses with humidifiers. If your house is properly air-sealed and insulated, you will NOT need to humidify the place. You will likely have the opposite problem of too much moisture.

I too had/have the same problem. I had the cellulose insulation blown in and it was only marginally effective. The spray foam was much more expensive but maybe better. It probably creates a better seal and stays in place. I reallyshould have done more research. All I can say is that the cellulose didn't do much.

HP- I feel your pain! My wife and I have the same problem you have with our home. We haven?t had a chance to schedule a consult with PSEG but we know it's an insulation issue. I would give these guys a call for a free consult http://www.easterninsulation.com/ or call Frank @732-312-2385. It works!

Anyone hired a contractor in to do it and if so, were you pleased with the results? How much did it run?

I recently had PSE&G in for a free Home Energy Audit of my 1860 b/stone - they set up a fan system and all sorts of gizmos to measure how *tight* the house was and had to stop testing because they thought a window must be open someplace.

No such luck - the house lacks insulation on the entire front / back of the building and we'd like to do the right thing, drill through the interior sheetrock and blow it in. PSE&G is all for it but doesn't partner with you to pick up the expense.

Any advice / recomendations would be most appreciated.

Purchase the Green Fiber product from Home depot and do it yourself.. I and 1 helper just finished doing this to my attic.. If you purchase 20 bags of green fiber at HOme Depot they will let you use their blowing machine free of charge.. Great deal if you ask me.. I purchased 20 bags of the stuff and went nuts in my attic.. I spent less than 250 dollars to up the R rating in my attic.. I think I will recoup this within a year or two.. Next I will be doing my exterior walls... I will get two helpers for that job.. I also need to purchase some other equipment for that job..

Anyone know who might do this? Thanks

I have done this in my closets, but I did it all by myself. My closets used to be freezing in the winter (I am talking meat locker cold). Whatever genius designed the place didn't think to put insulation in between the inside walls and the outside ones, so it was cold. So I banged a bunch of holes in there and filled it with that spray, it improved it greatly, but not as good as if I were to get a contractor to rip out the walls. Hope that helps.

Has anyone installed spray foam insulation in either a new house/condo or renovation? Can you recommend a contractor?

I agree with 4bailey, much depends on the construction. Often behind the horsehair plaster in these old place are just 3/4 firring strips nailed to the brick, and sometimes not even that, just plaster on brick. I don't think the insulation can be blown into the 3/4 space. If you are on the top floor however, they can easily access the attic space and blow in 10" of cellulose. It only gets tough if the slope of the roof gets too close to the ceiling joists to get the hose in.

A place to gain ground is the utility chase for the plumbing and gas. We get huge drafts through them. Even blocking them off at each level, rather than filling them, would help.

On the bright side, our old brick places may not be as bad as some say. The radiant floor gurus told me that it simply wouldn't work to put hot water pipes under my terrazzo kitchen floor, that with no insulation and exposed on 2 sides the floor simply couldn't pass enough BTU's to heat the room. I ignored the gurus and it works fine, possibly because the heat loss isn't as bad as the common wisdom says it is.

The ?very old? part is the big part of the question?

We tried the blown-in cellulose a few years ago.

Our building is a ~1860 brownstone in HC, with our living room on the first floor and the bedroom at garden level. The insulation guys couldn?t get it to blow anything into the living room. Since then, I?ve opened the wall to put an electric circuit in and found out why. The living room exterior wall just several layers of sheet rock (like an onion) nailed on top of each other. The base level is the original 1860 horse-hair plaster on wood-slat lathe attached to the exterior brick wall. There was no space for the blown-in insulation to go.

We were more successful downstairs in the bedroom where the wall was framed out and there was space for the blow-in. We noticed a big difference that first year. However, now, 3-years later, we?ve noticed that it isn?t as effective. I think the cellulose ?settles? over time and loses its insulating properties.

If I had to do it over again, I?d put holes in the wall and run the standard fiberglass insulation on a roll. Messy, but it?s done once. But,? that?s in our house?

The other piece of advice I?d give is that if you?re not sure, put holes in the wall big enough to get a good look at what?s behind the wall so you know EXACTLY what you?re dealing with. In the older buildings that have gone through several owners / ?renovations?, you can?t make an educated insulation strategy without knowing what you?re dealing with.

Good luck!

It would involve cutting 2" or 3" holes every 16" along every wall and across every ceiling. At least 2 holes every 16". The framing in old buildings is inconsistant and weird and a lot of the insulation might fall down through the wall cavity into the downstairs apt walls. So somebody has to do a lot of wall patching and repaint the entire apartment. I have no idea what it would cost or if you could even find someone to do it. Usually this type of job is done from the outside and they squirt expanding foam into the walls.

We are thinking of insulating our condo. We live in a very old 6 family building, and we lose a lot of heat. We also want some insulation against noise going out and coming in.

We were thinking about that stuff that they blow into the walls and ceilings.

Does anyone here have any experience with this?

thanks,

any tips, suggestions, feedback on anyone who has hired a contractor to do it, or if you did it yourself....

thanks!

instead of foam, i actually used these guys product:
http://www.nansulate.com/
seems to work. only downside is if you apply to sheetrock and have to remove/replace that sheetrock you will lose your insulation...but it works on permanent walls...

How old is your house? If it's more than 75 yrs old, I would look into the potential hazards of blowing in insulation that could compromise your structure. Many older homes were designed in such a way so as to create an air gap that allows moisture to dissipate properly. Many people don't know this and they insulate only to find out that they have trapped moisture in the walls causing both mold and rotting wood issues. If you are looking to save costs on heating, your best bet is to have interior or exterior storm windows put in and insulating only the attic. Avoid exterior walls, unless it's a newer home.
good luck!

Try

Apple Plumbing and Construction
201-954-5429

I've used them for my house & also for my store. Their prices were great plus I was satisfied with their work.

I've recommended them to a few friends, neighbors and other people on jclist & have heard good things from them as well.

Plus they're local and give free estimates

Check them out.

I need an existing wall insulated. Can anyone recommend an experienced person to do this job?