Is Your Home Insulated? You'd Be Surprised

Most people answer yes, but this may not be the case. Insulation settles over time, leaving a gap at the top of the walls. We found a gap in our walls about 12". My parents had foam insulation blown into their walls about 15 years ago. They recently removed a wall to find big cracks and gaps in the insulation. They also found places where the insulation didn't adhere to the wood - leaving cracks the full length of the wall.

When insulating with pink fiber, many home owners tape the gap between bats with duck tape. This works - for a while - then the tape dries out and pulls away.

There are ways to add a vapor barrier to a room, or to increase the insulation value without tearing down the walls. Test a couple of rooms before you put up this year's wall paper. You only need to cut a 4" square out of the wall. If there is no insulation behind the wall, call one of the companies that blow the fibers into walls. Their product can fill the spaces.

Brick Homes

Many older brick homes do not have anything between the brick an insulation. This leads the insulation to become full of dirt. The fiber still has insulation value, but not as much as it should.

We added plastic and 'fire retardant' gypsum rock when insulating the new rooms. The thicker gyp rock will not only slow down the burn rate of our home (God forbid) but it will also add insulating value.

One thing we did learn is to take the plastic as far up the wall as possible - use duct tape and silicone to seal the plastic. Without the pink barrier on the outside, it is amazing how much of a draft can enter the room through the crack. You almost need to leave one room exposed over the winter months to realize the truth of this.