Icynene Foam Insulation
I absolutely love the Icynene Foam Insulation in my walls. My house is the thermally coziest house I have ever spent any period of time in. If you want to be cozy in your "this old house" you need insulation in the walls. The chances are that someone has already insulated the attic at some point in the past. You'll probably need to supplement it to bring it up to R30 (that's about 15 inches of insulation); but if you've already got some up there put your next dollar into the walls.
The mere act of adding insulation to the walls is Green by its nature, because it reduces heating and cooling requirements. This is going to save a lot of money over time. You have 3 options, but in each case they drill a lot of holes in your walls and pump in the insulation.
- Fiberglass - Fiberglass is naturally flame retardant, but has less insulating value than cellulose or foam. Since fiberglass is an irritant to the skin, lungs and eyes, there are some air quality concerns.
- Cellulose - Blown cellulose is basically shredded recycled paper. It has great insulating value and sounds really Green, right? Well not exactly, because it requires the addition of some nasty chemicals for flame retardancy and pest control; oh and let's not forget if it gets wet... can you say toxic mold?
- Icynene Foam - The hands down winner! I'm a walking advertisement for this stuff. It's a two part urethane-based foam that's pumped into the walls. It expands and plugs every last hole in your walls. It's thermal insulation, sound insulation and acts as a water barrier. It won't grow mold; pests won't eat it or nest in it; it's naturally fire retardant, it doesn't outgas (meaning it doesn't expel bad chemicals into your air); its not an allergen; and finally it has better insulating value then fiberglass or cellulose. What's the drawback? It's more expensive.
The house has 1510 square feet. We insulated all of the perimeter walls of the house and both bathrooms (for the privacy). In each exterior wall, they drilled 3 holes up and down and every 16 inches side to side, from the inside. We stripped one room down to the studs because the previous owner's years of smoking had left thick nasty nicotine stains on the walls. In that room they sprayed the foam right onto the studs. The total cost was $3980, which is about two and half times the cost of blown cellulose.It was literally worth every penny. The Icynene Foam is part of my trifecta of energy conservation, along with the double pane windows and the high efficiency furnace. My house hovers around 68 degrees all winter long with very little output from the furnace. The sound insulation is great too. We no longer hear "the band" practicing down the street. Carbon Bigfoot says go Icynene Foam!
In the Bay Area I used SDI Insulation. I had no complaints with their work. They showed up on time and finished on time.
5 comments:
I am doing this insulation project right now and am even sound proofing an interior wall between my room and the kid's room... Think of the value of that project alone in terms of "child health" -- Point is if you do the $2,500 minimum, think about a couple interior walls to insulate for sound purposes! I will let you know if I become as big a believer as Dave...
Don't forget the feathered and furry pests. A woodpecker loved my sip panel home due to the echo from the the panels as he pecked away. Before the siding went up he burrowed a nest 2 feet down into the eps foam, he made the nest in the most shaded part of the home right between 2 windows, I used the Icynene Foam to fill in the nest.
Squirrels burrowed into the attic of my old aparment, bats will do this as well, and don't forget those pesky carpenter bees that make perfectly round holes.
My sister purchased a home also, it was an old one too. Very useful information. I appreciate your effort, very well written article.. :)
What great information. I have been looking into Lynchburg spray foam insulation for our new house. I never thought of spraying around the bathrooms! I'll have to rework that into the contract. I wouldn't want people to be uncomfortable. Thanks so much for a great post.
You have shared an informative post about insulation and it's strategies for insulating any home and their effects, i know little more about insulation that insulation is a crucial thing for home which can help to reduce energy bill and make home more comfortable like warm in winters and cool in summer. This is really a great post made by you. Keep it up.
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