old home on the farm insulation question?

I put a bid in on the old farmhouse that is in foreclosure that once was the homeplace for the adjoining farm we own. I've heard that there is none or minimal insulation in the walls. The outside is vinyl and the home was built in the 50's, floor joists and the garage are from native timber from the farm. What is the best way to insulate the walls if there is none. Yes, I have run a tractor many, many times on the farm next to the house to keep it close to the topic. Funny how the house and land were separated many years ago and they might come back together in 2015! This would be a rental by the way. I thought some guys on her might have tackled this already. It's a decent 3 bedroom 2 bath home with garage and newly redone kitchen, hopefully it works out.

With vinyl it is easy to unzip a panel of siding and drill the necessary holes for blown in insulation.

Have a pro pump in foam in the cavities.

If you plan to do it yourself, most lumberyards have rental machines for putting in the cellulose, but you will need to drill a hole big enough for the hose nozzle in the plate above each space. You also need to run a fish tape down in the space to make sure there is not a fire stop halfway down. Any wiring upgrades you intend to do should be done before the insulation.

Pull a light switch or outlet to find out is there insulation in the walls. My house was once owned by a guy who had a blown in insulation business. He removed bricks to insulate the wall but I never understood why he didn't insulate the attic. He also insulated the detached garage and horse barn walls. Guess he just didn't like attics.

as important as insulation is. If air is blowing through the walls, ceiling, around windows , doors and under the floor. The added insulation will make little difference .

Bo has it right, and now you can even get do it your self kits for the foam. All you will need to know is if there is a cross brace between the studs half way down, like lots of old houses. Drill a hole and let it fill the void. Better than anything you can blow in and not that much more expensive.

A house built in the 50's is more than likely in need of updating the plumbing and electrical along with the bath's. Doors and windows as well. I know its not what you asked but that's the easy although the expensive way to insulate while you have all the wall board down to rewire. A lot easier to rent a fresh clean updated house as well.

If there is no insulation the easiest way would be to drill holes on the inside of the exterior walls and inject foam insulation. If you plan on keeping the house and living there I would probably remove the sheetrock or plaster and lath and inspect and or upgrade the wiring and plumbing. Then insulate with fiberglass insulation.

I have only seen one done right,they stripped the outside to the studs rewired and insulated the walls,added new siding.

Many folks take off siding , cover the walls with ridged styrofoam , cover with house wrap, then reside. Also good time to update windows.

My 1970's house was not insulated by todays standards so we removed all the inside wall board,re insulated,new vapour barrier and re drywalled. The boys I work with had it gutted in a morning,two days later the insulation and vapour barrier were up and then they started drywall , it all tied in and once taped you couldn't tell it had been messed with, whole deal cost me about $2500 and I have 4" pink. I have seen interior walls where the foam has not gotten all the way into places and you have cold spots in the wall..a total waste of money...if you are going to insulate the house do it right , an inch on the outter wall won't do it and the foam is only effective if you can spray it directly between the studs. ..do it right do it pink!

An insulation company can pop off one sheet of siding, drill a hole, blow the outside walls with either fiberglass of newspaper and pop the siding back on. Last time I think it cost me $3-4/ linear ft. They can also blow the attic cheaper than doing it yourself, $.50/cubic foot.

We put hot water heat in a house that had oil furnaces. Heat would go up the wall about 2 feet and then outside and the furnace ran ALL the time. We had holes drilled and insulation blown in. This 90 old house was better insulated than a 1980s house we now live in. It was warm and quite. Foam will retract and cause gaps and will be more expensive.

I would open up a row on the outside and foam it, there is nothing that compares.

Make sure all your electrical work is done before foaming.

If there is some insulation you have a problem. That is what my house is. Impossible to blow any amount in because it just bridges on all the old insulation that has sagged. Our old farm stead, where I hang out a lot, had no insulation and full 4 inch studs. Insulation blew in there really good.

Like RwEny said vinyl siding makes it quick and easy to go in through the exterior. I would do blown in fiberglass. I had a house foamed thirty years ago. There was 3% shrinkage which leaves about 1/4 inch on each side. Maybe modern foam doesn't shrink.

I am going to ask what the subsiding is, plywood or boards, If just boards take off all the siding then drill the holes and then cover with plywood or the simular materials so there is no chance of cracks that the wind can blow thru. My house built with toung and grove siding with building paper underneeth we blew in the insulation. With no visible cracks in the plaster with wind if you held up a newspaper close to the wall you could see and feel the wind blowing. House was vinal sided. took old siding off and latter reused it putting it back on. What we did was completely cover the outside with OSB board and removed all the old plaster and cleaned up inside the walls, took out that old building paper that kept the blown in insulation from filling the spaces and put in fiberglass bats. Then as it was the wall that 90% of it would be covered with cabinates we put up 1/2" plywood to get a sollid base for hanging the cabinets. No wind now. Over half of the plugs put in to close up the holes had fallen out. So first is to decide what your subsiding is like and chances of it leaking wind, then if it is sollid decide if you want those holes for the wind to blow thru, ort go in from inside and redoo those walls. Had a second house foamed and it only filled the stud spaces halfway and plugs kept falling out. Was very cold.

have it foamed I am going to have mine resided next summer and it will be done that way. We did a 30X40 new building 5 years ago. We heat it with a small electric space heater. Part of it has not been finished inside, there is no evidence of cracking or shrinkage of the foam. We used close cell type.

They blew in insulation in this old house in 1970. Because of fire stops about 1/4 of each wall had no insulation. It also settled. From 1970 to 2000 about a foot so the top foot around the house had no insulation. My parents ran about 600 gallons of propane a month for Jan/Feb when temps would get down below zero F and stay there for a couple of weeks r at a time. We took the old plaster and lath out and put in good quality Fiberglas bat insulation. That cut the gas bill in half. Replacing the windows and a new furnance we cut that in half again.

If I was going with some type of blown in I'd go with foam from the most reputable place I could find. This blown in stuff is really a you get exactly what you pay for type of thing.

Rick