Thnak you for the pic, brings alot to light. I would do no more then the foam an recoat of stucco. You have windows, doors and main power running on the wall, to much work on the outside. NOW, you can fur up the inside for studs and put insulation on the inside wall. It would not look bad on doors and windows if thought out correctly.
On the side not....just had news say need to watch for rattlers this year as they are more poisonous this year!
Thanks for the input, Doug. Inside insulation is not feasible on this wall, for many reasons and not worth explaining them all here. It’s outside or nothing.
Update: I’ve decided against the straw bales and am going with 1.5” XPS board, one foot under the current grade and 3 feet above, flash the top and then berm it in. I have lots of dirt that was removed from the roof when the TPO was installed last year. This should work fine and be easy to remove when the time comes to foam the wall. I dug the trench today, and should complete the rest next weekend.
Here in Indiana many people use straw bales, not hay bales to put around the outside of their house to prevent cold air from getting in. They wrap it in plastic that comes in rolls at walmart like you would use for a painting drop cloth only this stuff is like 5mil thick, 100’ x 20’.
It works, but dont let your insurance agent see it
Why not use woodchip just attach a waterproof membrane to the wall attach plastic water pipe to wall for temperature regulation add a temporary chicken wire wall 1 metre away from the wall infill with woodchip. Woodchip insulates house and heats up over the winter come the spring woodchip turned into compost to be applied to the garden.
Thought I’d post a progress report and initial impressions. While trenching along the wall, I encountered some hefty root systems about 14” down so I stopped there. So the XPS was put in, flashed and sealed, and the first round of earth is in place. I’ll give it some time to settle (recent rains helping there) then restore the level and cover the surface (wood chips/bark or plants?) to stop erosion. Total cost was about $60 until my hammer drill gave in while drilling through 78-year-old concrete. :(
The point of this was to bring a large thermal mass back into the house’s envelope and less exposed to outside temps. I can see already that is happening, as summer temps in that corner of the house are 2-3 degrees lower and more stable than last year, and so should be correspondingly warmer this winter. So the concept works. Pretty good payoff for 60 bucks.
While moving the many wheelbarrow loads of dirt in place, the thought struck that maybe the wall was not the best place for the insulation; that maybe the top of the berm should be insulated, putting the mass of the berm inside the envelope, so to speak. Well I’m not going to tear it out and change it now, but I searched around and saw the concept definitely has a following, in the “earth ship” community and others.
The three photos on the right show the details. 2” XPS on the top of the berm 12 feet out, done on all but the south side. They claim a significant stabilization of ground temperatures around the house. I can see that moving the frost line 12 feet away from the house would be a good idea. I like it.
