Buy a secong King ultra stove or spray foam everywhere?

[mcdougy]

Cellulose can be installed in existing walls by drilling holes in the stud cavity. The holes are aprox. 1" in diameter. Usually a hole mid way and at the top. It's beneficial to know if you have fire stops inside the wall. The holes are then plugged on the outside if it's siding, remortered if it is brick or patched with compound if it's done from the inside. What makes cellulose the preferred method vs foam is the cellulose ability to flow into the cavity easier than sticky expanding foam. A much higher chance of success rate of filling the entire cavity and eliminating voids.
Again I ask, what is currently in the walls for insulation?

 

[Niko]

Fwiw I can usually get the attick and walls done on a entire home including vapor barrier for around 18 grand. This is including foamed joist ends and basement walls. Above grade walls are the hybrid technique and attacks are r 50 cellulose. This is on 2000sq ft home approx.

Thats a lot of money, as other have stated at what piont domyounstart making your money back from heating/cooilong saving. 20 years down the road?

In my opinion contractors are surely and slowly putting themselves out of business. Prices are above record high numbers. Why do you think people are now getting more and more involved doing the work themselves?

 

[Niko]

Cellulose can be installed in existing walls by drilling holes in the stud cavity. The holes are aprox. 1" in diameter. Usually a hole mid way and at the top. It's beneficial to know if you have fire stops inside the wall. The holes are then plugged on the outside if it's siding, remortered if it is brick or patched with compound if it's done from the inside. What makes cellulose the preferred method vs foam is the cellulose ability to flow into the cavity easier than sticky expanding foam. A much higher chance of success rate of filling the entire cavity and eliminating voids.
Again I ask, what is currently in the walls for insulation?

Just recently i took some sheetrock down as i am redoing the walk in closet room. It was fiberglass insualtion that had the aluminum foil on it. Looking a bit brittle and on its way out needing to be replaced. I sprayed the wall with foam and then closed it back up. I assume the rest ofmthe house has the same type of insulation.

 

[Rearscreen]

I used Roxul for the first time last year behind my kitchen cabinets - in the stud cavities. I liked it, and what I understand the mice don't. I moved into my Vermont house not knowing it's insulation properties, but the first thing I did was install radiant floor heat. Existing was baseboard which I left in place (never goes on) and added the zone (plus re configuring the whole shebang based on Dan Holohans book Pumping Away). But I will say this: If I had not installed my own radiant system I would be always uncomfortable as the floor would continually be pulling heat from my body. As far as outside air for your woodstove, and there is controversy over this from an article that's floating around, in my experience outside air is a must for me. One night I had a private conversation with my Progress, and she loves the fresh cold outside air.

 

[rwhite]

Even if you elected to install another stove, where would you put it? If I'm seeing your drawing correctly there is nothing but bedrooms and closets up stairs.

 

[mol1jb]

I assume then you ripped oout all the sheet rock to blow the cellulose in. That is a huge job to rip out all my sheetrock in my whole house by myself.

If you dont have to tell me ho please.

No ripping out sheet rock at all. I did blown in cellulose because it only require a small hole in each wall cavity (most make the hole in the exterior of the house siding so no patch work inside needed) and insert the blower hose into the hole till the wall cavity fills up. It is usually easy to tell when the wall is full because the machine makes a higher pitch noise like a vacuum does. I had vinyl siding so I just removed a full run across each side of the house and drilled my holes into the sheeting. You could do this with any siding type. With on person feeding bags into the machine, I did 3/4 of my house walls (ranch, 1200sqft) in one day. This is one of the best retro fit insulation options that I know of and I did a lot of searching before I insulated my house.

 

[Niko]

No ripping out sheet rock at all. I did blown in cellulose because it only require a small hole in each wall cavity (most make the hole in the exterior of the house siding so no patch work inside needed) and insert the blower hose into the hole till the wall cavity fills up. It is usually easy to tell when the wall is full because the machine makes a higher pitch noise like a vacuum does. I had vinyl siding so I just removed a full run across each side of the house and drilled my holes into the sheeting. You could do this with any siding type. With on person feeding bags into the machine, I did 3/4 of my house walls (ranch, 1200sqft) in one day. This is one of the best retro fit insulation options that I know of and I did a lot of searching before I insulated my house.

Can you get it what it cost to do it yourself? What type of mterial,you used, what machine you rented?

 

[mol1jb]

Ya you can get it from Lowes if you have one in your area. That is what I did. Buy so many bags and they throw in the blower machine, with $250 deposit of course. Once you finish and bring the machine back in good order, they refund your deposit and your only cost is the cellulose and your time. If I remember correctly, my house (attic from R-18 to R-50 and walls from empty cavity to R-13) costs was around $1k for the cellulose insulation plus the refundable machine deposit.

 

[Niko]

Ya you can get it from Lowes if you have one in your area. That is what I did. Buy so many bags and they throw in the blower machine, with $250 deposit of course. Once you finish and bring the machine back in good order, they refund your deposit and your only cost is the cellulose and your time. If I remember correctly, my house (attic from R-18 to R-50 and walls from empty cavity to R-13) costs was around $1k for the cellulose insulation plus the refundable machine deposit.

How long ago did you put the stuff in? For the walls did you use a gun with a water mist? I did some reseatcha lil on it and the say the celluloe does compact good unless its used witha mist. thats really cheap one thousand for your whole house?

 

[mol1jb]

How long ago did you put the stuff in? For the walls did you use a gun with a water mist? I did some reseatcha lil on it and the say the celluloe does compact good unless its used witha mist. thats really cheap one thousand for your whole house?

I did the insulation last year. It was just a standard dry blown in. The cellulose machine at Lowes is a dry blown. The only time I have ever seen a wet blown in is with open wall cavities to get it to stay put. Insulation is generally not expensive no matter what way you go, with the exception of spray foam. The labor of getting someone else to do it is what cost you.

 

[begreen]

We've had both loose blown and dense blown cellulose in our house. The loose blown can settle so we just used it for large open, horizontal spaces. It gets a large 1.5(?) hole drilled per cavity. In a later remodel we had high density cellulose blown in wall cavities that were uninsulated. This allegedly will not settle. It's blown in under high pressure through a ~3/4" hole.

 

[Niko]

We've had both loose blown and dense blown cellulose in our house. The loose blown can settle so we just used it for large open, horizontal spaces. It gets a large 1.5(?) hole drilled per cavity. In a later remodel we had high density cellulose blown in wall cavities that were uninsulated. This allegedly will not settle. It's blown in under high pressure through a ~3/4" hole.

I have fiberglass in my walls. How well is dense cellulose gonna work around the fiberglass that's already their especially when the walls in closed? Anyone have experience with this scenario? I have seen a lot of video of the liquid foam working it's way around cellulose fiberglass and ceiling up any and all gaps making it sealed up.

If cellulose can do this I'm all ears . I have looked up and down on YouTube. Any got a link that maybe I have missed?

 

[begreen]

If there is fiberglass in the walls then leave it alone and move on. As suggested earlier, concentrate on the attic. That is where you will get the best ROI.

 

[mol1jb]

If there is fiberglass in the walls then leave it alone and move on. As suggested earlier, concentrate on the attic. That is where you will get the best ROI.

Ya begreen is right. The attic is the easiest and best place to start. After you do the attic and still need further improvements, you can re evaluate at that point.

 

[Niko]

Ya begreen is right. The attic is the easiest and best place to start. After you do the attic and still need further improvements, you can re evaluate at that point.

Def is the easiets you guys are right about. not sure what material i will use. Amd call me silly but im still loving a second stove. You cant beat having the temp of your house at 80 degrees when it 0 below outside.

I def will redo the attic and buy new garage doors. As these must be my 2 weak spots.

 

[begreen]

Seems like the easiest path would be to fill the attic with blown cellulose on top of the existing insulation to bring it up to R50 or so. But maybe you want to do sealing up there first? If you do choose that route be sure there is a high attic insulation shield around the stove chimney if it runs through this space.

 

[Niko]

Our attic is pretty big and a awesome storage space. Def gonna seal it up and make it air tight, this is atually my number one reason for starting this thread, getting ride of all the air leaks. Good news is the chimney pipe does not go threw the attic. I have huge overhangs and the pipe goes threw them.

I am def gonna do that test that everyone mentoined earlier. So I can have some sort of initial reading and baseline.

 

[fibels]

Could you not figure a way to move the hot downstairs air more directly into the colder areas of your house? I have a vent through my first floor (stove is in the basement). This setup works amazingly for me to get the hot air to a hard to reach part of my house. From their it disperses well. The only room in my house that is cold is our master which is also the only room we haven't insulated.

For some perspective I redid my entire second story (two levels above my wood stove) and insulated the crap out of it. It's infinitely more comfortable up there than it is in my master which is on my first floor and directly next to the stairs that the heat comes up. Keeping that heat you generate inside the house and eliminating cold air infiltration is going to give you much more comfort.

N.B. - I know that a through the floor penetration COULD be a massive fire safety issue. A fire could move quickly from one floor to the next. That being said make your own decisions!

Yes I like your idea of trying a vent to get more heat upstairs.You can adjust the vent to allow more or less heat.Ask yourself how much would the vent cost,not much.If it works look how much time,effort and money you would save.