SO…has insulation really changed over the years? My house was built in 78 and im turning the family room into a “man cave”. Gutting everything down to the studs. Im going to be hanging drywall this week and a friend of mine said to pull the old stuff out and put new R-13 in. I asked why and he said the old stuff 1) breaks down and two wasnt R-13 back then. more like R-11 or less.
Ive never heard of this but have any of you guys. A roll of R-13 is around $9 and I think covers something liek 25 sqft. It would probably cost me about $300 to redo the insulation. 2 wals are exterior. BUT i could always put that 300 into a better projector
The air spaces within the fiberglass insulation is where you get alot of your “insulation” from. The old stuff is likely pretty compressed by now and thus not as good anymore. When you put in new stuff make sure you don’t compress the shit out of it so it fits or you’re reducing its R value.
It would be VERY silly not to do it while the walls are torn down. I bet within the first year or two, you will have re-couped the cost in your electric/gas bill savings.
only the exterior walls will have insulation anyways, unless for some reason they put it in for sound deadening/water lines(which i doubt)
if it’s blown in shitty stuff (which is prob is), it’s just all going to fall out anyways. it’s a lot easier/cleaner/better to replace the insulation while you’re in there
im not worried about $300. i just didnt want to spend the 300 if it wouldnt do anything.
I didnt know older stuff had lower R-Value. That being the case I’ll replace it before i put the drywall up. 2 walls are exterior which have insul and the other 2 arent. All the drywall is down so ill be going to HD tonite. The ceiling is crapy pop corn which I could scrap off BUT with all the new lights and audio etc ill be putting in (along with projector and motorized screen) i think I might just take the ceiling down, run all my stuff then put new drywall up.
I might just/will probably put some kind of insulation for sound in the ceiling for sound…theres rooms above.
Yea, not worried about $300 as long as it does something.
not a bad idea to replace it while your there, but i hope you have good windows as that money would be better spent on good multipane windows that wont leak or anything, theyll have a much greater effect then the insulation difference in your walls.
