Questions tagged [insulation]
Insulation is any material used to slow the transmission of heat or reduce the transmission of sound. Typical materials include fiberglass, foam, blown cellulose, and reflective foil. This should not be confused with weather stripping.
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Basement Insulation Advice
We have a basement kitchen which was dug out about 25 years ago and wasn't insulated. Behind the kitchen units there is a void up to the retaining wall on one side and an external wall on the other. I'...
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Garage Ceiling Insulation [closed]
My goal is to minimize the temperature extremes for the weekend-only car and motorcycles.
I am in a central New Mexico rental house for the next 18 -24 months. The landlord allows to do want I want as ...
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Internal & External Insulation onto CWI Cavity Wall?
Summary: Can I internally insulate a CWI-filled cavity wall? If I can, and I've done that, can I externally insulate it as well?
I have a 1920s-1930s brick built house, with render on the 1st floor (...
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How to isolate a roof
This house has a roof with reinforced concrete beams and ceramic tiles. It's located in Castelo Branco, central interior Portugal, which can get very cold in the winter nights and very hot in the ...
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Freezing Ground Floor Flat [closed]
Ground floor flat no insulation in floor. Draughts everywhere. Cold exterior walls. When raining or very cold the air in flat is icy cold even with heating on. Any suggestions. The kitchen floor is ...
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Can you glue rigid foam board to sill plate?
I was looking for rigid foam to cover my entire 9 ft basement foundation wall and noticed that only 8 foot rigid foam boards were in stock locally. It is 9 feet from the bottom of my ceiling joist to ...
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Will this attic insulation plan close off the option of a whole-house fan for summer cooling?
Some house context: apx. 1300sq.ft. built in 1960, block basement foundation and stick frame, asphalt roof in a relatively rural setting with high winds in plant hardiness zone 6. We usually cool by ...
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Insulation sunroom without crawl space
I have a finished sun room off of my kitchen built with cement blocks as its foundation. The floor is finished giving me no access to insulate the floor. Any suggestions? I live in Pennsylvania
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Is this asbestos insulation in my attic? [duplicate]
Too scared to go back up here, had found a bunch of spores moving around too when I entered. I have video versions too of these photos, but it looked like giant dust particles were floating around. ...
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Is it OK to have multiple layers of faced insulation on an interior wall for sound deadening?
I'm finishing my basement and adding insulation. I am insulating the ceiling joists between my basement and upstairs living room as well since the room is for a theater. So, it's for acoustic purposes ...
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How to preserve canned spray foam after using [duplicate]
I can never figure out a way to keep this after I use it once. Does anyone know a secret trick that works?
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Re-insulating basement and concerned about correctly addressing moisture currently on sill plate that is resting on foundation wall
I'm attempting to finish a basement that currently just has blanket wrapped insulation.
I pulled off the blanket wrapped insulation enough to inspect it and found that there was a lot of moisture. The ...
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Is it worth adding 2x6s to allow thicker insulation in an attic? [closed]
I am finishing my attic and I live in Southeast Michigan (zone 5). I have installed baffles and I have narrowed down my insulation choices to a few options.
Option 1 would be very similar to what is ...
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Can I use spray foam over electrical wiring?
I'm finishing my basement and am currently working on the insulation. I finished placing the insulation batts in the studs and am at the point where I am filling in any small gaps with spray foam. I ...
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Attic Insulation Retrofit with XPS Foam Board
I have an attic space in my house that has been converted into part of the interior envelope and is now heated. Unfortunately, the rafters making up the ceiling are only 2x6 and contain only R-21 ...
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Do exposed foam insulation sheets present a hazard in a bedroom? [closed]
Insulation has been installed on my bedroom ceiling with the white foam side showing and the shiny side against the ceiling. Does the exposed foam side pose any dangers?
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How should insulated plasterboard be mechanically affixed to a wall? [closed]
I am looking to internally insulate solid brick walls using a PIR-backed plasterboard product. Some of these products allow adhesive fixing but I prefer to mechanically fix directly onto the solid ...
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Do I need insulation under electric floor heating in appartment bathroom?
I live in a large apartment house in Central Europe and I plan to add electric floor heating in my little bathroom for convenience. I own the appartment. The building has central heating units in the ...
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Air circulating upwards due to cold floors
I did an experiment in a bedroom of mine with a lot of incense, I got the room to the point where there was a thick cloud of smoke. What I noticed is that there was a constant upwards flow of smoke. I ...
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Help identifying insulation [closed]
A building I was in a while back had some suspicious-looking insulation. Spent maybe half an hour in there. I didn't do any of the demolition. Can anyone identify whether or not this could be asbestos?...
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Insulating a home with no wood sheathing
I have a home in San Jose California that was built in the late 70s. The exterior walls are stucco that was applied to the proper tar paper with metal lath but there is no wood sheathing under the ...
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Removing blown-in insulation and instead add insulation in rafters [closed]
I have an attic that originally had blown-in fiberglass insulation, with an additional layer of loosefill wool insulation added on top. This totaled up to a depth of 16 inches, which has an R-value of ...
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Weatherize old multifamily building against extreme heat
I live in a medium-size co-op apartment building from the 1920s (30+ units, 3 story, in Seattle). As extreme weather events have intensified in recent years, we have gotten more interested in ...
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Question about air sealing soffit/eave area for bugs and temperature
I have a 2006 house, which is not a great vintage, but generally very solid. In the rumpus room above my garage, there are two knee-wall closets. Despite having ample fiberglass insulation, these ...
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Should I treat my sill plate and rim joist before insulating?
Original 1943 construction with an unfinished full-height basement that I'm beginning the process of converting to habitable space. There are various signs of historical water damage on some of the ...
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Would adding sound-dampening insulation to part of a wall help?
We have a square-shaped, corner room that we use as a piano room. The room has doorways into both adjacent interior spaces. One doorway has large French doors with a transom. The other is just open - ...
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What type of weather proof house wrap to use around an exterior gas fireplace 225F minimum?
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I am installing an outdoor/indoor gas fireplace. The manufacturer recommends to use a minimum 225F weather proof material around the exterior of the fireplace within 6in of the top and 1in of ...
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Would blown-in insulation provide any degree of blocking in balloon construction?
As I understand it...
One of the problems with old-style balloon construction of walls was that since there was a continuous space between studs which ran the full height of the house, a housefire ...
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Insulating a communications panel from attic heat
I have a security system/cable tv coax/phone/LAN distribution panel in a closet off an upstairs hallway whose back is open to my attic. I have never really worried about the heat that comes through ...
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Why would our top plate be notched like this?
My home was built in 1958, and has a stucco exterior. Sheathing is plywood and the exterior walls are 2x4 with traditional stick framing. We are in a canadian, cold climate.
I ripped out the drywall ...
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Attic air sealing new construction
What is the best practice for attic air sealing when it's new construction?
In my jurisdiction I have to get my insulation HERS (California's new Home Energy Rating System) inspected before I can ...
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Insulating interior shower walls
I'm trying to decide on insulation interior walls of a shower for acrylic surround, and had just read that hanging a polyethylene sheeting on top of the drywall (between surround & drywall) was ...
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Are black marks in fiberglass insulation cause for concern?
Opened up a fire-rated wall to install stuff and discovered blackened sections in the insulation (i think it’s fiberglass). marks have no distinct pattern.
Should i reuse it? Should i add something ...
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Should I insulate the basement ceiling in a multi family dwelling?
I have a three-unit apartment building in Illinois. It has one upstairs apartment and two downstairs apartments. They're all heated with baseboard heating.
The two downstairs tenants are complaining ...
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Can I replace missing blown-in wall insulation with spray foam?
I put in a new window and need to patch up the wall around the installation. I noticed that the cellulose insulation in the walls doesn’t completely fill the cavities. Can I just spray some cans of ...
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Is there a minimum recommended distance between hot and cold water supply to fixture?
Can hot and cold water supplies (pex, 1/2") run adjacent to each other in a finished insulated wall on their way to a fixture? Is there a minimum required air gap between hot and cold, and/or ...
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Why is our addition so much colder than the original house?
We added about 480 square feet on to our home. The addition is added where the back patio doors were originally installed in our kitchen on the back of the house. So the addition is made up of three ...
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How do I install a vapor barrier on the exterior of an existing wall?
In this answer, it states quite emphatically that the vapor barrier should be on the exterior side of the wall, outside the insulation. In this particular question, the OP is in Michigan. I'm just a ...
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Rockwool or Fiberglass Insulation for Basement
My current basement is unfinished and would like to finish it. I’m framing an inch or two off the cinder block. I would like to use to Rockwool for better sound protection and just in case there is ...
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Building insulated room inside barn
I want to isolated build a room inside a barn.
It needs to be well insulated, so that it can keep a temperature of 20+ degrees.
However, since it will be protected by the roof and walls of the barn, ...
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Can Rockwool Insulation be compressed or squished to fit through a 4'' hole and then rexpanded?
I just put in recessed lighting and lost a lot of soundproofing in the room. There is some insulation in the ceiling, but since cutting the holes in the drywall, sound is leaking out like crazy (...
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Is there any point in adding insulation to just part of the attic?
Background: One room in our house is consistently 3-4 degrees colder. I’ve gotten quotes from a few insulation companies, who recommended insulating the basement rim joists and adding insulation to ...
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Insulation between floors?
I’m currently renovating the second floor of my 1950’s 2-story Cape. For context, I’m located in Massachusetts. The entire roof and gable walls down to the soffits will be getting spray foamed. The ...
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Why does some insulation come in 1200mm widths?
Why is Knauf loft roll 1140mm and Rockwool 1200mm wide? I gather either 400mm or 600mm gaps between joists are standard, so if you split the Knauf in three that seems slightly too narrow.
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Loft insulation
I want to add loft insulation. The joists have 400mm gaps between and are 75mm high. There is no product which precisely matches this which I can find. Some have suggested adding 25mm battens to the ...
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Bathroom Fan Replacement With Blown Insulation Above
I would like to replace the bathroom fans that came with my 2019 new construction home. I have successfully replaced the basement bathroom fan and it went well enough. The rest of the fans to be ...
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Can these exterior wall layers be used in this configuration? [closed]
Can I use these materials in a wall, from exterior?
house wrap
OSB
1-1/2" foam (Thermal Star x grade or Foamular 150)
R-19 unfaced insulation
poly vapor barrier
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Can rockwool batting be used in termite heavy area under interior face of foundation wall in ground contact?
I have a gap in my below-grade cellar ceiling and the interior face of my exterior foundation brick wall that I want to seal up. I'm thinking of stuffing it with some Rockwool batting. It was an ...
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Internal wall insulation - How to avoid thermal bridging between floors?
I have an old (~1900) UK house with solid brick walls.
Internal wall insulation is the only practical option so we are putting insulation backed plasterboard on all the external walls (after removing ...
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When insulating foundation walls in a crawlspace with two layers of EPS foam board, is including air gaps a good idea?
I'm planning on insulating my currently uninsulated 6-inch concrete foundation wall. This is zone 5, so code says R-15 is required. I can achieve that with 2 layers of 2" EPS foam board (nominal ...
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