LESLIE: Chris in Utah finds The Money Pit on KTKK. And you’re thinking about juicing up the insulation in your house. You been freezing? What’s going on?
CHRIS: Well, it’s an old house and it was probably built in the 50s. It’s kind of a funny setup. It’s got sheetrock on the inside of the 2x4s, of course; which is a quarter of an inch with foil. And then they had tar paper and shingles on the outside.
TOM: OK.
CHRIS: So that makes it pretty inefficient, I would think, with just an air space.
TOM: Well, right. You want to have insulation in those walls. Now, you have no insulation now in the walls?
CHRIS: None whatsoever. I tore off all the old shingles and stuff but I needed to know which way to face the bat insulation with the paper because we’re talking barrier vapor.
TOM: Yeah. The vapor barrier always faces the heated space. So the paper would be facing the inside of your house.
CHRIS: So I can just tuck it in?
TOM: Yeah. Basically, the paper is against the inside of your house. So the vapor barrier always faces that way. Yeah, if you’re replacing your siding, of course you can insulate it from the outside. But if you weren’t replacing the siding, then you could have used blown-in insulation. Either one would have worked.
But interestingly enough, Chris, most of your heat loss is probably going to be through your ceiling. So make sure you take a look at the attic insulation. In your part of the country, you’re going to want at least 10-15 inches of insulation up there.
Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply