Insulation after sheetrock

[rktolds]

I have a stick built shop that was built in '85 and im pretty sure there was no insulation put in when it was sheetrocked. So my question is, what are my options to get the walls insulated? I live in oklahoma and hope to heat and cool my 900 sq ft space enough to take.the edge off. Thanks.

Matt

 

[NUTTSGT]

Tear down the sheetrock, insulate and hang new.

Drill the holes for blown in insulation and patch the holes afterwards.

Somebody talked about some spray foam in pre-existing walls before, maybe try googling that.

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Blow in insulation if you don't want to pull drywall off. Relative straight forward job. You'll just need to cut and patch holes for every stud cavity.


Nutts hit the options on the head.

 

[fury9]

Cut an inspection hole in one of the exterior walls to see if there is anything in there insulation wise. I would think that if you have your electrical and whatnot in the walls the blown in type may not make it completely around some of the things that are in your walls,just my opinion though

 

[matouse3]

If you have vinyl siding, I would do it from the outside to avoid all the patching and moving stuff on the inside. Remove two runs all the way around of the vinyl, drill your holes in each stud bay (top and bottom), fill with cellulose from bottom, top off the top, plug with the plastic plugs they sell, replace siding.

 

[rktolds]

Thanks guys. Its a brick building so gonna have to cut a hole and then patch. Thats what I figured I would need to do.

Matt

 

[Gary S]

I'd rip the sheetrock, insulate it right, and put up OSB with screws. Then, if you ever need access to the walls again, you simply remove an OSB panel and do the work.

 

[montero1dfw]

If you are happy with your existing sheetrock I would check in to something like this.

It has to be cheaper than ripping out sheetrock, insulating and the recovering. Plus it looks like it would do a great job insulating.

 

[matouse3]

If you are happy with your existing sheetrock I would check in to something like this.

It has to be cheaper than ripping out sheetrock, insulating and the recovering. Plus it looks like it would do a great job insulating.

I had this done in my house a couple of years ago and thought it was the ticket. Turns out that stuff is total and complete POS garbage. I pulled out a couple pieces of drywall a few months later and you can see the results in the attachment. The R value is now garbage and I'm stuck with that **** in my walls until I rip out all the plaster and do it right. Just a word of warning.

I've done the cellulose and its way cheaper and does a better job. No brainer if I was to do it again.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Thanks guys. Its a brick building so gonna have to cut a hole and then patch. Thats what I figured I would need to do.

Matt

To make it easier to patch, once you stick a piece of drywall back in the hole, (using a holesaw,you should be able to replace the drilled out piece back in the hole) fill in the gap with one layer of joint compound and then use a border. Yes, I know a wall paper border my not seem right but there is some many types of borders available from hunting/fishing to cars or sports. Inmy garage bathroom, I'm slowly adding license plates to make a border.


http://www.borderstogo.com/huntin--n-fishin.html

http://www.borderstogo.com/cars.html

http://www.borderstogo.com/sports.html



Just thought I'd add this thought to make it easier on the mind . . . "damn, I have to drill holes in perfectly good drywall."

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

I had this done in my house a couple of years ago and thought it was the ticket. Turns out that stuff is total and complete POS garbage. I pulled out a couple pieces of drywall a few months later and you can see the results in the attachment.

WOW! I didn't expect to see that. Thanks for sharing.

Do you know what kind of foam they sprayed in our house? Spray in foam is being aggressively sold in Wisconsin and it appears there are up to three kinds of foam to be used, depending on the application. Like in walls without insulation, in the box ends of the joist on top of the foundation wall, etc.

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

To make it easier to patch, once you stick a piece of drywall back in the hole, (using a holesaw,you should be able to replace the drilled out piece back in the hole) fill in the gap with one layer of joint compound and then use a border. Yes, I know a wall paper border my not seem right but there is some many types of borders available from hunting/fishing to cars or sports. Inmy garage bathroom, I'm slowly adding license plates to make a border.

http://www.borderstogo.com/huntin--n-fishin.html
http://www.borderstogo.com/cars.html
http://www.borderstogo.com/sports.html

Just thought I'd add this thought to make it easier on the mind . . . "damn, I have to drill holes in perfectly good drywall."

Do they have borders of naked girls? Is there a special link for those? Looked but couldn't find it.

 

[rktolds]

I dont want to tear down the custom wood cabinets the shop came with. So i will drill ahole and use cellulose more than likely. Was thinking about the foam briefly until the earlier post. I need to get pics of my place on here so you guys see what I am dealing with.

Matt

 

[Reg1952]

Dont you need vapour barrier in there some where?

 

[nwav8tor]

Dont you need vapour barrier in there some where?

I'm doing the same thing and will use a special primer that also acts as a vapor barrier. I'll just paint it on after patching all the holes for the blown-in insulation and then apply the finish coat. Probably not the best vapor barrier but better than nothing...

Paul

 

[aliaz]

I had this done in my house a couple of years ago and thought it was the ticket. Turns out that stuff is total and complete POS garbage. I pulled out a couple pieces of drywall a few months later and you can see the results in the attachment. The R value is now garbage and I'm stuck with that **** in my walls until I rip out all the plaster and do it right. Just a word of warning.

I've done the cellulose and its way cheaper and does a better job. No brainer if I was to do it again.

What type of foam is that? Is it Homesulate?

After reading your comments I may just blow in cellulose and save a ton of money.

Thanks!

 

[Falcon67]

Dont you need vapour barrier in there some where?

Not so much down here. Cellulose works well enough. I work with someone that had their house (late 40's, early 50s model) done and yes, it does settle somewhat. A thermal imaging cam shows the settlement. However, their house is a lot better than is was before, even with some settling of contents.

PS - the same thermal imaging shows our new 2001 era high buck house to have gaps in the insulation too, so application is everything.

 

[APEowner]

If the building is brick construction then the dry wall framing just holds up the drywall so you may be able to access the top plate from the attic, drill through there and blow in from the top.

 

[nwav8tor]

If you use blow-in and put the access holes on the inside (through the drywall) using a hole saw, the "pluig" of drywall that remains will be a bit too small (loose) to simply just reinsert into the hole due to the thickness of the hole saw bit itself.

If you don't want to buy or can't find tapered plugs try what I did:

I used a 1" hole saw to cut the openings and then used a 1-1/8" hole saw to cut the plugs out of an piece of unused sheetrock. The bigger plugs fit much better than the smaller ones, but were still just a hair smaller than the openings. Perhaps a 1-1/4" hole saw might have been a better choice for really tight fitting plugs.

Either way, it sure was a PITA to cut all the holes, cut the plugs and then mud and sand them all, but I think it was still easier and cheaper that removing the existing drywall, installing craft-faced insulation, and re-drywalling.

I also used a special vapor barrier primer since I couldn't install plastic behind the existing drywall.


Paul

 

[matouse3]

When I did the inside the house, cut and patch, I got some styrofoam plugs that fit the hole I drilled. I'm sure you can find them somewhereonline- can't remember where I got them. They worked great and have been patched over for 3 years now with zero issues from cracking or anything.

 

[matouse3]

What type of foam is that? Is it Homesulate?

After reading your comments I may just blow in cellulose and save a ton of money.

Thanks!

Not sure if the foam had a brand name to it. It was sold to me as an open-cell, non expanding (apparently not non-shrinking) that could be sprayed into the wall cavity without issues with splitting the plaster.
Foamrite in Michigan was the company that sold the garbage to me. I think they link to different contractors, so I am reluctant to trash them too much as it was probably just the garbage contractor and not the company all together.