Cohousing-L Mailing List: foam insulation (was Re: Sound Barriers)

[Ellen Keyne Seebacher (elle]

stuart [at] caercoburn.org writes:

> I was watching "This Old House" on DIYnetwork. The episodes were the
> "East Boston Project." They used foam insulation within the existing
> lath and plaster walls so they wouldn't have to destroy the
> walls. The contractors drilled holes between the joists on the
> interior (so they could avoid holes in the stucco exterior) and the
> foam was blown in through the holes.

I lived in a house where this was done, ten years ago.  My spouse's
family owned a house in Nantucket -- built in 1872 as a summer cottage
-- and since we were planning to live there over the winter, they had
foam insulation blown into all the walls.  It helped somewhat with the
chill, though nobody had quite considered the fact that the house was
built on stilts at the top of a cliff, so the first fall nor'easter
drove the wind up through the floorboards instead. :-)

Can't tell you how it helps with sound insulation, but it's certainly
doable as a retrofit -- and not ridiculously expensive, either.


        Ellen