r/Insulation

Some background. I am remodeling my home office and stripped everything down to studs.

House was built in 1977 and has a brick veneer so getting access to the exterior sheathing isnt practical. It originally had I believe an R9 or something like that. I doubt it was truly r9 after 50 years. I have replaced the insulation with r15 rockwool. I am on the Eastern coast of VA.

So do i need a vapor barrier like Membrain or no?

Home is 8 years old in Alberta. Original owner. Trying to figure out why there are extra sheets of OSB in the attic. Had 3 contractors look at it so far but nobody can tell me why it’s like that or how to fix it.

It’s a 2 storey house and the second floor is about 4C warmer than the main floor in the summer and 4C cooler in the winter. There is a bit of black mold on the attic hatch.

Any ideas what the builder was trying to accomplish by building it this way? I’d hate to pull it out if it has an actual purpose. Builder isn’t responding to my emails.

Edit: Thanks for the explanation. I obviously know very little about attics!

I have a 1940s Cape Cod house and we are having severe heat issues with our upstairs.

There are no soffits or ridge vents, only 8 box vents near the top. Currently, there is R-19 fiberglass going up the roof slant. However, the floor joists (above the downstairs ceiling) and the vertical knee walls are completely uninsulated and bare.

I live in a mixed/four-season climate. Because there is no low-eave ventilation intake, what would you recommend? Should I pull the R-19 down to insulate the floor/knee walls instead, or look into an unvented hot roof setup?

My roof was replaced about 3-4 years ago by the previous owner. Its a split level home and the second floor gets hot if the AC is not running.

The attic has blown in cellulose and batt insulation over that. I have installed AtticFoil radiant barrier and seen zero improvement when reviewing the Govee sensor data as compared with the outside temp.

On the eastern side of the roof I have 4 passive louvered vents. On the western side i have solar panels on about 3/5 of the roof or so and thats it.

On a previous question on this topic in a different subreddit, it was mentioned that i may have ventilation problems.

I removed the soffit covers in an area thats easily accessible to me

Noticed that the older wooden cover is still there. With what would seem like the older soffit vent holes. I can see the baffles from there and incan see them in the attic as well.

Are the baffles installed correctly? Should i make more cut outs in the wood to improve ventilation?

Looking for diy ideas to mitigate the water / moisture coming into garage. Concrete slab with cinder block walls. Thanks!

ETA: The garage is detached and sits at the base of a dune (Indiana, NW), built in the '50s. It is A-frame with steep pitch metal roof, no insulation. Last summer, the humidity got to a point that it zapped the outlets and popped the circuit.

Hi guys, I've just bought a 1950s property by the coast. The Old fibreglass loft insulation has failed. It's all crumbly. I want to replace it but I'm unsure what to use - I've heard Cellotex is used a lot but it can be expensive.

Is that all i need? What material and thickness should i use/aim for? If i got someone in for this job, what's a reasonable quote?

Thanks guys and girls, never done this before!

We have a century home and our basement has concrete foundation walls with a concrete floor. Sometimes water comes in through the cracks of the foundation/and or floor if there is heavy rainfall. I believe this is somewhat normal due to hydrostatic pressure. It doesn’t flood, but there is certainly water that sort of collects around the edges of the basement and absorbs into the concrete in the middle of the floor for a little bit and then usually goes away.

The problem is that the previous owner sprayed insulation on the walls in the basement…I think it’s probably more of a hinderance than a help in general and I have no idea why they chose to do this. The worst part is that the outer coating of the insulation is some sort of fuzzy soft material. The inside is yellow foam.

As you can see by my photos, the soft fuzzy material absorbs water, and this allows mold to develop.

I believe this is probably bad mold 😩😩 not that any mold is good… but this one looks particularly concerning.

*this corner looks really dirty because we had shelving in front that we moved

Obviously, I am not going to be able to do anything about the fact that some water comes in sometimes due to hydrostatic pressure, given the age of the home. I am not sure if they sprayed this insulation on the foundation to hide something. It is not a finished basement and if it were just concrete, it would not concern me greatly. However, obviously, the presence of this insulation and mold IS concerning.

What do I do about this? I do not feel comfortable or experienced enough to remove all of the insulation… I thought maybe I could remove the bottom half but that still sounds really daunting. Obviously something needs to be done. Just any advice regarding the insulation, the mold and the situation is welcome. If you are knowledgable on the insulation or why they would have done this, that would help too.

I have an attic that has blown in cellulose covered by fiber. Thats on the floor of the attic, the ceiling of the room below.

One side of the roof faces the east give or take. The other side of the roof faces west or so. 3/4 of the western side has 16x solar panels.

The eastern side had 4 roof louvered vents. Also there is a skylight that goes through the eastern side.

I have been wanting to make the floor below the attic not heat up so fast without AC. Bought a 1000sqft roll of the AtticFoil brand. People here on reddit and on Amazon reviews raved on results of 10 to 30F degrees cooler.

Two weeks ago i did both eastern and Western sides, but only the lower half. Then yesterday I finished and did both sides on the upper side. Left a few inches on the top and bottom ends.

There are plenty of baffles. There is no ridge vent, but the 4 louvered vents.

I have a Govee temperature sensor in the attic and outside as well (in the shade by the awning). There is literally zero difference from 3 weeks ago and after I did half of the roof and even since yesterday when I finished, zero difference. In the screenshots, the blue is attic and orange is outside. Have the past month, which includes nothing, half roof (two weeks ago), and whole roof (yesterday noon I finished).

Is it a scam? Or something else is going on?

I know that you can't just tell by looking at it but I don't have money to get this place tested. So I just moved into this very 1970s apartment building in calgary. This picture is taken in the bedroom and it's under the heating radiator as you can see? I'm sure since this building is very old it must have aebestos. This place is just fully exposed and I have a toddler who likes to put his hands anywhere. I am scared that he might disturb the particles in whatever this thing is!! It's a rental property and I can't do much about it.

Just discovered this opening in lower wall. Is this vermiculite inside? Wasn’t disclosed when pitching the home. I’ve actually found the same in another area as well.

am a bit at a loss and don’t want to screw up here. We live in zone 5. Just had new siding put on (Hardie) which included 1/4” foam board underneath (I understand this is more for leveling than a vapor barrier). My problem is now the basement. I am doing a quick Reno. I discovered that the original owner used insulation with a plastic vapor barrier behind d the drywall. I removed the old ceiling tiles which were foil backed along with Kraft backed insulation in the joists. My plan was to spray everything black and leave it open. I discovered some mold near an exterior wall around Kraft backed insulation. I am certain that the initial install by the previous owner was done wrong.

Take a look at pics. Orlando I properly insulate this? The area is about 2-3 feet above foundation. The current vapor barrier stops at the top of the drywall. There is a gap to the exterior framing then this is where Kraft backed was added (and mold appeared). How do I properly insulate this? Rockwool up to finished wall without foam board? Lay foam board horizontally up to vapor barrier? I feel if I add foam board it will trap moisture here actually. Worried about both the exterior framing to the foundation as well as the interior cavity.

Any advice appreciated. I’m conflicted!

This is a 1960 chicago house, with brick and concrete veneer it appears. I am replacing an exterior facing wall due to mold and condensation. Images attached of the issue, there looks to be furring strips and then the drywall was attached. No insulation at all. Right now I’m thinking closed cell foam applied to all the corner (only) and then moving up stud frame 1-2 inches from the brick for more air space. And then adding smart vapor barrier on the room facing side and then dry wall. Don’t want any further condensation risk so will leave it at that, will this work or better considerations????images

I recently noticed some moisture behind the basement insulation along one corner of my foundation wall. There are also damp streaks on the concrete and a small amount of water collecting on the floor in that corner.
The insulation has a clear vapor barrier, and it looks like there may be some moisture trapped behind it. I’m not sure if this is condensation or something else but definitely noticed it today after last few days of humidity n rain.
What’s the best way to get it checked ?

Had an insulation company add about 3-4 inches more insulation than what I had before(R-11) to get around R-38. Subs they used couldn’t speak any English, fine I asked in Spanish if they filled my soffits since they should not but they kept saying to me “yes fill everything”. They work more on commercial not residential what they told me.

They only spent about 15 minutes max filling as was there for 30 minutes total; hurry to get to their next job.

I do have rafters but I can’t see them at all.

The house is slightly hotter than before and AC running about 2 hours more than usual

Is there any way to check without having to mess with the insulation?

I thought maybe drone but it’ll just make a mess

Just worried my soffits got insulation in them

Looking to understand the best way to insulate this building (western OH).

Moved into a new house last fall that came with this newly built detached garage/mini pole building. I park my wife’s car and my project car in the two car bay, and have a small teardrop under the mezzanine and some pedal bikes stashed in various places.

Id like to maintain some of the recessed space on the wall for storage, will likely finish out with OSB so I can hang some shelves/racks to get garden tools and bikes off the floor. Winter was brutally cold here and the building was unusable as far as hobby work. Also had issues with condensation on my tools and vehicles. Also had some issues with the posts sweating.

My thought is to use foam panels between the girts and OSB over the foam/girts. Do I need an air gap between the metal siding and the foam board? And the vapor barrier on the inside of the building, sandwiched between the foam/girts and OSB?

I am a total newbie, primarily want to make sure I don’t cause condensation/rot issues but would like the building to be more comfortable during the winter/summer extremes. I’m also on a budget so spray foam is probably not an option.

Thanks

These pictures are in my kids bedroom and bathroom on the second floor... huge amounts of the wall and ceiling are showing very hot like there's no insulation at all...

There's no attic access on that side of the house (directly) and you have to go from the other side through a tiny 3 ft high corridor that runs the 3 ac/heat lines (that seemingly do nothing)..

This room continuously runs about 5-10 degrees hotter than every other room and the AC ruins constantly because of it..