If it’s just brick, you’ll probably have to add studs or furring strips, insulate, then sheetrock. Here are a couple of ideas I’m throwing out there….cork is sometimes used as insulation, if you like cork walls. Also, if you don’t want sheetrock, you can do wainscot or panel, board and bat, etc. But I don’t see a way of insulating without building it out.
If this is about heat, then use furring strips and that thin styrofoam panel (pink on one side, foil on the other) and put the styrofoam panel between the furring strips and then drywall.
If it’s about noise, then here’s what we are trying (and it seems to be working so far, but we haven’t taped and mudded yet):
1. make a wall using 2×3’s that stands off the brick wall. Attachment creates a sound conduit.
2. Stuff cotton batt insulation (google Quiet Batt) in the space between joists
3. 1/2″ homosote
4. Firecode drywall
So far, we have found this to be a cost-effective solution for re-creating that dense “plaster feeling” in a new wall. It makes the new space sound acoustically dense and rich, not tinny like new construction, and it makes sound generally move around less. We haven’t heard a peep out of our neighbors since, but we have heard bass. Bass is harder.
When you say “cement and brick” do you mean concrete masonry units on one face and brick on the other? If so, there is most likely a cavity between those two skins, which may well already have insulation board in it. If it doesn’t, and s simply an air cavity, then the solution would be to drill holes in one of the skins an pump in foam insulation. If it’s a solid wall, whether brick, concrete, concrete block, or a combination thereof, then the only solutions are adding insulation and drywall furring on the inside, as suggested above, or applying insulation and a stucco layer on the outside, known as an EIFS system, or, more commonly, by the trade name Dryvit. Sure the latter is a system that is much maligned for its “aesthetically-challenged” look when used on new construction, but it does get the job done insulation-wise and, when applied to a masonry substrate as opposed to studs and sheathing board, does not bring with it the problems associated with its use on the typical crappy condo job.
You won’t lose inches for *heat* insulation. Furring strips are like 1″ thick, and drywall is another 5/8″.
For the sake of good neighbor relations, our party walls got like 4″ thicker… sound insulation takes room.
dang it, its for heat insulation. i guess there is no other way :(. but i’ll still think about it cause i don’t want to lose inches of wall :p.
If it’s just brick, you’ll probably have to add studs or furring strips, insulate, then sheetrock. Here are a couple of ideas I’m throwing out there….cork is sometimes used as insulation, if you like cork walls. Also, if you don’t want sheetrock, you can do wainscot or panel, board and bat, etc. But I don’t see a way of insulating without building it out.
Are you insulating for noise or for heat?
If this is about heat, then use furring strips and that thin styrofoam panel (pink on one side, foil on the other) and put the styrofoam panel between the furring strips and then drywall.
If it’s about noise, then here’s what we are trying (and it seems to be working so far, but we haven’t taped and mudded yet):
1. make a wall using 2×3’s that stands off the brick wall. Attachment creates a sound conduit.
2. Stuff cotton batt insulation (google Quiet Batt) in the space between joists
3. 1/2″ homosote
4. Firecode drywall
So far, we have found this to be a cost-effective solution for re-creating that dense “plaster feeling” in a new wall. It makes the new space sound acoustically dense and rich, not tinny like new construction, and it makes sound generally move around less. We haven’t heard a peep out of our neighbors since, but we have heard bass. Bass is harder.
its the bare walls. place was built in 1879. nothing in between right now. I’ll think about adding extra layers. so i can add insulation inbetween.
When you say “cement and brick” do you mean concrete masonry units on one face and brick on the other? If so, there is most likely a cavity between those two skins, which may well already have insulation board in it. If it doesn’t, and s simply an air cavity, then the solution would be to drill holes in one of the skins an pump in foam insulation. If it’s a solid wall, whether brick, concrete, concrete block, or a combination thereof, then the only solutions are adding insulation and drywall furring on the inside, as suggested above, or applying insulation and a stucco layer on the outside, known as an EIFS system, or, more commonly, by the trade name Dryvit. Sure the latter is a system that is much maligned for its “aesthetically-challenged” look when used on new construction, but it does get the job done insulation-wise and, when applied to a masonry substrate as opposed to studs and sheathing board, does not bring with it the problems associated with its use on the typical crappy condo job.
right now its cement and brick walls 🙁 and paint on them.
Blow in insulation?
its not the basement its the normal walls that never got insulated :(. i hate to lose inches of wall space. in rooms.