No Insulation in Walls?
Me again, related question. I just drilled a hole in one of the exterior walls of my extension (which is about 10 degrees colder than the rest of my house) and didn’t see or feel (when I poked my finger in) anything fluffy or fuzzy like insulation. Instead, I felt a breeze on my hand…
Me again, related question. I just drilled a hole in one of the exterior walls of my extension (which is about 10 degrees colder than the rest of my house) and didn’t see or feel (when I poked my finger in) anything fluffy or fuzzy like insulation. Instead, I felt a breeze on my hand and saw a metalic reflective material about an inch away from the sheetrock– this can’t be some sort of insulation, can it? Is insulation always soft and near the sheetrock? If the metallic material is insulation, would I have felt the draft when I made a hold in the sheetrock?
For context, I just bought a house that was newly rehabbed, but have already seen some shoddy work and am slightly wary…
Thanks!
Sorry, I didn’t mean to cause you unnecessary alarm, but I just experienced a situation where the extension was pulling away from the main house. I think I was stuck on the use of some of your wording- 10 degrees colder, breeze and draft. Hopefully it’s just a lack of insulation.
Thanks! I’ll look into the cellulose…
Your walls are likely underinsulated. Spray cellulose can be pumped into the wall cavity through very small holes. This will make the rooms warmer. Ed Kopel Architects, PC
most batt insulation comes with VB already installed on the back of it so that probably IS what you are looking at. It could be that they cheaped out and put in very low R value stuff. Others might not agree with my scrappy approach, but if it were my place I’d cut a larger square out of the sheet rock near a studwall so I could see how the shiny stuff meets the stud and if no clues, just poke a hole thru the VB to see what’s behind (can patch it up with foil tape after).
Or you could hire a handyman to come in to evaluate.
Thanks for your responses. The shiny stuff is definitely not a stud– it’s pliable and, to bowl-of-dick’s question, if I push at it, it seems to move back freely. Is there any way I can tell if they just covered the stud work with VB and not insulated it? Should it feel piable? As for vai’s comment about potential cracking, yikes! I don’t want to even think about that! Thanks!
The metal thing is a metal wall stud. They built it and didn’t insulate it. This is typical of cheap, shoddy construction. You can get someone to come and blow insulation on for you. They’ll drill a bunch of holes and fill it up and then you have to patch the holes in the drywall.
Unfortunately this is not likely to be the end of finding construction issues.
the shiny stuff you can see could be a reflective vapor barrier which is a thin sheet of basically large aluminum foil. It goes on at the very end of the process, usually over the batt insulation and studs.and the Shiny side faces in. when you push slightly on the shiny surface what happens?(make sure there is no stud behind). if it’s really cold in there, maybe they neglected to insulate between the studs and just covered it over stud work with VB. The one inch gap you describe between sheetrock and shiny stuff sounds like furring.
The draft could possibly mean that the extension is pulling away from the main house. You might want to look at the extension from the exterior for signs of cracking and/or repair work to the facade.