I LIVE IN A 3 STORY CONDOMINIUM DEVELOPMENT IN NEW YORK CITY. THE BUILDINGS HAVE BRICK WALLS FROM OUTSIDE, METAL STUDS IN-BETWEEN THE BRICK AND A SHEETROCK. SEALING AND FLOORS ARE MADE OF A CONCRETE BLOCKS. THERE IS AN ATTIC IN THE BUILDING BUT IT BELONGS TO THE CONDOMINIUM DEVELOPMENT AND NOBODY HAS AN ACCESS TO IT.
WE ARE OCCUPYING A CORNER APARTMENT (3 EXPOSURES) ON A THIRD FLOOR. SOME SEALING (BATHROOMS, KITCHEN AND A HALL ARE DROPPED. THOSE CONDOMINIUM BUILDINGS WERE BUILD IN 1975. I DO NOT THINK THAT THERE IS ANY INSULATION IN THE WALL CAVITIES OR IN THE ATTIC (ROOFS ARE NOT FLAT), BUT IF THERE WAS ANY IT IS NOT MUCH. I HAVE BEEN LEAVING IN THIS APARTMENT FOR 8 YEARS AND I HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING A LOT OF DISCOMFORT. MY HOUSE IS VERY COLD IN A WINTER TIME ( we had 62 degrees F and an electric bill of almost 600$, and we are not even running central heating 24/7 and every day. Unbelievable money for being cold!!!) FROM THE OTHER HAND MY APARTMENT IS LIKE AN OVEN IN A SUMMER TIME.
I AM THINKING ABOUT INSULATING A WALL CAVITIES WITH A FOAM INSULATION LIKE AIRKRETE, AND I NEED TO SOMEHOW INSULATE ALSO MY THE SEEDLINGS FROM INSIDE OF THE APARTMENT. I KNOW THAT IT IS NOT AN IDEAL WAY (IT WOULD BE BETTER TO INSULATE ATTIC), BUT CONDOMINIUM WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO INSULATE THE ATTIC OVER MY APARTMENT CAUSE THEY SAY IT DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. I HAVE TO INSULATE MY SEALING FROM THE INSIDE OF MY APARTMENT SOMEHOW (PROBABLY DROP MY SEALING A FEW INCHES).ALSO SOME OF THE WALL CAVITIES MAY HAVE TO BE FILLED WITH A FOAM FROM THE INSIDE OF MY APARTMENT (CONDO MAY NOT LET ME DRILL THE HOLES BETWEEN THE BRICKS ON OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING). SOME OF THE SEALING’S ARE DROPPED IN MY HOUSE (BATHROOMS, KITCHEN, HALL) SO PROBABLY FOAM INSULATION CAN BE INJECTED TO THOSE CAVITIES AS WELL.
WHAT METHODS CAN BE USED TO EFFICIENTLY INSULATE THE SEALING’S FROM THE INSIDE OF MY APARTMENT IN MY ROOMS? I CAN NOT DROP MY SEALING HERE TO MUCH SO IT DOES NOT FEEL AND LOOKS WEIRD. ANY ADVICES FROM EXPERTS WOULD BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED.


Comments

  1. Thank you for the comments (maybe except the ones that are totally out of subject…)Because somebody is using capital letters does not mean they do not know what the caps lock is. Couldn’t somebody just choose to write with capital letters? Is that prohibited on that forum?

    daveinbedstuy, I will check out the contractor you used.

    But getting back to the subject of insulation. The type of insulation that I wanted to install in my wall cavities is a liquid, nonexpendable foam like AIRKRETE OR USA INSULATION are using. That foam is injected to the wall cavity in a liquid form. It feels in the whole wall cavity and then hardens like a cement. It is fireproof, mold resistant, water-resistant, airtight and it has high R value etc…. They usually inject it from the outside of the building by drilling a small holes in the cement in between the bricks. I just do not know if the condo management would allow me to install that insulation from outside. I prefer not to risk even asking and just do it from inside of my house.
    They just usually do it from outside, and I wonder If they would want to do it from inside of the apartment. Hope it would not create too much mess in an occupied apartment. Anybody had an experience with the installation of that type of a foam insulation from inside of the apartment???

    I was not really considering filling out my dropped sealing’s with a lose insulation like cellulose etc… I think that for the closed wall dropped sealing, I would prefer to use the type of a nonexpendable foam that I mentioned before. The rest of dropped sealing’s in my house (kitchen and 2 bathrooms) have dropped sealing’s that are covering up a fluorescent lightings. That space is easily accessible ,and I was thinking that after the fluorescent lighting will be removed that space can be filled in even with an expandable foam insulation and than cover upped with a sheetrock type of a dropped sealing’s.

    My worst problem is to decide how to put the insulation on the rest of the sealing’s in the rooms. The high of the apartment in 8,5 feet. I am forced to insulate from the inside of the apartment so I have to drop my sealing’s a little bit. I can not go too much though because I do not want to have a low high apartment that looks weird. I have to use a method of insulation that will give me passably the highest R value per inch, it would be also nice if the application would not be very mess cause I am occupying my apartment.
    Any suggestion what would be the best method to insulate the sealing’s from the inside? Are they any ready to apply foam boards that could be used to insulate sealing’s from the inside? Or maybe it is better to drop the sealing first and then fill the cavity with nonexpendable foam insulation?

    I know that it is a little bit untypical (and maybe even a bit against physics) way of putting insulation ,and I know that normally sealing’s would be insulated by insulating an attack. However in my case I am forced to insulate from inside of my house.

    Anybody knows something about that type of insulation, experienced any problems with an insulation that was installed from the inside of the house that is not a wood construction?.

  2. Pursuant to the new upcoming energy code requirements if you do miore then a certain percentage of the insulation you may need to do much more work to bring the building in to full energy compliance so get the job filed before July 1 2010.

  3. Walls can really only be filled with loose insulation or a minimally expanding foam.

    Above your dropped SEILINGS (sp) you can have loose fill blown in.

    You need to find out what’s allowed or not by the condo association. That shouldn’t be difficult.

    No, you can’t drill through the outside brick to install this stuff.

    Call some insulation experts. I used Federal Conservation