Ideas for insulation of existing walls?

[KenSmith]

Hi All,

Recently bought a late 70s, rendered brick veneer home near Geelong. She's in good nick. Original timber floors throughout.

I have already chucked in sub-floor insulation throughout, and am considering tackling existing internal/external walls for insulation. 

I don't want to rip down all plaster, as it's in good nick, but its not yet painted throughout so I certainly have the window of opportunity to knock a few holes in if I need

I don't expect to be able to insulate the walls to the same level as if I was insulating the walls before platering for the first time, but I'm certainly happy to insulate as much as I can (until I hit a nogging lol) both for sound and energy saving purposes.

I have plenty of time and I'm pretty handy and open to ll ideas / options (blow-in, batts, polystyrene etc)

Cheers

[Jason]

@KenSmith, 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community and congratulations on the purchase of your home.

It's fantastic to have you join us and we look forward to reading about all your projects and plans for around the new house and garden. We're sure you will get plenty of helpful information, advice and inspiration from our amazing community members.

Let me tag a few helpful members who might like to kick off the discussion for you and share their thoughts: @JDE, @ProjectPete, @Noyade, @TedBear, @Brad

Jason

[Brad · Accepted solution]

Firstly a link.

https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/You-and-your-home/Building-and-renovating/Insulation/Wall-insu... 

Quote of an important piece of info.

"Electrical wiring is often covered when insulation is installed. Seek advice from your electrician to ensure the wiring is suitable to be covered. Ensure any work the electrician does will not compromise the quality of the insulation installation. If you are using an installation company, it will usually arrange an electrician check and include the cost in the quoted price."

Risk of fire is what I would look at.

Loose blow in is the easy option it isn't DIY friendly.

Rip off the internals to use batts, not budget friendly.

Insulation tiles, lose room size and they are not as effective.

Expanding foam, will be time consuming, expensive and be the most risky in terms of fire safety.

I would either blow in or rip off, I only have the blow in option available as my place is double brick.

[MitchellMc]

Hi @KenSmith,

It's great to have you join us and many thanks for your question. I apologise for the delay in my reply. It's fantastic to see you've already received some excellent feedback from @Brad.

I'd recommend concentrating your efforts on the external walls and consider removing the sheets and installing insulation batts. If you have not yet painted the plaster, then now is the most appropriate time to remove the sheets. As you have mentioned, you must create many access ports in the plasterboard to blow in insulation around noggins. I would hazard a guess that repairing these holes might actually be more work than re-sheeting. If you were to install insulation batts only on the external walls, I believe the property's R-value would be significantly increased.

You should find this step-by-step guide useful: How To Insulate Walls.

Please let us know if you need further information or had questions.

Mitchell