The main house is probably well over a century old (i recently learned it was built with balloon framing) but the addition i assumed was circa 1960s because fiberglass was added to its attic and its drywall but i drilled a hole in the wall and behind the drywall is 2 layers of plaster and lath and when i stick a metal rod through its hollow and seems to be about 4 inches deep
I've attached a picture (maybe someone will recognize the wallpaper), it has a crawlspace underneath that is brick (and poorly mortared) i can attach pictures if it will help
TIA

Image

How do i attach photos anyways, there is no button like other forums i've used

The wallpaper pattern looks WAY older than 1960s. I'd hazard it's pre-1900, maybe even pre 1875.




(To post an image from a website, view the image on it's own with a web-browser, then hit CTRL-A to select it, CTRL-C to copy it, then put your active cursor in the active reply or edit window on the forum site to paste it.)

I believe the rest of the house is older than the addition so if its that old everything else must be crazy old, i am told the rest of the house is built with balloon framing (there are no headers in the basement, i can see up to the base of the attic)

Uninsulated un-sealed balloon framing is both an energy disaster and a fire hazard.

Think of each stud bay as a flue that sucks air 24/365 driving infiltration rates sky high, and moves fire rapidly if it ever lights off.

Insulating them requires some forethought & analysis though, since that heavy air-infiltration path is also a high drying-rate path.

What is the complete wall stack-up, from the exterior paint to the interior paint/wallpaper?

And where is this house located? (Zip code or nearest city, for climate zone & weather data purposes.)

How deep are the roof overhangs, and how many stories tall?

It is an energy disaster, 17.68ACH/50, i can't see into the attic but can see the base of it from the basement. The "headers" are sealed in the basement with tight fitting pieces of wood, but the walls are hollow. I plan on insulating with cellulose in a few weeks.

Its a single story house, I am about an hour from Buffalo in Ontario Canada, roof overhangs are maybe 16 inches.

What does wall stack up mean?

Posted By Barry4 on 25 Sep 2014 04:09 PM

What does wall stack up mean?

It is basically the wall build-up or how the wall is constructed and what type of insulation, vapor barriers, finishing, cladding, paint, etc. is encapsulated within the entire wall structure. It's a 3-dimensional view or 3-D write up of the wall structure from the interior to the exterior.

The original house
Well it has plastic siding then a wool type insulating blanket (probably plastic) that is less than 1 inch thick (i can hunt down a photo if need be), on top of the original wood siding which i believe is 1/4 inch wood that has been painted a few times, on top of wood planks that are nailed/screwed to 2x4s, then plaster and lath and more then a few layers of paint over the years.

The addition that this thread was originally about has the same plastic siding and insulating "blanket", 1/4 inch wood siding painted, probably the planks and 2x4 (i can't be sure on the planks and 2x4), 2 layers of plaster and lath, that wallpaper pictured above and a 1/2 inch gap and drywall with several layers of paint.

There is an active Passive House group in Buffalo, and a woman who has been upgrading houses just like yours to near PH standards. Would be well worth the time to research this & talk to these folks.

By wall stack up I mean the material of EVERY layer in order,  from the outer paint to the interior paint, including the air in the empty stud bay, eg:



We don't need a pretty picture- just a listing of the layers in order would do, with the layer descriptions separated by / or |  or something so that it's clear.

Dana’s point about being very careful about how you proceed cannot be under-estimated. People have created more problems than solutions when trying to better seal and insulate old buildings. There is a delicate balance in managing the vapor diffusion and drying rates of building assemblies. You might want to perform a building assembly moisture analysis (i.e., Glaser dew point analysis) on what you are considering before proceeding:

Borst Building Assembly Moisture Analysis Software

Basically

The original house
 vinyl siding
 wool type insulating blanket (probably plastic) less than 1 inch thick
 wood siding approx 1/4 inch wood painted a few times
 wood planks
 2x4s
 plaster and lath
 maybe 5-10 layers of paint

The addition
 vinyl siding
 wool type insulating blanket (probably plastic) less than 1 inch thick
 wood siding approx 1/4 inch wood painted a few times
 probably the planks and 2x4 (i can't be sure on the planks and 2x4)
 2 layers of plaster and lath
 wallpaper pictured above
 1/2 inch gap
 drywall with several layers of paint.

Posted By sailawayrb on 26 Sep 2014 01:29 PM
Dana’s point about being very careful about how you proceed cannot be under-estimated. People have created more problems than solutions when trying to better seal and insulate old buildings. There is a delicate balance in managing the vapor diffusion and drying rates of building assemblies. You might want to perform a building assembly moisture analysis (i.e., Glaser dew point analysis) on what you are considering before proceeding:

Borst Building Assembly Moisture Analysis Software

I will have to figure out how to work this but it does seem like a very good idea

OK it looks like there is plank sheathing, and inherently back-ventilated exterior siding.  The vapor permeance of the painted thin clapboards is probably pretty low, but the air-tightness of the clapboards isn't likely to be tight enough to matter. If the clapboards take on moisture after insulating the wall cavities the paint will usually just flake off, creating a drying path.

The "wool type insulating blanket" under the vinyl siding is probably a mesh rainscreen material or some breathable siding underlayment.  As long as it is air-permeable, it won't impede drying, which is important.

The safest insulation to install would probably be cellulose. Dense-packed to 3.5lbs would be great, but even 2.5lb "2-hole method" would be a huge improvement.  Cellulose the capacity to buffer some of the interior-side moisture drives, and will slow the infiltration rates by a huge factor, even if there is some air-leakage via cracks in the interior side plaster it won't much matter.  The 5-6 layers of interior paint are probably more vapor retardent than ideal, but that's OK- let the assembly dry toward the exterior.

You have to be bit careful around windows, and it may be worth yarding them out and installing proper flashing, since that was almost never done back then. But if you have roof overhangs of about 1 foot per story (or more), it won't be as risky to skip re-working the windows, but keep an eye on those areas for signs of mold/moisture.

With balloon framed buildings there is often no blocking between the wall-cavities and the floor joists.  A competent insulation installer would spot that ahead of time and take measures to block them to avoid filling the joist bays with 1000lbs of insulation. A common method for blocking the joist bays is to drill a 1.5" hole in the ceiling near the end of the joist bay (with a hole-saw, to be able to make a clean repair), slip a feed bag into the hole, then fill the feed bag with insulation with the insulation blower.

If the studs don't have a top plates blocking the bottom of the stud bay and installing the cellulose from the attic is usually pretty easy.  There will be places where window & door framing blocks the bay, so some bays may need to be filled from both top & bottom (and somtimes in the middle between windows on different stories.)   But a good installer will figure out the least-disruptive ways of getting it all.