Insulation - Injecting Foam Insulation into Exterior Walls with Clapboard

Dr. Energy Saver was called to add insulation to the exterior walls of an old Sears, Roebuck & Co. home. This particular home had hardly any insulation and the owner was spending a lot of money in heating bills. Dr. Energy Saver opted for using injection foam in this job

Injecting Foam Insulation Overview

Today Dr. Energy Saver was called out to this old Sears & Roebuck home to upgrade the insulation. To think there was a time when you could buy a house from a Sears & Roebuck catalogue and they would come out to build it for you. What we are going to do today is inject the walls with what we call IFoam (injection foam) insulation since most of this house has no insulation.

Injecting Foam Insulation Installation

On an already constructed home we would drill holes on the outside to access the wall cavities, inject the IFoam then plug up the holes. If there's vinyl siding or shingles they would need to be removed then put back on after the foam is injected. However with clapboard we typically drill right through it then plug the holes with cedar plugs.

Air Flowing Through Wall Cavity

If we take a look in this hole we can see that the fiberglass insulation is dirty and dirty insulation means that there's air flowing through the cavity with the fiberglass only acting as a filter. In these walls you can see there's a big air space not only in front of the insulation but behind the insulation as well. With this wall cavity being so deep and having so little insulation in it, it's really not doing anything because as the air flows through this wall cavity the same air is on both sides of the insulation.

When you lose insulation you lose heat

Typically you will see a winter coat with stuffing which is the insulation but you have a nylon shell which would act as the barrier. Now if we loose the stuffing the wall construction would become very leaky through many different ways; in between the siding, around the wall trims and through wall penetrations. That's all we need for the air to get in these wall cavities and basically short circuit the IValue or the insulating value of the insulation.

Read Full Transcript:

Larry Janesky: Today Dr. Energy Saver was called out to this old Sears & Roebuck home to upgrade the insulation. To think there was a time when you could buy a house from a Sears & Roebuck catalogue and they would come out to build it for you. What we are going to do today is inject the walls with what we call IFoam (injection foam) insulation since most of this house has no insulation.

On an already constructed home we would drill holes on the outside to access the wall cavities, inject the IFoam then plug up the holes. If there's vinyl siding or shingles they would need to be removed then put back on after the foam is injected. However with clapboard we typically drill right through it then plug the holes with cedar plugs.

If we take a look in this hole we can see that the fiberglass insulation is dirty and dirty insulation means that there's air flowing through the cavity with the fiberglass only acting as a filter. In these walls you can see there's a big air space not only in front of the insulation but behind the insulation as well. With this wall cavity being so deep and having so little insulation in it, it's really not doing anything because as the air flows through this wall cavity the same air is on both sides of the insulation.

The purpose of insulation is to resist heat flow, so if this stick was insulation and we had hot air on this side and cold air on the other side the insulation would resist that heat flow since heat moves from more to less. However we can see here that we have the same air on both sides, so if this stick was the best insulation in the world with the same temperature on both sides, what is it resisting for heat flow? The answer would be nothing because when you loose insulation you loose heat.

It's similar to having a loose coat on in the winter, air can get underneath your coat causing you to loose heat and still feel cold but if it's tight against your body no air would be able to leak through. Typically you will see a winter coat with stuffing which is the insulation but you have a nylon shell which would act as the barrier. Now if we loose the stuffing the wall construction would become very leaky through many different ways; in between the siding, around the wall trims and through wall penetrations. That's all we need for the air to get in these wall cavities and basically short circuit the RValue or the insulating value of the insulation.

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