[Greenbuilding] Insulating walls in (old) wood framed house without vapor barrier?

[john salmen]

I don’t know about smart but still around. I just got to the point where you build structure and you put all the protection outside of that (including insulation). This works well for a restoration – may not be aesthetically pleasing but can’t have everything.

 

John

 

stationdesign

4465 UPHILL RD DUNCAN

BC V9L6M7 250 246 8541

 

From: Greenbuilding <greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org> On Behalf Of Reuben Deumling
Sent: November 25, 2019 8:04 PM
To: Greenbuilding <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: [Greenbuilding] Insulating walls in (old) wood framed house without vapor barrier?

 

I realize this list has gone silent, but in the hope that some of you smart greenbuilding folks are still out there, receiving this email, I would like to pick your brains. A correspondent from Illinois has been cautioned by five(!) "very experienced people' not to insulate the walls in an old house:

 

In the attic, yes. We are not going to put it in the walls. After talking to multiple old house restorers who have been in the trade 40 years or more, they all say one thing, that due to lack of a vapor barrier, it will trap moisture and rot the framing in the walls. They did a lot of insulating in the 1970's, and then a great deal of structural repairs in the 1990's on those houses.

 

I suggested he try to find a second opinion. Please share your wisdom. 

 

Thanks very much 

Reuben Deumling (who joined this list almost twenty(!) years ago.)

 

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