Anyway to retrofit under insulated wall cavity

[Jeffery L. Haynes]

I finished up a thermography inspection on an upper end home where practically every wall I scanned was missing insulation or simply in most cases not properly installed.

The floors and ceilings can easily be addressed however the home has 20 foot walls in some place and to cut out drywall and fix same would be rather expensive. I called numerous insulation contractors that I have used in the past but so far none have been able to advice me of a product that could be sprayed in with the least amount of wall repair needed.

One of the guys was telling me about possibly using Icynene however Im 99% sure that would create more problems as it expands.....creating more pockets where it is pushing the insulation back.

Have been looking to see if their is more of a fine power type insulation that could be sprayed with a 1/2" nozzle.

Appreciate any suggestions

thanks

Jeff

[Peter C. Russell]

I think the only way to properly fix the problem is to take the drywall down and insulate the cavity. You could blow it in but you would have to keep scanning, more work for you, to make sure the cavity gets filled.

I'm not to sure if a spray foam company would want the responsibility of running their equipment inside a finished home or what the procedure would be to do it from outside. Tough call, I had one similar about a year ago and the decision was made to tare out the drywall and insulate, If I remember correctly this was the most cost effective way.

[David A. Andersen]

Cut the rock, stud to stud +3/4" at the top of the stud bay and you can put everything back and mud/paint.

Not much of an IR scan to work with, but I'm not convinced if it requires repair. Not enough information. This is the problem with working with just qualitative information (where did I hear this lately?).

Got a digital?

This may be just loose, not missing insl. If so, your not going to blow anything in there.

Get a bore scope in there or a coat hanger - and small 3/8" hole. See what is in there.

[Jeffery L. Haynes]

In most of the ceilings and floors its a simple fix however some cavities there are obviously no access to. I can access part of this area (behind a knee wall) but their are other sections which can't be accessed.

I have installed insulation before however I really don't think there is an effective solution for this one outside of tearing out the drywall which I know he does not want to do. I was thinking about the use of polyurethane insulation (not sure closed or open cell) however again it goes back to the limitations of the fiberglass already in place.

thanks