Exterior Retrofit

If you have an existing home that is not performing well, meaning, you feel air leakage, or the walls are cold, or the windows are frosty, you may be asking yourself one or more of the following questions:

1)      Can you insulate an existing home from the outside

2)      What type of insulation is best for insulating an existing home from outside

3)      Is it a good investment to upgrade existing wall insulation

4)      If my home has fiberglass in the walls, can I still upgrade the insulation in them

These are all exceptionally good questions. To insulate an existing home from the exterior, the siding must be removable in part, e.g., vinyl siding, aluminum siding, wood siding, and fiber cement siding are all possible to retrofit or (upgrade from the outside). Exteriors that are not reasonable removable would include vertical siding, board and batten siding, or brick/ stone. Those would require an interior retrofit, which is on another page.

A piece of siding is removed around the home to expose the sub surface. A hole is then drilled into each wall cavity. Next a tube in inserted to the furthest point of the wall cavity and cellulose is air driven at 3.5 pounds per square foot. After that the holes are filled with foam and the siding is re-installed. Customers are not able to tell that the insulation was installed if it was done properly done.

So, what type of insulation is best for retrofit insulation upgrades? After 30+ Years of experience and over 4,000 homes, we have proven in every case that dense packed cellulose has superior benefits. Most importantly, the air driven cellulose gets forced into every nook and cranny of the wall cavities. For example, spray foam expands outward to fill the cavities but does not have the back pressure to come back after it passes an obstacle such as an electric outlet, plumbing features, or partial blocking such as that for hanging cabinets.

The air pressure from a dense pack cellulose install, forces the cellulose in every direction until the cavity gets complexly packed with 3.5 pounds per square foot. There is no ability for the product to settle at this point when installed the way AIRLOCK Insulation prescribes. AIRLOCK is the best in the business when it comes to this process. The proof is in the diagnostics, which includes blower door testing and thermal scanning cameras.

So, is it a worthwhile investment? Absolutely! Anything done to stop air infiltration is a good thing. If it can pay for itself that is how you know you have a winner. The wall cavities being dense packed with cellulose will account for about 35% of the accounted savings for a whole house insulation upgrade. Homeowners who have their walls upgraded with dense packed cellulose notice that the walls are no longer cold and that they do not feel the air infiltration through the electrical outlets or other penetrations.

Can your home be upgraded if you currently have fiberglass in the wall cavities? Yes! AIRLOCK Insulation has a special process that enables them to feed a tube completely through the wall cavity. Then the fiberglass gets collapsed as the dense packed cellulose completely fills the cavity to stop the air infiltration. Other customers have had to remove some drywall at one point or another and found that the statements before this are in fact true. The fiberglass collapsed to almost nothing and the improvement was immediately noticeable. It is highly recommended to upgrade the wall insulation because its possible, it creates more comfort, and it pays for itself in a reasonably brief time.