Home insulation investment keeps on paying dividends 

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If you’d like to spend as little money as possible heating your home, there’s a good chance you’re missing the biggest bang for your buck. Like many things in life, the largest gains come from something homely and simple. The experiences of my daughter and son-in-law are a case in point. 

Although both of them grew up in northern Ontario, they lived in southern Ontario – a much warmer place – for quite a few years. The home they lived in down there was built in 1916 and was heated with the most economical home heating fuel going, natural gas. These days they live in a house built in 2014, it’s 30 per cent larger than their old place, and it’s heated with electricity, the most expensive option going, heat-for-heat. Despite these facts, they don’t spend any more money heating now than they did down south, even though their current place is larger and the climate considerably colder. And the difference has to do with that homely thing I alluded to. 

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Insulation is king 

The most important factor in heating economy is the level of insulation in your home, and as the experience of my daughter and son-in-law shows, it can more than make up for a colder climate, and even a more expensive heat source. Sure, the efficiency and fuel source of the heating system can make a considerable difference one way or the other, but insulation levels are a bigger factor, especially if your home is not optimally insulated now. It’s surprising how often this is the case, and how easy it can be to remedy the situation. 

In one afternoon you can have a contractor blow more insulation into your attic, and this often turns out to be the best financial investment a homeowner can make. The gain depends entirely on how much insulation you have now, but if your home was built to code more than 15 years ago, things are probably deficient. Under-insulated walls are more difficult to deal with, but homes older than about 40 years almost always benefit from boosting wall insulation, especially using a little-known method that I happen to like a lot. 

One of the best ways to boost wall insulation is by applying rigid sheets of 2”-thick extruded polystyrene foam to the existing interior walls surfaces, with new drywall on top, anchored to the underlying wall frame with screws. And while this approach means redoing door and window trim around wall surfaces, there’s no easier way that I know of getting the job done, except for one that works well when your wall cavities are completely hollow.  

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Insulating hollow walls 

Slow rise spray foam is made to be injected into unobstructed wall cavities where it expands slowly to fill the space. This won’t work if existing insulation is in place within the wall, but many vintage homes have nothing at all between wall studs. This process also works with walls built using hollow, double-brick construction. And while this approach works well, there’s a trick to getting complete coverage. 

Spray foam gives off enough heat as it cures to make interior wall surfaces warm to the touch, and this is where an infrared camera can help. After drilling small holes through existing interior wall surfaces and injecting slow rise foam, examining the area with an infrared camera will show you where the foam as reached and where it hasn’t. Simply bore more holes in the unfilled zones, inject more foam, then look again to see how you’re doing. You can see the process unfold in a video I made of an actual job at baileylineroad.com/slow-rise-spray-foam-insulation. 

It’s hard to get as excited about insulation upgrades as it is a new countertop, a new floor, or renovated bathroom, but the insulation payoff can easily pay for these upgrades and more over time. 

Steve Maxwell is a big fan of spray foam insulation. Visit him online at baileylineroad.com and joint 31,000 people who get his free email newsletter twice each week. 

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