How to Best Insulate an Outside Wall
Insulating outside walls can be a very good way to improve energy efficiency in a building. Outside wall insulation is easy in walls that already have a space beween the exterior of the wall and the inside surface. For walls that don't have a gap suitable for insulation, consider creating a space by building new interior walls around the perimeter of the building. Building those walls, however, is outside the scope of this article. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Rent an insulation blower. The blower is the machine that will deposit the insulation in the gap between your interior and exterior walls.
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Run the tube from the blower up into your attic. Insulation is generally blown in from the top of the walls.
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Fill the hopper on the blower with loose fill insulation, which usually comes in bags. In most cases, loose fill fiberglass is one of the few homeowner installable blown insulations.
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Turn on the blower. You must have a person in the attic to direct the flow of the insulation and a person at the blower to turn it on and off and to feed in new insulation as necessary. The two people will need to be able to communicate. Cell phones or two way radios are a very good idea.
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Direct the flow of insulation into the gaps between the indoor and outdoor walls. Allow the fibers to settle and go back over the area again to ensure adequate fill.
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Tips & Warnings
Always use goggles and respirators to prevent fiberglass from entering your eyes and lungs. After finishing the job, review all walls to make sure there are no areas with excessive settling.
Be sure that there is adequate communication between the person in the attic and the person next to the blower. Failure to communicate something like a request to turn off the blower can result in mis-placement of insulation.
