No one can deny that the biggest and probably the most exciting thing we are doing to the house is adding insulation. Because of the time period our house was built in, insulation I do believe was not even invented yet....In fact I know this because there was nothing behind the plaster when we took it off. Although I would like to say that previous owner were very resourceful and used newspapers, old rags and horse hair (this last one will be honored in its own post).
So, as you can imagine no insulation caused a few minor problems considering we experience 3o below winters. The last year especially was getting ridiculous as many areas of the plaster in the living room had cracked and were letting in huge drafts. Markus used caulking in many of these areas in an attempt to fend off the cold air. In addition to a drafty house our bills were also ridiculous. We were paying $260 equalized...$260 in the summer? And we were the type of people to only put on the heat late into the fall and turn it off as soon as it got bearable again outside.
The biggest decision we had to make was whether to use bat insulation or use spray foam. Using bat insulation is a cheaper option, however, after doing some research we decided to use spray foam insulation instead. There are a few reason why we choose spray foam:
1) Spray foam insulation guaranteed us that all the little cracks and holes in the outside brick would be covered and and possibly filled, thus not allowing air movement and also adding to the stability of our home
2) The installation of spray foam was a maximum of 4 days. Installing bats/vapour barrier on our own would have taken a HUGE amount of time and work
We originally had made contact and a tentative agreement with the most popular sprayfoam company SprayJones. In our original agreement with one of the contractors, we had agreed to let them know 3 weeks in advance to when we would be ready. So as we progressed through the building of the outside walls, Markus kept in contact with the company letting them know we were 3 weeks away...2 weeks away etc. Then our contact for the company went on holidays and we were left with the manager. When Markus went to talk to him again, he told Markus that the earliest we could get insulation was 5 weeks away - this was ridiculous as we had already been in contact with the company and because we are on a time frame before going back to work. Later that day when I arrived at the house Markus told me the news and I immediately phoned 3 other companies in Regina. The stars aligned and Pierre from Spray West in Regina called back and was at our house that night to look it over and give us a quote. It was one of those situations that although we were freaked out initially, it was meant to happen as Pierre was extremely friendly and gave us a great quote.
So that is what we have been up to the last week. Spray West came into the house July 27th and worked until the 30th. They did an amazing job with the prep,spraying and clean up, and Markus and I are really pumped about the foam insulation. It looks sooooo cool in the walls right now, and has completely sealed everything between the frames we made. The foam itself is solid and has really added to the structure of the house. Everything we made is so tight and hard right now, nothing is going to budge! Even though things aren't done, you can feel a difference already in the heat factor of the house ,as well as, the sound. It is going to be amazing to feel the difference in the house when everything is done, and to watch our bills drop!
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