Insulating A Brick House

bobo

hello,

i want to have blown insulation put in my house. it is a one story ranch style brick house, and 1500 sq ft. i want to buy the material and rent a machine to do this myself. the atic is accessible, crawl space for most of it. my question is, do u think there are cats in between the wall studs in a brick house, like u usually find in a wood structure? i know windows and doors will hamper the insulation, but what about cats? is this the best way to approach insulating, without tearing out the walls?

bob

North Country

Cats??

747

You can also go with foam. But that isn't a diyer job.

Tscarborough

Man, you start foaming cats, you are going to have SERIOUS issues!

bobo

hi,

i call em "cats" usually 2x4's placed between the wall studs for firming up the wall, i think. im not a carpenter.

bob

AllGoNoShow

Oo for like blocking fire? Yes that is a good question...im interested to hear the response to

747

Its called cross bracing. I didn't know that. You need to talk to a insulation contractor and let him decide

North Country

If your walls are not over 8 foot there shouldnt be any fireblocking in them. Do your walls have existing blown in insulation? If there is fiberglass insulation in the wall you may not be able to add additional as the space will be full. Even so, (and Im not an insulation contractor) how do you plan to get inside the walls from the attic, your top plates are sealing the wall. If you have to/and can use blown-in insulation you will probably have to access the wall cavitys through the soffitt by drilling holes above the brick into the sheathing.

birman builders

if it is a relatively new house then there shouldn't be any blocking but if it's an older house there could be allsorts thrown in. I tried wiring up my plasma through an old plaster wall and ended up smashing half the plaster down in a fit of rage, to find studs all over the place, blocking on top of half studs, just mind boggling crap!