Insulation

[Porter]

Hello. New to this forum and home ownership. I'm not sure which category my question would fall in, but I'll try here first.
The house was built in '59. While the electrician was rewiring 2 of the back bedrooms, I found that none of the outside walls have any insulation except for around the windows. I know that Great Stuff is good for around doors and windows, but is there anything similiar that i could use for the entire wall? I really don't want to take off every piece of drywall if I can help it. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Gavin

[HayZee518]

you could try pour in insulation like cellulose or the older houses used vermiculite

[kactuskid]

You could have cellulose blown into the wall cavities, but if this is an older home there may be blocking within the stud spaces that'll require extra holes be drilled for fill. You would then need a scan done to the walls to insure all the cavities are totally filled. Assuming this is an older home, there will be no vapor barrier on the warm side of the room, thus any moisture from the interior that presently breathes to the outside could get trapped in this new insulation. So, you would need to then also paint the walls with a paint that has a built in vapor barrier, such as BIN made by Zinsser. This is a primer with a built in barrier.

Here's a bunch of links to give you lots of details.

http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/pages/h00021.asp

http://www.healthgoods.com/Education/Healthy_Home_Information/Insulation/blown_insulation.htm

http://www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Detailed/10215.shtml

PS: If you do happen to find any vermiculite in your home that was used for insulation, do not disturb it. Not all, but most vermiculite contains asbestos, left alone it is harmless.

http://www.inspectmichigan.com/watsonsj/May00WJ.htm

[Porter]

Excellent! Thanks for the great info.! I'm glad to know that there is a solution. From what I've seen, the spaces between the studs are mostly open. The electrician cut out a foot tall slice of drywall around the entire perimeter of one room, about a foot off the floor.