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MN Renovator · 12-12-11, 12:56 PM

I didn't know that gypsum was used for walls in the 50's. I thought it was still plaster. Interesting to know.

I know someone who showed me their house and how it was insulated, it had newspapers stapled up in the attic, you could read the news of the day. I'd imagine this barely did a thing and isn't like the cellulose insulation of today that can handle and deal with moisture, has fire and insect resistance, and real insulation value versus essentially reams of paper stapled to the wall with no trapped air. He ended up insulating the walls with cellulose but didn't dense pack it. He used the 20 bags of cellulose, got the free blower and blowed in 214 pounds less than he calculated from the literature that likely was referencing the proper density for a good wall fill. I'm sure there are feet of empty space at the top of those walls, not to mention the giant 3" or bigger holes in the drywall that were shoddily patched at the top and bottom of each stud cavity. His house still costs $1000 a year to heat which is on the same gas rate structure but smaller than my house and I pay roughly a third of that. Insulation and air sealing still isn't a big deal to him even though I showed him how little I spent on improving my house and how the insulation and air sealing materials would cost him less than his January heating bill, he can't be bothered by it. ...yet still complains every winter about the heating costs and then gets defensive when you tell him it would be easy to seal up the place and fix the house to even half that usage.

12-12-11, 12:56 PM	#53
MN Renovator Less usage=Cheaper bills Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 939 Thanks: 41 Thanked 116 Times in 90 Posts	I didn't know that gypsum was used for walls in the 50's. I thought it was still plaster. Interesting to know. I know someone who showed me their house and how it was insulated, it had newspapers stapled up in the attic, you could read the news of the day. I'd imagine this barely did a thing and isn't like the cellulose insulation of today that can handle and deal with moisture, has fire and insect resistance, and real insulation value versus essentially reams of paper stapled to the wall with no trapped air. He ended up insulating the walls with cellulose but didn't dense pack it. He used the 20 bags of cellulose, got the free blower and blowed in 214 pounds less than he calculated from the literature that likely was referencing the proper density for a good wall fill. I'm sure there are feet of empty space at the top of those walls, not to mention the giant 3" or bigger holes in the drywall that were shoddily patched at the top and bottom of each stud cavity. His house still costs $1000 a year to heat which is on the same gas rate structure but smaller than my house and I pay roughly a third of that. Insulation and air sealing still isn't a big deal to him even though I showed him how little I spent on improving my house and how the insulation and air sealing materials would cost him less than his January heating bill, he can't be bothered by it. ...yet still complains every winter about the heating costs and then gets defensive when you tell him it would be easy to seal up the place and fix the house to even half that usage.