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Heating a all brick house

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stevenmsh28
stevenmsh28 Member Posts: 2
in Gas Heating
Hi I bought an 5,500 sf triple brick walled old school house built in 1905 I find a lot of pros and cons on insulating the interior walls I currently have the interior walls framed out and I’m still not sure on if I should and how to insulate the walls would a raidiant barrier/foil bubble wrap work instead of using foam insulation I’m using a gas furnace and live in north West Indiana the winters can be below zero at times
There is no damage to the brick what so ever inside or out

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  • Gordy
    Gordy Member Posts: 9,546
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    The radiant barrier, or bubble insulation is not going to give you anywhere near the rvalue of foam insulation. Did you leave room for an air gap between interior framing, and interior brick interface.

    Plenty of mass for sure.
  • stevenmsh28
    stevenmsh28 Member Posts: 2
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    Yes I did leave a gap
    Gordy
  • Gordy
    Gordy Member Posts: 9,546
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    https://buildingscience.com/documents/digests/bsd-114-interior-insulation-retrofits-of-load-bearing-masonry-walls-in-cold-climates
    BobZmuda
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,284
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    stevenmsh28 said:

    Yes I did leave a gap

    Then skip the bubble wrap. However, what you want to do is to put a vapour barrier -- Tyvek or the like -- inside the brick, then as much foam thickness as you can reasonably put in -- standard 6 inch studs? 5 inches of foam! -- then your interior wall finish. Make sure all the wiring and plumbing are inside the vapour barrier -- or that openings are truly sealed. Also make sure it's sealed well at windows and doors.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,284
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    Oops. Fat finger or lazy mind. Tyvek on the outside is correct -- but it's not a vapour barrier. It's an infiltration barrier. The vapour barrier, which should be polyethylene or something like that, goes on the inside, right next to the interior finish -- and must be sealed just as carefully as the vapour barrier on the outside. Sorry!
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Gordy
    Gordy Member Posts: 9,546
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    May I suggest carefully reading the link I posted for properly insulating multi Wyeth exterior load bearing walls in cold climates.

    Spray foam is the better option.
    ZmanDZoro
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
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    Gordy said:

    May I suggest carefully reading the link I posted for properly insulating multi Wyeth exterior load bearing walls in cold climates.



    Spray foam is the better option.

    @stevenmsh28

    I second the recommendation. This may be the most important decision you make. Moisture problems in brick structures are ugly...
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
    GordyDZoro

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