Wall Insulation

[jjl3rd]

Ok so I've ripped all the plaster off of my outside kitchen walls. The house having been built in the sixties has minimum insulation. Whats there is a "new new new" product called fiberglas. Its only about an inch and a half thick with vapor barrior on it, marked R-6. There is a 2 inch gap between the vapor barrior and the inside wall surface. I could remove it all and replace it with R11 for the 2x4 opening but that means handeling a whole lot of glass and I don't even like to think about it. Heres my alternative plan. I leave the existing insulation alone, place 2 inch thick foam board over it and pick up an additional R10 of insulation. this way I (1) don't Touch all that nasty old insulation (2) don't touch any nasty new insulation (3) don't put any nasty old insulation in the landfill (4) end up with an R value of 16 between the studs. Anyone see any douwn side here? Ok then, part duex, If the walls in th kitchen are only R6 then the rest of the house is likely R6. Blown in insulation is probably out of the question as the existing insulation is hugging the outer walls. So the question of the day is: can I descreatly place a small hole through the inside 1 inch thick plaster wall and use a cavity filling foam? Is there one that will completely fill the void but won't expand too much ( once I used a foam to seal around a door, later the foam had pushed against the frame and made openning and closing difficult).

[Troy]

I think the foam board will work well.

As far as the cavity filling foam, I am not sure. My experience is that it will fill up around the hole and prevent it from dispersing throughout the walls. You might just get a foot or two of insulation around your hole.

Any other input?

[Todd]

I think Troy is right about the cavity filling insulation...Stick w/ your plan and everything should be fine. If you can't see that foam you are spraying then who knows what could happen? Best of luck.

Todd

[jjl3rd]

Thanks for the input. I've done some additional searching and found that spraying foam insulation is a great way of removing the sheetrock, so thats out. I picked up the foam paneling and will install it just after the plumbing is done. john