Insulating a 1926 brick house??

[dstryr]

Hello, all, new guy here.......

I have a 1926 1-1/2 story brick house that gets pretty cold in the winter. It has lots of windows and I would like some recommendations on insulating the walls which I would guess need to be filled from the inside. It has nearly all of its original lathe and plaster(even the basement ceiling and interior detached garage walls are lathe and plaster).


I had one person suggest using a power saw to cut through the L&P at ceiling height and then again with a 2" spacer and pull out the horizontal strip, blow in insulation and repair it with sheetrock strips of appropriate thickness. I suppose that would have to be done underneath all 29 windows in the house as well to fill in below them.

Any other ideas?

Last winter's cold months cost $400-$450 in natural gas including approx $50-$75 for the water heater. I'd like to get that number down a ways.

Thanks,
Frank

[HayZee518]

vermiculite used to be used as insulation but I don't know if present day codes allow it. it "pours" better than blown in cellulose. wall spaces with a brick facade never are the right thickness.

[Allison1888]

We had this done years ago in an old stucco house. They cut round holes in the walls all up and down the cavities between the studs and blew in the insulation. They didn't do it just at ceiling height, but it sounds similar. Worked great, except that they didn't repair all the holes evenly so we had to go back over them. Great way to learn plaster repair! Get it in writing that they will repair evenly so you can just prime and paint over it.

[dstryr]

Thanks, that is some great information! I'm glad I did not start cutting a strip because another person has said that WILL NOT work when blowing insulation. I think cutting holes is the way to go and I will look into renting a machine and maybe do it myself.