OT- Anyone add extra insulation to their house?

[steph2003]

When we built our house this was an option we didn't even think about upgrading ~ I guess we didn't even know it was possible. So we have the standard stuff to meet code. Lets say the builders didn't outdo themselves in that area :)

I feel like our walls are paper thin & always too hot or too cold in the house in the various seasons. Mostly I'm worried at some point when the baby moves into his "big boy room" the wall the bed will be on in there shares the wall of the bonus room where the TV is - it is SO loud. I'm afraid he'd never be able to sleep in there! I'd like to look into having extra insulation added to our walls/attic - not sure if they can blow more in or how this is done exactly. Has anyone had this done to their existing house? what am I looking at cost wise (I know it will depend on various factors such as size of house, type of insulation used) but I'm just trying to get a ballpark idea in my head.

[KrisM]

I can't help with adding insulation to the house, as we've never done that. But, if you want to help limit noise transmission, you could add another layer of thicker wall board(drywall) to his room and/or the bonus room. Adding mass to the walls will help decrease how much noise can pass through.

[DDowning]

Steph - We are building a new house now and are adding extra insulation to all interior walls and also between floors. I can't help you with what happens with an existing house but I can at least give you an idea what our builder is charging us to have these options put in. For our interior walls, we're having R-11 insulation put in for a cost of $2600 and for between the floors the cost will be $1400. The new house is going to be approx. 4000 sft so you are right about costs dependencies so at least this can give you an idea in comparison to the size of your house. Also, take into consideration we're in Southern California where it seems everything costs 3x as much here then elsewhere in the country. We also signed an acknowledgement that while the extra insulation will dramatically reduce noise, the noise won't be completely eliminated.

HTH!

[steph2003]

Deidra - I was laughing at your comment about the So. Caly & 3x expensive...cause the builder marks up everything 3x as well (it seems!) I was angry to find out that we upgraded the counters in kitchen to Wilsonart (solid surface similiar to Corian) well to put it blank I don't like it - shows scratches easy, etc. I have it in my mind that we want to replace it with granite & we found a guy who will do out kitchen for $3600 for granite!!! um, let's just say we paid our builder much more then that to do the darn Wilsonart stuff. So I am just sick about that. Haven't decided what any tax refund will go toward this year - granite or insulation :)

I'm scared having the insluation upgraded will be more pricey since it is probably easier to do it when they are building versus come in later & have it done.

[DDowning]

LOL, yep the convenience factor triggers that 3x cost it seems. Having just gone through a granite installation and replacing our backsplash with tumbled marble in our current house, I have no qualms going through the builder this time. With the granite installation, there were all these hidden costs. For one, the contractors are licensed (in California at least) to unhook your gas and sinks/faucets/lighting etc but they are not licensed to hook everything back up (and there's no way I trust my DH with gas). So we had to pay extra to have someone come in install everything. Plus when they removed the pre-existing tile, they damaged the drywall on my island, despite reassurances saying that there would be no damage. Yeah right, I had gaping holes afterwards and of course they just chalked it up to normal damage that couldn't be avoided and refused to fix it. I had to also have someone else come in to repair that. I still need to figure out how I'm going to duplicate the faux painting I had done on the island to begin with. I also still need to figure out how I'm going to repair the damaged done to the cabinet by the refrigerator. Its in a hidden spot - I just may leave it and hope that a prospective buyer won't notice. Oh and another hidden cost was that the granite installation service didn't make us aware that we had to take care of getting rid of the existing countertops. The local trash company wouldn't let us put the tile in our existing bins (nor would it fit) and we had to order a special container that cost $300. On top of all that, I still had to pay a cleaning service to get all of the dust out of the cabinets. Was it worth it? Well, when all was said and done and the extra costs were added in, our $8000 job added $30,000 to the market value of our home so from a financial aspect yes. However, from the real-world convenience factor, it was 2 weeks of hell and try keeping a toddler from being curious when all of this stuff was going on. I'm pretty much scarred by this experience from doing something like this again!

[Elilly]

Yes, we've added insulation to our home. It was built in the 50s and it didn't appear that any insulation had been added since. My DH is a contractor and had a friend do it but materials for us was about $250. That being said they put 4 more inches of the blown in kind in the attic of an 1800 Sq ft main level (we have a basement too). I bet retail would be about $500 here in IN. HTH.

[steph2003]

Deidra -

yikes!!! I did not even think about all the extra stuff involved in the installation of granite. I had better make sure then the quote covers (or doesn't cover) taking away the old counter tops/dealing w/the appliances & touching up any tile work ~ we have a tile backsplash.

[steph2003]

Yep, that helps a lot!