Adding more insulation on the exterior of the wall if done right will save you a boatload of money. On the exterior of a building you best results are going to be from a rigid insulation board. There are at least 2 types 1st is just an insulation board and the 2nd has aluminam foil on both sides you must choose according to the siding you want to install as to what insulation board is best. For example; horizontal cedar lap siding does not like aluminum for behind it. Before installing any type of rigid insulation on to an exterior wall surface you must make a way for the water vapor to escape to the outside air.

I recommend 1 product “mortairvent” Made by Benjamin Obdyke, it’s only 1/4” thick installed over the tarpaper, than you install you insulation board next and finally your siding. It’s made of woven plastic with enough rigidity to keep 1/4 inch air gap to allow the water vapor to escape either by going down the wall to be vented at the foundation line or vented at the soffit line of the house.

Rules for hiring a contractor:

General Information
1. Does the contractor have a state license to do the type of work needing to be done?
2. Does the contractor have liability insurance? If something goes wrong who will cover your loss.
3.  Does the contractor have worker compensation insurance?
If a person falls or get hurt in any way while on your property (grass, sidewalk, inside your house, etc.) you’re at fault. Unless the contractor has workers comp. insurance.

4. Make Sure All Subcontractors and/or Any Person Coming Onto Your Property Has Legal Workers Compensation and Liability Insurance.
5. Does this person have the brains to pull off this type of job?  Watch out there a lot of cons out there calling them contractors only wanting to separate you from your money.
6. Can he/she prove what is being said in writing; a contract that protects you the Homeowner?
7. A lot of people have go good intentions but no knowledge or life experience to draw from.
8. There are 3 classifications of quality of work
A.  Poor and well below sub standard workmanship
B.  Just Average on workmanship
C.   Excellent work- any worker just above average ends up excelling to excellent static because of the person himself, I’ve seen this time and time again.

9. 2nd Classifications of motives.
A. Money is a good motivator
B. The lack of money is a poor motivation
C. Lack of time for said job or out of on contracts personal bills
D. The only job available this one, actually scores just above average
E. Actually caring for his work and the client.

Now is the contractor your hiring going to hire subcontractor with substandard work or money problems? Remember this your project is to be a work of art not a novel of science fiction.

Another job site the homeowner had a new roof put on 6 months earlier and had the attic reinsulated. The first cold morning about –15 below 0 with a hot shower the ceiling fan started dripping water. So he called out the roofer to fix the problem, it was not the roofing but instead the exhaust fan piping again was not insulated. While the high humidity was being blown out and the metal piping was below 0 the humidity was condensing rapidly on the piping, then run back into the ceiling fan, through the vent louvers and end up dripping to the floor.
You have to insulate the entire exhaust vent to the exhaust point.

These foundation walls were built good but they were not designed for your soil type and/or hydrostatic pressure of your lot.

In the 2nd picture it shows that wall is buckling inward, with a closer look a the picture we see 3 problems.

1. The ground is almost level with the top of block wall. This creates other problems that we will talk about on another post.

2. The yard next to the house is flat- when it rains where will the run off go?
If the soil you have is poor or unsatifactory; silty clays, organics, or peat,etc. these types of soil make great lakes, they don’t drain, they pond. Because there is no place for the rain water to go then it seeks the next available spot -loose soil. This type of soil has a lot of voids or air pockets. Every house that has frost footings and /or a basement has loose soil from 2′ and up to 8′ away from the house. The rain water runs into the soft soil and around the foundation of building. This inturn compounds the problem pushing hydrostatic pressure on the foundation walls.
3. Remember the wall has a horizontal crack it now lets water into the house

1. Remove the dirt next to the house
2. Push the block wall straight
3. Install 3/4″ Rebar in block and fill the block with concrete
4. Install a drain tile system
5. Water proof the wall with Black dog Waterproofing system
6. Put a Geo grid system to keep the dirt from mixing into the rock
7. Install any size rock from 3/8″ up 1 1/2″.

What’s the difference?
The Department of Labor and Industry requires licenses for residential building contractors, remodelers, roofers and manufactured home installers. The department requires certain standards of education and professional conduct be maintained to obtain and retain a license.

Licenses are required for all residential building contractors and residential remodelers who contract with a homeowner to construct or improve dwellings by offering more than one special skill. Owners working on their own property must also be licensed if they build or remodel for the sole purpose of speculation or resale.

Liability insurance with limits of at least $300,000 per occurrence, which must include at least $10,000 property damage coverage.
Minnesota workers’ compensation insurance certificate or a written explanation of why the applicant is exempt from workers’ compensation requirements. Applicants who have no employees and have no intention of hiring employees (other than spouse, parent or child) during the next year should attach a written statement with the license application explaining the specific reason they are exempt. If applicant is uncertain whether workers’ compensation insurance is required for your business, contact the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry at (651) 284-5005.

A handy man needs none of the above unless he and/or she does more than one of these items concrete, frame, side, sheetrock, trim, tile, hardwood flooring, carpeting, painting

If a handy man gets injured at your house he or his insurance company can sue the home owner. Always Protect Yourself.

Answer

I’m assuming that the house has a go air conditioner with the power to drop the house temp and to maintain it at 72°F when the outside air is 110°F . This problem occurs mostly when the inside temp is at 72° to 95°, if so than what is happening is to much humidity from the outside is coming into the house though Fresh air intakes(makeup air) for the appliances and or exhaust fans as well as an air exchanger. What is happening with the Air conditioner it sounds like it is to large of a unit. When the air conditioner runs constantly(45 minutes per hour) it has the ability to remove the water from the inside air. But if the AC unit only runs 15-25 minutes per hour and make up air coming into the house, this excess hot air coming in to the house brings with it a high concentration of water in a vapor form.

Now the hot air carrying humidity is in the house it rushes to the ceiling , while the AC unit is running dumping cold air into the house. ( A quick lesson in physics; Hot air is light and rises and cold air is heavy and drops to the floor) As the hot air looses its temperature it must loss volume of water its holding to do this it has to condensate on something cold. In a house it is the A- coil inside the furnace. but if the temp inside the house is already cool and the AC unit is not running the A-coil in the furnace is warm now the air has to find a cooler surface to condensate on. In this house it is the floor next to the exterior walls because gravity is holding the coldest air at the floor line. The exterior wall location is because the heating and cooling supply ducts have already dispensed the cold air there now making condensation.

The solution
1. Run 1-3 dehumidifiers I now they are ugly and noisy
2. Down size your AC unit and install a 2nd AC unit in the Attic for 90° + days this will allow you to run your primary AC unit in your furnace longer and remove the excess humidity from the house.
3. If you have a air exchanger run the fresh air through a dehumidifier before bringing the air into the house. You can do this with any fresh air intake flex tubes.
4. Keep the house doors shut as much as possible A max. of 1 door opening per hour, 10 second open.

The siding is not the problem. the house wrap is not helping. In hot climates you must protect the house (wood structure) from excess humidity. That means you must seal wall sheathing surface with something that will not allow moisture to pass through even if the siding is nailed on. that means all nails and nail holes must be sealed. Than a layer of moisture control fabric must be installed that removes the excess humidity. tarpaper works best. The insulation with the paper on it is not good because it has the ability to hold the humidity in the stud cavity. In hot climate locations fiberglass, or mineral wool insulation is great because air can pass through the insulation allowing the stud cavity to dry out. Do not use poly on the inside walls in a hot climate because you will trap humidity in the stud cavities and will rot out your structural walls.

This air carries high a volume of humidity with the air, and as it comes into the attic, if the temp is below 32° it freezes onto the underside of the roof sheathing and the trusses.

During the spring thaw, it compacts the insulation, sags the sheetrock ceiling, and stains the ceiling.

When the humidity level is high it enters the edges of the roof sheathing, swelling the edges giving the look of big rectangles on the roof. If the back side of the shingles get wet then the shingles curl.

The exterior of the house must have air, trees overhanging the house stop air movement and keeping the humidity level very high.

This will cause the roof to fail 5-15 years earlier than it should.

You are looking at 2 cross sections as to how to build a frost footing.
The first picture shows how 98% of all house frost footings are installed. With this type of design there are some problems.
1. Where there is a 42” frost footing required the install 1-7 1/2” high footing 4- 8” blocks which = 40” with mud joints 41 1/4”. If they install a 1/2 high block the total height is 44 3/4” no problem except the code requires the grade height to 8” lower than wood framing and or wood siding. Making the frost footing only 41 1/4 with a high block and no wood siding. But you house has wood siding and no half high block the frost footing is now 36 1/2”. So in picture 1 the water is up to the top of the soil on the exterior. When it freezes in the winter we know water will expand and increase its mass crushing the insulation decreasing the R-value and allowing the water to freeze to the footing, which will move it, laterally inward or vertically which ever is easier.
2. As the temperate of your frost footing drops in the winter your concrete slab will also reflect how cold it is outside.
3. The Rigid foam insulation must be covered because the ultraviolet light from the sun will break down the insulation most contractors cover it with aluminum sheathing. Aluminum and does not like concrete or salt, it will corrode and eat the aluminum. Yet they pour concrete up against the aluminum shield and don’t tell the owners of the houses not to salt their sidewalks.

Gypcrete is a lite weight cement mix which uses gypsum instead of sand and a high quality Portland mix making gypcrete.
In commercial applications Gypcrete is used as a sound deadener and a fire retardant between floors.

In a residential setting it is normally used to cover over infloor water heat pipes.

The gypcrete companies can pour the gypcrete at a minimum of 1/2”. A good thickness is 1” or more, this includes pouring over all types of pipes. (know this there is no law to protect the homeowner about gypcrete). Gypcrete must have a load bearing floor under it to support it, and the finished floor and it live load (furnishings and people). If you are installing the gypcrete 1 1/2 or less – it must bond to the structural floor below. If you need insulation under the gypcrete, install the insulation than install 4’ x 16’ wire panels with 6” x 6” grids anchored to the floor below the insulation with the anchor not less than 2’ square on center. The wire mesh helps stabilize the gypcrete and keeps it from braking up in the future.

I’ve installed urethane foam insulation in a 5000sf house and was very unhappy with the results of the product. Where ever there was a gap in the wall sheathing it expanded to the out side of the house where we had tarpaper covering the wall sheathing it bulged the tarpaper out about 1 1/2”. The list below will list the pros and the cons of urethane foam.

Pro- R-value is 7 for every inch of foam sprayed.

If you need stability in your structure this foam will stiffen up the wall sheathing. (Like when you use built right it’s a little spongy this will stiffen it up.)

You can get a high R-value in small spaces like on older homes where the roof framing meets the exterior walls where the max. Space is only 3” you still get and R-Value 0f 21.

Now the cons
Had to move a door bell wire home owned changed their location what should have been a 1 minute job ended up being 30 minute and this was repeated several times with different change orders.

Using urethane foam in a 3.5”(2×4) wall cavity has same R- value as Icyene Insulation.

In basement energy walls using urethane foam in a 3.5”(2×4) wall cavity has a total lower R- value that of Icyene Insulation. Using urethane the max. spray depth is 3” with a max. R-21 while the basement energy walls are held away from the foundation wall 1/2-2”giving move room for insulation, making Icyene the winner in this location.

Using urethane the max. spray depth is 3” with a max. R-21 while Icyene Insulation has an R-Value of 6.0 and Icyene can be sprayed full depth of the stud cavity. A 6” stud has and R-Value of 5.5 x 6 = 33 R-Valve.

Urethane insulation is a closed cell insulation which means as the foam is being sprayed it creates bubbles. Inside the bubbles are an oil-based gas locked in these billions of bubbles. If or when the walls of the bubbles break down the gasses will migrate out of the stud cavity.

1. You have brought the cool weather into the foundation;
Let me explain; If you have a block, or clay tile wall system air inside block is chilled the cold air drops to the footing no big deal if you live in Nevada to Virginia.

But if you live in New York – Idaho and North we have problems. The cold out side is so cold that it can freeze the footings of the house.

With a poured foundation it takes longer but can still happen.

Freezing the footing is not a problem, the problem comes in when the ground around the footing freezes, now we have a making of a disaster. 90% of the time there is groundwater next to the outside edge of the footing in some cases I’ve seen footings and basement floors sitting in water.

When adding a cold winter to this mix and the ground water freezes around the footing, the water has to expand 10% when it turns to ice, on the inside of the structure is forces the water in to the cement slab and sometimes through the slab on to the floor above.

But the water under the footing has no place to go, so it lifts the house (heaving it) and not evenly breaking the concrete wall cracking sheetrock, plaster, and stucco right up to the roofline.

I’ve seen a shift in trusses like a bulge on a roof, magnifying the problem as it lifts the structure up.

2. Water – IE moisture loves to migrate into concrete. We have seen a commercial building that is a warehouse. When it was built they excavated a sump and filled it with sand compacted it and than built on it.

Now 5-10 years later the concrete walls are flaking paint, and chips of concrete pop off up to 24′ of the wall. What’s happening? The high water table is back in the ground, water can migrate through concrete vertically 28′ from the source of the water.

Remember nature’s rule-water must be allowed to expand, and if it cannot, it will move what ever is in its way to expand 10%.

Know this if you don’t remove the moisture (water) from the footings it will remove paint off of concrete and have popping chips of concrete.

If there is water against your foundation wall when it freezes it will blow the face off the concrete and in a few years there will be major holes in your foundation not only letting more water in but also exotic organisms and creating a mold problem in the structure.

This condition was and is being caused by no insulation on this area. With no insulation in this rim joist and the warmest air in any area is located at the ceiling. This air also has the most humidity in it.

When the air migrates across the ceiling to the out side wall 2 thing happen.

The 2nd thing that happens is it starts a thermo train where warm air rushes to the exterior wall, it cools and drops to the floor, then the air migrates across the floor to the center of the house where it’s warmed back up.

Warm air being lighter than cold air it moved back up to the ceiling and the process starts all over.

Adding insulation to the rim joist slows down the thermo train. If you install the wrong type of insulation you will cause a lot more mold and rot and invite many different type of bugs to live with you.

The worst type of insulation is porous type (fiberglass, cellulose, mineral wool etc.) If this type is to be used install a vapor barrier on the warm side of the insulation to keep any humidity from getting into the insulation.

Vapor barrier can be 6-mill poly — insulate, caulk all surfaces with a polybutylene caulk this stays soft than apply the poly over it and staple the poly in place making a perfect seal. Do this to all rim joist areas.

Vapor barrier can be foam board — insulate, cut the foam board to fit snug in each rim joist space then caulk all edges of the foam board.

Another way of getting around the problem is to insulate the rim from the outside. This only works in new construction while building.

Move the rim joists in 2″ and install a 2″ foam board and then sheath over it. The drawback is you must install solid material where you are going to add a deck or other structural framing.

Another type of insulation that can be used is Icynene this you can by on E-bay or hire a contractor to have is sprayed into the rim joist cavities.

This type of insulation will not allow the humidity to pass through it making it great for this type of application.

For example, fiberglass insulation is open cell.

Roll out a batt of fiberglass insulation, place a 1 1/2″ x12″ pipe vertical on top of the insulation and pour 1 cup of water into it.

What happens?

That’s right — it runs right through.

This means it is a porous (permeable) type insulation.

Using porous type insulation in stud cavities, then covering the insulation with 6 Mill poly and sheet rock, you have made a perfect wall.

Until you add people -

First, they are going to want electrical in the wall. This means holes through the sheet rock and poly allowing moisture to pass into the cavity.

Next, they’ll add pictures and wall decorations. Now we make several holes leading into the stud cavities.

Each 1/4″ diameter hole lets 30 liters of water (as vapor) into the stud cavity.

Having open cell insulation allows the water to freeze on exterior wall sheathing.

In the spring the frost thaws and the water migrates down the base plate and starts the rotting.

If we install an open cell insulation in the stud cavity instead, moisture has a very hard time migrating into the cavity.

Fiberglass insulation — made from sand
Mineral wool insulation — made from slag steel
Cellulose insulation — made from paper

Urethane insulation — made from Urethane (oil base)
Polyurethane insulation — made from Urethane (oil base)

Icynene Insulation — made from water (water base)

If you have allergies Icynene Insulation is the easiest on your sinuses.

Some insulators are spraying 1″ of urethane into the cavity and filling the rest of the cavity with fiberglass, which does no good.

The urethane is in the wrong location in the cavity — it must be installed on the warm side of the wall. The same is true with foam insulation board installed behind vinyl and aluminum siding.

Installing poly or urethane film on the cold side of the wall only ads in the ability of collection of moisture pasting through the wall cavity allowing it to condensate on the film and migrate to the bottom of each stud cavity.

Only way for the water to escape is to work it’s way through the bottom plate and the floorboards.

This turns the boards to soggy wood and in 2-3 years the wood first starts to rot until the water has a way through, the next years the wood dry rots, which is no better.

For more information on open cell insulation http://www.home-elegance.com/articles/74/insulation-in-stud-cavities-part-2/

This will happen at the top of all the walls and under all the windows as well as where wiring is run through the wall, the wiring holds up the insulation from settling
downward but below the wiring there again is no insulation.

Using an Open Cell insulation this sprays in place and bonds to the studs wires and wall sheathing locking it in place.
The only draw back with Open Cell insulation is trying to fish wire into new outlets it’s hard to do.

While fiberglass is easy just move it to the side pull the wire into place and install your electrical box, O by the way installing wire this way losses all you r-value in that stud cavity by moving the insulation you have created a void on the one side and on the other side you have pushed in to much insulation and have less R-value.

What is R-Value and what R-Value do I need?

Insulation is rated in terms of thermal resistance, called R-value, which indicates the resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating effectiveness. The R-value of thermal insulation depends on the type of material, its thickness, and density.

In the case of Icynene these are the facts:
Thermal Resistance R 3.6/in x thickness of stud
2×4=12.6 2×6=19.80
Heat flow reduction through 1.0″ = 72.7%
Heat flow reduction through 3.5″ = 92.2%
Heat flow reduction through 5.5″ = 95.0%
Heat flow reduction through 10.0″ = 97.3%

What does this mean?
Example-Look at your living room wall let’s remove a 14″ x 14″ piece of sheetrock & poly on the insides and on the out side let do the same size and location, remove the siding and wall sheathing so on both sides of the wall we can see the insulation.

Now lets say it’s —2° below 0 and on the inside it’s 7° degrees.

Standing out side dip your hands into water and place them on the siding just above the hole how long will be able to stand there before your hands freeze?

Lets do the same with a house made of Icynene Insulation. Again how long before your hands freeze?

A Fiberglass insulation — Never and instead your hands should be dry in under 6 minutes at —2° below °. Above the hole the temp should be on a calm day about 5°

A Icynene Insulation- in about 30-40 Seconds major frost burn should start.

The deference is that fiberglass insulation slows the air movement down inside the stud space while Icynene creates millions of little air pockets but not allowing them to move.

Fiberglass insulation with out poly and/or wallboard on the in side and wall sheathing on the outside is really a very poor type of insulation in and of it’s self.

Now lets put a blanket against the door. Next there is no air moving across the door and the blanket is like adding a blanket of insulation on the inside surface of the door.

The new freeze point is now located at 1 1/2″ into the blanket so when the blanket is now removed the moisture in the blanket has frozen to the door. With this under standing let’s look at your windows.

A window with Low E II will have an R-value of 3.5 – 3.75 Now let’s add drapes on the windows and people blame the window that it is bad.

When in fact there are 2 problems 1 no air movement across the surface of the window and the humidity in the house is to high for the exterior temp.

They designed the material to allow the moisture to pass one way through the tyvek or poly sheet house wrap from the inside of the stud wall cavity to the outside air.

This works great to remove any moisture in the stud cavities as long as the outside temp. Is above 33°F.

Below 32°F the moisture turns to frost and freezes to the back side of the tyvek or poly sheet house wrap, when the temp goes above 32°F it thaws to a liquid no longer vapor.

Now it cannot pass throw the house wrap instead it pools up at each horizontal siding line. This is were the water is new working on both your siding and wall sheathing starting with mold and then rot.

While tarpaper or rosin paper allows the moisture to pass through to the outside. Tarpaper cannot be used behind vinyl siding because it bonds to the siding.

The problem is vinyl siding expands and contracts about 1″. When it moves it loosens the and sometimes it removes the siding.

Next when humidity gets into Cellulose insulation it makes the insulation ball up or clump together in semi-hard chunks.

When this happens you are now losing you R-value. Let’s say the roof leaks Cellulose becomes a lot a 100,000 sheet of wet paper towels that will not let air in or the water out.

In 48 hours you now have mold growing. It’s just not good insulation.

But if you need access batting in the insulation or spraying in insulation in between the rafters against the roof sheathing works good.

Keep in mind that heat rises and fiberglass, and mineral wool insulation acts like a furnace filter air past through it.

The more fiberglass, or mineral wool you use slows the air transfer making it harder for air to move through it.

With Icynene insulation the first inch of insulation does the most work stopping any air from moving into the insulation, IE no heat transfer in the air movement through the insulation.Touch on picture to enlarge

Keeping the humidity on the inside of the building were we want it. So if you have tight spaces to insulate and regular insulation will not give enough volume of insulation 12-16″ thick for a good R-value.

Than please use Icynene insulation even if 6″ is all you can get in there, it still will save you 30-50% on your heating bills.

Installing electric baseboard heat is the most economical way for installation but bad on the wallet for running it.

Let’s look back 100 years ago the settlers used the room under the houses IE root cellars for a place to store their canned goods and vegetables like potato’s and squash etc.

The ground around the cellar was about 55° a little warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter.

The cellar was a poor man’s refrigerator. Now today’s life style we have to reverse the effects of this room (area).

Keep in mind that Warmth (heat rises because it is lighter than cold air, Cold air being heavier forces it’s way to the floor pushing the warm air up.)Touch on picture to enlarge

Exterior concrete walls have to be separated also, using 2″rigid foam is great if you are in a sandy lot and with a high water table is below the floor level.

Other wise use rigid sheets fiberglass insulation, ground water will drain through it.

Now we have to heat this area, a 2 fold system works best first install In-floor radiant heat with a boiler system and setting the thermostat at 68°.

Then install a forced air system for air handling, moving air for cleaning it, moistening it and mixing it.

By setting the thermostat at 65° degrees and having set the fan to the on position shall give you the best results.

To improve the performance add 3 1/2″ of Icynene insulation into the exterior walls.

You’re building an economical home

Use 6 ply 3/4″ AC T & G plywood
Using 3/4″ T & G Norboard it has no holding power for nails for both hardwood floors and underlayment used under linoleum.

Use a bare minimum of 4 ply 1/2″ CDX plywood
Using 1/2 Norboard the way that it is formulated it will not allow moisture to leave the stud cavity. When the winter comes the moisture then freezes to the sheathing and in the spring it starts the mold process.

Use a bare minimum of 4 ply 1/2 CDX plywood for standard shingles.

Use 5 ply 5/8 CDX plywood for laminate shingles and/or cedar. shakes
Again using 1/2 Norboard it has no holding power for roofing nails.

You’re building high-end home use the following:

For flooring; Use 2 layers of 6 ply 3/4″ AC T & G plywood

For Wall sheathing; 5 ply 5/8 CDX plywood

For roof sheathing; 5 ply 5/8 CDX plywood for wood, laminate shingles,or steel roofing
6 ply 3/4 CDX plywood for a slate roof