While it's rare for most interior walls to be insulated, it's a relatively inexpensive and highly beneficial job to use blown or blown fiberglass or mineral wool insulation. Since most people spend more time indoors, there couldn't be a better time to offer this beneficial option. Inner wall insulation works the same as outer wall insulation. That is, it reduces the rate of heat transfer from one room to another.
Without interior insulation, outdoor air will easily enter your home, raising and lowering room temperatures to uncomfortable levels. Temperature fluctuations will force your HVAC unit to work harder to get your home to the scheduled temperature, increasing your utility bill. The interior insulation will reduce temperature fluctuations in every room in your house. There is no need to insulate interior walls, but doing so offers many benefits.
In addition to temperature control, insulation also helps make interior walls more resistant to sound and fire. Interior wall insulation also adds another layer of energy efficiency to your home. Insulated interior walls will prevent large temperature changes that can break drywall. These insulated rooms will also maintain their temperature longer.
The insulation that extends along the entire length of the wall cavity will be trapped in the drill saw. A reasonable conclusion is that the entire wall is insulated. If you don't see any insulation, you can extend an inspection telescope to the wall cavity and look up to see the insulation. You can also use a wire hanger with the end bent in the shape of a hook to probe the wall.
If the wall is insulated, the hook is likely to hook fragments of the insulation. Insulating interior walls can save on household utility costs, especially if the house has rooms that aren't used year-round. While interior wall insulation is easier to install in a new construction, it is possible to insulate existing interior walls. Most communities have building codes that require a minimum amount of insulation on the exterior walls and roof of the house.
For walls that separate apartments or condominiums, insulation will help prevent sound from penetrating the walls. The interior walls that separate individual living spaces in duplexes or apartments, known as “party walls”, often require insulation, not only to reduce sound and heat transfer, but also to stop the spread of fire from one side of the wall to the other. In addition to removing drywall to inspect wall cavities, there are a number of steps you can take to check wall insulation. It's not practical to tear down the wall behind the cabinets if you just want less sound, but it will be necessary if you need to protect the pipes inside that wall from freezing.
But unless you have a lot of experience with this, insulated walls often sound as hollow as uninsulated walls. And to diagnose a wall, you need to have another insulated wall somewhere in the house to compare it to. Insulating exterior walls is even more essential if you want to protect your home from extreme temperatures. The best time to insulate all walls is during a new construction, but it is possible to add insulation to existing walls without tearing off the drywall.
Blowing cellulose insulation onto existing walls is the least invasive approach to insulating pre-existing interior walls.
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