Insulation Inside Brick Wall

[nafischer90]

Hello,

My home has a main area built of brick (circa 1900). A block addition was built in 1969 consisting of a living area making the first floor an L shape. This living area had some pretty ugly paneling along 2 walls which I have removed. The third wall is a brick fireplace. Behind the paneling is some Sheetrock in poor condition I will also remove. The Sheetrock is attached to the wall with 1x2 furring strips and in between the strips is what looks like regular old Styrofoam (.75"). The room is therefore pretty poorly insulated and gets cold quickly if the heat is turned down. I am thinking of adding 2" foam board insulation (R10) to the inside of the wall and then attaching new Sheetrock over this.

Is this a sound plan and would the insulation in the one room on 2 walls be worth it?

The rest of the house (brick area) is also quite drafty and my plans are to work on making the windows more airtight over this summer. I will also add blown cellulose insulation in the attic spaces both above the main area and the addition.

In the attached picture the red lines are where I plan to install the insulation

 

[Sparky617]

My parents last home was about the same age and construction. It was a true masonry house with walls made of two layers of brick and furring strips and then wood lath and plaster. When we remodeled it we tore out the plaster and lath and built 2x4 walls to allow modern electrical, insulation and HVAC ducts. That said, most of your heat loss is from heat rising through the ceiling and into the attic. So the quickest fix is to improve your attic insulation and to seal up places that air can flow, caulking openings to prevent air flow. In the attic look to seal up openings around plumbing and electrical. Seal up the attic hatch or attic door with weatherstripping.

If you have other things to do in the room like updating plumbing and electrical doing the complete tear out can be beneficial and adding insulation will help. If those are OK, I'd go with sealing things first.

 

[slownsteady]

I agree about attic insulation, but if you are going to tear into the walls, you might as well get the most insulation possible while it's open. R-11 or R-13 fiberglass (i believe) is what should fit properly in a 2x4 wall. If you have a deeper wall cavity, you can go to a thicker insulation. If you feel the need, and you can spare the floor space, you can add foam board over that and drywall over the foam.

 

[Sparky617]

I think if I were doing my parent's renovation again I would have gone with spray foam after building the 2x4 walls and doing all the mechanicals. Inch for inch it gets you the most R-value. A lot would depend on the location and what the heating load is like in the winter. Going spray foam would have better sealed up the brick walls.