Walls – Best way to air seal, vapor seal, and insulate exterior wall in old house

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I have a 90-year old house in Seattle. Exterior walls are constructed as follows: lath and plaster, uninsulated 2×4 stud bays, plank sheathing, cedar clapboard, 1" foil-faced styrofoam, vinyl siding. The house leaks like a sieve, and costs a mint to heat. I can't seem to find consensus on how to approach updating and weatherizing a house like this, though. What's the best way to seal the drafts, add insulation, and manage any moisture moving through the wall? Ideally, I'd like to keep the existing lath and plaster as most of it is in decent shape. I would like to ditch the vinyl and re-side with clapboard.

Best Answer

Provided you don't have knob-and-tube wiring, this one is easy. Remove the vinyl siding, cut holes through the EPS foam and the sheathing at the top of each stud bay, and inject dense-packed cellulose into the empty stud bays. Should be pretty cheap and help a ton. I wouldn't use retrofit-style non-expanding foam. It'll be more expensive, highly flammable, and some people have allergic reactions to it once it's installed. Then add as much additional EPS foam over the existing stuff as you want. XPS foam, Polyiso foam, or rigid mineral wool will also do fine. Then install 3/4" thick vertical furring strips (usually 1x3s) over that exterior insulation to form a drainage channel (important since you're in a rainy climate), and then nail your new siding of choice to the furring strips.

If you do have knob-and-tube wiring, you need to keep the stud bays empty until you have it entirely replaced with modern cable.