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Glenn G. Chappell Glenn G. Chappell is offline
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Default Exterior Insulation Retrofit Questions

I need to do an insulation retrofit on my house. I'm a little
uncertain about what I'm doing; I thought I would run my ideas past
this group.

So: the lower floor of my house is partially below-grade. The exterior
walls are cinder block, and it's all beneath a wrap-around deck. We
want to bump up the insulation by R-15. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The plan: dig a ditch around the outside of the house and attach 4
inches of Insulfoam R-Tech to the outside walls. Cover it all up
with ... something.

There is already a vapor barrier inside the wall. I don't want to make
another one, correct?

Therefore, I can just scrape/brush all the crud off the outside wall,
and glue (adhesive appropriate for foam insulation) a 2-inch-thick
slab of R-Tech directly to the wall, and then glue another 2-inch slab
to that. (Right?)

That gives me an insulated wall, but it's a bit ugly, not too durable
in the event of bumps & scrapes, and can catch on fire easily. The
"ugly" doesn't matter too much, since this is all under a deck. The
fire hazard certainly matters. In any case, I need to cover it with
something.

I'm not sure what to cover it with, though. I was wondering about
getting some rolls of vinyl sheet and gluing that on. Any ideas?