"Matt Williamson" wrote in message
...
I have a family room in my house that is basically 3 outside walls. One
wall faces my uninsulated garage, another the side of my house and the back
wall is the back of my house with a florida room. The back wall also has a
woodburning fireplace. There is wood paneling lining all of the walls. The
room is very cold in the winter and I think more insulation would help. The
existing stuff looks very thin. It's maybe 2" thick and it looks like
yellow fiberglass type with foil backing. I'm ripping down the paneling and
putting up drywall and I'm trying to determine what the existing R-value is
and what I should add to make it a little better. I know the wood fireplace
is a huge air draft that just sucks heat out. I plan on putting in a gas
insert to make that more efficient. Here is a link to a couple of pics I
took of the insulation. http://mysite.verizon.net/vzev0tzm/id1.html Click
the thumbs to get a full size pic. What would be my best option for this
room? Can I just add more over top of the old or should I replace it with
something better altogether?

TIA

Matt


It's probably an old off brand 3 1/2 inch R-11....Replacing it with Owens
Corning 3 1/2 will bump it up to R-13...The foam that is sprayed on would
get you where you want to go but it isn't cheap but compared to any framing
out or adding syrofoam panels and the wiring problems that might bring as
far as moving the boxes out , it might be worth it.....You won't have enough
wire in the box to extend it out more than an inch or so at MOST....I bet if
you did a good job with the R-13 including insulating behind and around the
outlet boxes , poking it around the windows good and foamed all the nooks
and crannies with a can of spray foam it would be fine AFTER you install the
Gas insert into the fireplace which I think is the reason your room is
cold..JMHO........