Debate: is it worth insulating a 1950s adobe or does it cause more rot? I saw a huge difference in my electric bill after I did mine last winter drop from $280 to $160 a month but my neighbor says his walls started sweating and he got mold. What's the real deal with old ABQ homes?

3 comments

3 Comments

Your neighbor turned his adobe into a terrarium, congratulations to him on the new mold farm. Rockwool or nothing for these old walls, anything else is just asking for trouble.

the_charlie6d ago

Oh man this is a tricky one and nobody is talking about the vapor barrier situation! Your neighbor probably did what most folks do and tossed in standard fiberglass with a plastic vapor barrier facing the interior. That traps moisture inside the adobe walls during winter since the warm humid air hits that cold outer wall and condenses right there. The real trick with these old adobe homes is you gotta use a vapor permeable insulation like mineral wool or even rigid foam that lets the wall breathe outward. I ripped all that nasty fiberglass out of my place and went with rockwool and haven't had a drop of moisture since. The electric bill drop is real though, these homes were never meant to be heated with modern furnaces so any insulation helps as long as you do it right. Check your neighbor's setup, bet he's got that crinkly plastic sheeting trapping everything.

faithf775d ago

That crinkly plastic sheeting comment got me... I actually did the same thing when I first moved into my 1920s adobe. Spent a whole weekend stapling up that vapor barrier feeling real proud of myself. By spring I had mold spots showing through the drywall and had to rip it all out. Mineral wool was the fix for me too, though I went with the cheaper rigid foam panels and just left a gap for breathing.