Wall spray foam insulation in Lacombe is applied where the wall is open, either during a renovation or from one side once the finish has come off. On the older housing here there is a complication that does not exist on a modern house, and it decides whether the work is worth doing at all.
Filling a cavity that has no top and no bottom
In a balloon-framed wall the studs run in one piece from the sill plate to the roof, so the cavity is continuous for the full height of the building. Filling the middle of that from one storey does not produce an insulated wall, it produces an insulated section of a shaft that is still open above and below. Air keeps moving past it. This is the single most important thing to understand about insulating a wall in a Lacombe house, and it is why the work starts at the ends of the cavity rather than in the middle.
Blocking the cavity is the job, filling it is the bonus
The sequence that works is to close the top of each cavity at the attic and the bottom at the foundation, so the shaft stops being a shaft. Once that is done the wall behaves like a wall, and filling it adds real resistance. Done the other way round the fill is wasted. That is worth insisting on even when it makes the first phase of the job look less impressive than a truck full of material would.
What has to happen to the plaster
Reaching a wall in a house like this means going through plaster and lath from inside or cladding from outside, and neither is trivial. Plaster and lath is worth preserving where it is sound, both for the building and because it is a genuinely good substrate. Where a room is being renovated anyway the wall is open and the work is straightforward. Where it is not, the honest answer is frequently to wait for the renovation rather than to open a wall solely to insulate it.
The exterior route, and when it makes sense
On some houses the better path is from outside during a re-cladding, because the cavity can be reached without disturbing the interior and the detailing at the top and bottom is easier to get right. That only makes sense when the cladding is coming off anyway. Nobody should re-clad a Lacombe house to insulate it, and anybody who is re-cladding one should not let that opportunity pass, because it will not come round again for decades.
Wall Spray Foam Insulation Lacombe: Common Questions
Can you just fill the walls? Not usefully on a balloon-framed house. The cavity is open above and below, so it has to be closed first.
Do we have to take the plaster off? Only where the wall is being opened anyway. It is rarely worth opening a sound wall purely to insulate.
What about doing it from outside? Sensible if the cladding is already coming off, and not a reason on its own to remove it.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Lacombe quote. More on Wall Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.