- Pulled down plaster in my 1920s place last year—every wall was a new adventure. Found knob-and-tube in one room, modern Romex in another, and a random phone line that went nowhere.
- I budgeted for “surprises,” but honestly, it still ran over. Not just money, but time too. Chasing down old wiring slowed me way more than the insulation itself.
- Ended up rerouting a bunch of wiring. Some of it was just too sketchy to leave alone, especially where insulation would touch old cloth wires.
- Had an electrician come out for a consult before I started the main demo. Cost a couple hundred bucks, but it was worth it for peace of mind and to avoid bigger headaches later.
- If your house is older, I’d lean toward at least getting a pro to look. You can work around some stuff, but you don’t want to mess with electrical safety.
- One thing I didn’t expect: found a bunch of old newspapers stuffed in the walls as “insulation.” Not exactly up to code, but kind of cool to see what folks used back then...
Totally get the “adventure” part—old houses are like a box of chocolates, right? I’ve opened up walls in a few flips and you never know if you’ll find knob-and-tube, Romex, or some mystery wire that looks like it belongs in a museum. One time I found a glass Coke bottle wedged behind the lath. No idea why.
You nailed it about the time sink. Demo is always slower when you’re stopping every ten minutes to figure out what’s safe to touch or needs replacing. I usually plan for double the time on these places, but it still ends up being more. Electrical is the big wild card—totally agree, bringing in an electrician early is money well spent. Saves you from sleepless nights wondering if your new insulation is gonna start a fire.
And yeah, the “insulation” choices from back in the day... I once found old Sears catalogs stuffed in an attic. Guess it worked until it didn’t.
I’ve heard stories about people finding newspapers from the 1920s used as insulation—makes me wonder if we’ll be the ones pulling out old fiberglass and laughing in 50 years. I’m curious, did you end up replacing all the old wiring before insulating, or just the obvious problem spots? I’m stressing a bit about how much to demo before putting in new insulation… sometimes it feels like opening one wall just leads to three more projects. How do you decide where to stop?
Man, you nailed it with the “open one wall, find three more projects” thing. That’s the story of every old house I’ve worked on. As for wiring, I usually tell folks: if you’ve got the walls open and the wiring is old (knob and tube, brittle cloth, or just a rat’s nest), it’s way easier to replace it now than after you insulate and close things up. But if the wiring’s been updated in the last few decades and looks solid, I’ll just fix the obvious trouble spots—no need to gut everything unless you’re seeing real issues.
Deciding where to stop is tricky. Sometimes you gotta draw a line or you’ll end up gutting the whole house. I usually go by what I can see and reach without tearing out perfectly good stuff. If you’re not seeing water damage, rot, or scary wiring, patch it up and move on. Otherwise, yeah, you’ll be living in a construction zone for years... ask me how I know.
I get the logic of “while it’s open, fix it all,” but honestly, sometimes that just isn’t in the budget—especially if you’re living there and every extra project means more time with dust and chaos. I’ve definitely left some old wiring alone when it looked fine, even if it wasn’t brand new. Not everything has to be brought up to 2024 standards if it’s still safe and working.
Insulating can be a slippery slope, but I’ve found you can get creative—blown-in insulation, for example, lets you skip tearing out every wall. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s a huge improvement without the full gut job. Sometimes “good enough” really is good enough, especially if you want to stay sane and not spend your life savings. There’s a balance between ideal and practical, and I’ll take a little imperfection if it means I can actually finish the project.