- Had the same issue with balloon framing—drafts coming from places I didn’t even know existed.
- Used an IR camera too, and yeah, found a spot behind my kitchen cabinets that was just leaking air like crazy.
- Tried exterior foam board on my old clapboard. It helped, but it’s a pain around windows and trim. Not cheap, either.
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“made me wonder if anyone’s had luck with exterior insulation on old brick or clapboard.”
- Honestly, it works, but you’ve gotta be ready for more siding work than you’d expect. Worth it if you’re already planning to redo the outside.
Exterior foam board on old clapboard is a beast, honestly. I did it last fall—took me about three weekends just to get the foam up and flashed right, and that was before even touching the siding. Around windows, I had to custom cut every piece and use a ton of canned spray foam to seal gaps. If you’re detail-oriented, it’s doable, but yeah, budget extra time for all the fiddly bits. IR camera was a game changer for me too—found leaks I never would’ve guessed. If you’re not redoing siding anyway, it’s a tough call.
Yeah, that tracks. Foam board on old clapboard is no joke—there’s always something weird hiding behind the siding or a window that’s not quite square. I’ve had crews spend way longer than planned just dealing with those oddball details. Honestly, unless you’re already planning new siding, I usually skip foam on old houses and just do dense pack cellulose from the inside. Way less hassle, and you don’t end up chasing every little air leak for weeks. IR cameras are awesome though... they’ve saved me from missing a bunch of cold spots.
Totally get where you’re coming from—old houses always have some surprise waiting. I did dense pack cellulose in my 1920s place and it was way smoother than messing with the exterior. IR cameras are like magic, right? Makes you wonder how folks did it before.
IR cameras are like magic, right? Makes you wonder how folks did it before.
It really is wild how much easier tech has made this stuff. I’ve worked on a few older homes where just figuring out *where* the cold spots were used to be a guessing game. Now with IR, you can literally see the problem areas in minutes. As for timing, dense pack cellulose is usually pretty quick—maybe a couple days for an average-sized house, unless you hit weird framing or hidden voids (which, let’s face it, happens a lot in pre-war places). Sometimes I wish walls could talk and just tell us where all the gaps are... would save so much time and patching.
