Hi all
My husband and I are in the process of renovating our 200 year old cape cod style home in New Hampshire. My husband is doing all the work himself, which is a huge money saver (I consider myself the project manager). Right now, we are working on the kitchen and are at a bit of a crossroads with the insulation for the walls. Bear in mind that my husband is pretty much the brains behind this renovation and I'm going to do my best to set forth out issue here.
Clearly, the current insulation in the walls is pretty old. The room is approx 400 sq ft and has an unheated/unfinished crawl space above it and unfinished 200 year old basement below. The room has three walls to the outside, facing north, east, and south. We have deciduous trees on the south side, allowing for sun in the winter and shade in the summer. While we're replacing the windows and putting up new drywall, we will install new insulation. The framing is 2x4. We could use the fiberglass rolls that have an R value of 15. This would cost about $200 for the entire room. We could also opt to go with spray foam insulation with an R value of 21 for a total cost of $800.
Our question is this: is it worth spending the extra money on the insulation in the walls? Would it make more sense to go with the fiberglass insulation in the walls then spend more money beefing up the insulation in the attic and floor? I've been trying to research this, but with my limited knowledge and general dislike of the maths/calculations, I'm having a hard time, so I figured this would be a good community off of which to siphon some collective knowledge.
Thanks in advance!
Christine