Exterior Insulation Guide: Cold Climate

Everything* you need to know about wrapping old homes with cold bones: climate zones 5, 6, and 7

Bringing an old house up to date energy-wise can improve comfort and energy performance.

Adding insulation over the walls and roof makes a continuous thermal barrier while burning your thermal bridges.

It includes replacing the siding and roofing and detailing the windows.

Wrapping a house in foam can also cause headaches if not done thoughtfully: make sure that the air, water, and thermal barriers are working together, not against each other.

Trapping moisture in a tight house means #BugsMoldRot

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Videos

Action videos show how to do it in the real world

Innie windows:

• How To Install Exterior Foam (1)
• How To Install Exterior Foam (2)
• Three Ways to Flash Innie Windows

Outie windows:

• Superinsulated Sunroom (1): Exterior Foam Layer
• Superinsulated Sunroom (2): Nail Bucks for (Outie) Flanged Windows
• Superinsulated Sunroom (3): Flashing an Outie Window
• Superinsulated Sunroom (4): Installing Outie Flanged Windows
• SuperInsulated Sunroom (5): Outer Foam and Airsealing Tapes

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Details

Animated drawings show what to do in a perfect world

• Roof and Wall Retrofit  (Vented Roof)
• Roof and Wall Retrofit (Unvented Roof)
• Roof Retrofit (Vented Roof)
• Roof Retrofit (Unvented Roof)

• Outie Window Details for Walls with Thick Exterior Insulation
• Innie Window Details for Walls with Thick Exterior Insulation​

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Articles

Why it matters: science

• FIELD TRIP: A Peel-Away Peek at High Performance Walls
• Case Study: Airtightness Strategies and Impacts for 1½-Story Homes
• The Pen Test for Air-, Water- and Thermal-Tightness
• How Heat Flow Works: Series and Parallel Flow
• Window Retrofit—From the RO, Out

 

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Extra Credit Homework

Dive deep, but don't forget to come up for air

• Building America Solutions Center:
  Guide to Cold and Very Cold Climates
• Building Science Corporation:
  Building Enclosures that Work in Cold and Very Cold Climates

 

The *

*This collection of technical drawings and animations, how-to videos, articles, photos, downloads, and links may not be a complete encyclopedia on the topic, but it is a heck of a great place to begin. 

 

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The Code

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Downloadable Content

DLC for your phone

• Roof Insulation Retrofit (Vented)
• Roof Insulation Retrofit (Unvented)
• Roof and Wall Insulation Retrofit (Vented)
• Roof and Wall Insulation Retrofit (Unvented)