Exterior Wall Insulation

Inadequate wall insulation stands out as a primary culprit behind air leakage and heightened moisture levels in both residential and commercial buildings. Conventional insulation techniques not only undermine energy efficiency but also impose limitations on architectural design. Spray foam insulation emerges as a convenient and durable alternative, seamlessly applicable across various materials and adaptable to diverse building types.


Some benefits of exterior wall insulation are:

  • Increasing your overall energy efficiency
  • Easily cover curved and Non-traditional surfaces
  • Cut labour and clean up costs
  • Eliminate hot and cold throughout the building
  • Exterior wall insulation is both a solution for winter and summer, enhancing your quality of life everyday.
Black and white photo of a person spraying fibre insulation.

How Does Exterior Insulation Affect Your Home’s Energy Cost?

Spray foam insulation stands out as one of the most efficient insulation materials available today, providing year-round protection against both heat and cold to ensure consistent comfort for you and your family. Its unique composition allows it to conform seamlessly to the surfaces where it’s applied, creating a tight seal that enhances energy efficiency.

By limiting air infiltration and movement within the home, spray foam insulation not only reduces energy consumption but also helps prevent the intrusion of pollutants and allergens, contributing to a healthier and more comfortable living environment.

In particular, when installed in walls exposed to two or more hours of direct sunlight, spray foam insulation can significantly decrease heating and cooling costs, typically by 15-25%. This benefit is particularly noticeable in older homes constructed before the 1990s, especially those with block walls.

Ask us about spray foam insulation rebates in Victoria.

Exterior Walls

Depending on the age of your home, you may or may not have any home insulation in your exterior wall cavities. There are large savings in heating costs and increased comfort available for a reasonable cost if you decide to upgrade the insulation in your exterior walls. The return in comfort and savings will more than justify the initial capital outlay.

If your home was built prior to 1955, it may not have any home insulation in its exterior walls. Homes built between 1955 and 1970, generally have an R8 product that is often a rockwool with a paper backing. After 1970 R8-R12 fibreglass and cellulose started to be used more often. It is often hard to know what a house contains given the variability in construction methods, builders and renovations that have occurred over time.

Adding Insulation

It is extremely important to know if and what type of insulation is present in the exterior walls as this will determine if anything can be added to them. Homeowners who have conducted renovations may have a very clear idea of what was in their walls. If you do not know, Alpine’s estimators will try to find areas where there are holes or openings into the exterior walls (such as under sinks or wherever there is exposed plumbing, a void in your drywall or at electrical fixtures/boxes) to try to figure out if insulation is already present; however, this is often very difficult or unreliable. 

Your spray foam insulation estimator will ask if they can drill two or three small holes into your exterior walls in different locations in order to try to assess the possibility of adding insulation before a crew arrives and dates are set.

Ways To Insulate Exterior Walls

The 1 Inch Hold Method

Alpine does not employ this method because we feel that it does not provide homeowners with the end result that they are paying for. This method does not allow for the blowing hose to extend down into the wall cavity and as a result, the blown insulation is simply dropped into the void, with the hope that it not only finds its way to the bottom but also that it somewhat packs down. Often it does not do either of these and leaves large voids in your walls; somewhat defeating the purpose of the whole enterprise. 

Companies that employ this method need to use infra-red cameras in order to check their work because there are so many problems getting a complete fill. Alpine has found this technology not to be reliable and it does not address the issue of loose filled insulation settling after installation.

2 Inch Holes Method

Instead, Alpine drills 2 inch holes and uses a flexible hose, dense pack method. We will insert a flexible hose down into the bottom of the wall cavity and then using our pressurised system, we backfill the entire cavity with a more densely packed blown cellulose. Only a pressurised back-fill method will guarantee that you are getting full value and maximum insulation in your walls. It also has the added benefit of allowing the workers to direct the hose past many of the everyday obstructions found in wall cavities. If Alpine crews encounter any cross blocking in the cavity, which prevents them from getting to the bottom of the wall, they will drill another hole below the blocking and fill that section separately.

Once the wall cavity has been filled, the holes are patched and best efforts are made to match the existing finish/colour. In the case of exteriors that have been painted more than 3 months prior to the work being done, it is virtually impossible to match the existing colour of the walls when patching – even when homeowners provide the same paint. For this reason, Alpine cannot take responsibility for or commit to ensuring that the paint or finish of its patches match the remainder of the walls exactly. Crews will colour and texture stucco patches and add rocks to patches for rock dash stucco finishes, in order to best match the existing walls.

Prior to commencing any work, the crew will walk through the interior of the home to look for areas where the interior wall may not fully cover the wall cavity. If insulation is added without having the interior wall cavity closed off, dusty cellulose material can enter the home. Homeowners are asked to inform crews if they are aware of any areas where the interior wall may not seal off the entire wall cavity. Occasionally “blow-outs” occur where there is a weak spot in the wall and Alpine crews will need to clean up any material that enters the interior of the home. Homeowners are asked to remove pictures or other materials on their walls that could be disturbed while filling takes place.

Ask us about government home insulation rebates.

The Benefits of Exterior Wall Insulation In Sound Deadening

An added benefit of spray foam insulation is that it reduces sound transmission. Insulating exterior walls with spray foam can reduce noise, because some sounds, particularly higher frequencies, move through gaps and cracks in a home. A quieter home is another way you can create a more comfortable home.

Frequently Asked Questions

No, You can use spray foam on any kind of exterior wall. Spray foam is especially beneficial in warehouses, sea cans, barns, feed storage, equipment storage and industrial buildings.

You can use spray foam in so many unique ways. To learn more about specialty spray foam applications, click here.

A cavity wall is a wall in your property that consists of a spacing between another wall. So for example yes, the exterior wall of your house may be a cavity wall, which is two walls together separated by a gap. This is a relatively newer form of construction for residential and commercial properties, Traditionally walls were singular, and so could not be insulated as well as a cavity wall.

By using spray foam insulation, you will bring a lot of structural integrity to your property. Filling your home’s exterior walls or wall cavity you reinforce your properties walls, creating a firm and sturdy effect. 

In short, Not at all. Typical ease of insulation process can be messy and disturbing creating unwanted havoc in your household. However, Spray foam insulation offers minimal invasiveness and little to no disruption. Our professionals simply spray the insulation through a hole directly into your walls, filling them quickly and efficiently with the highest quality insulation. It is quick, easy and stress-free.

Spray foam is one of the most eco-friendly insulants currently available. Since it reduces your energy consumption, lowers your energy bills, and contains no toxic chemicals it helps to lower your carbon emissions. On top of all of that its longevity means no replacement; so no old insulation going into landfills. Its 2 part liquid structure also means that it doesn’t use as much shipping energy saving on trucking companies and storage cutting emissions long before it even arrives at you, the end user. This is one of the many reasons why the government has so many insulation rebates.

Learn About Our Home Insulation Rebates

Great news for homeowners looking to upgrade the energy efficiency of their home! There are two major rebate/grant programs available to homeowners in BC: both the federal Canada Government home insulation rebates – Greener Homes grant program and the provincial CleanBC Better Homes rebate program.

Additionally, for households that qualify, the CleanBC program also offers an Income Qualified Program (IQP) that can cover 60% or 95% of your upgrade.

Your Alpine estimator can provide you with an idea of what you may qualify for in terms of a rebate, once they have conducted their inspection and prepared your quote. As it is the responsibility of the homeowner to apply for the grant, it is important that homeowners read and understand the program and its requirements.

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