Make your Home Green

Need some advice about brick wall construction and energy efficiency re: a 1910 home…?

I am currently considering purchasing a brick home built in 1910 in the upper Midwest. Energy efficiency is a big concern for me. This home has many exposed brick walls on the INSIDE of the home, on both exterior and interior walls. I have never seen this before and am unsure as to what this implies about insulation or lack thereof. I noticed that the exterior brick appears to be non-structural (ie, I don’t see any courses laid on end, aka headers) and is dark red, while the interior brick has header courses and is a lighter color brick. (I have some photos if this would be useful.) Can anyone decipher, without opening up a wall, whether there is wood framing inside these walls? Is it likely there is insulation between the brick layers? Also, was the interior brick meant to be exposed? It is attractive but I’m worried this could be an energy hog. Any advice would be much appreciated!

With a house as old as the one you are saying, I doubt there is any wood framing in the walls. You should actually look at that as a good thing if you did buy, as it would take away one aspect of potential decay in the structure. It is possible that the exterior brick is only a veneer. This is the term used if a wall system is used to cover the structure and made to look like the actual wall. If the brick on the house is a veneer, there is likely a more strudy block underneath it that is actually bearing the house.

Now it is also completely possible, as you suggested, that the interior brick is the load bearing structure. Now you have to remember when this house was built. Synthetic materails were not a common back in the early 1900’s. It is unlikley that the house has insulation in the walls. A common practice of that time was to actually build a double or even triple wythe wall system. A wythe is basically a line of bricks. In a multiple wythe system a wall of bricks is laid, an air space is left, and then another wall is constructed. This achieves a better system of insulation than just one brick wall. It is a similar idea to a double pane window. This form of insulation works pretty well. You will often get better and more consistent insulation from this version then you would from pourly placed synthetic insulation in a modern house.

There are companies you can hire to come out and assess the insulation properties of a building. I would imagine that any Energy Savings you might find by doing this would quickly be eaten by the costs. The other suggestion I would make is going to the local jurisdiction and obtaining a copy of the plans. I am not sure how large of a town you are in, but assuming the house was in some local jurisdiction when it was built, it probably needed a building permit. This means there should be plans on file (assuming they were not lost, stolen, distroyed, etc.). If there are plans it would show the structure of the walls, and should show the insulation as well. That is your best bet. Good luck.

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