Floor Joist no insulation 1993

[daniel nantell]

Inspected a home built in 1993 on a crawl space, that has no Insulation between floor joist . House built in 1993, resold 1999 and again in 2006 and not one of the owners installed any insulation between joist. Are they any sub floor materials that eliminate the need for the Insulations between joist to save on energy, I recommended installing Insulation.

[Jim Luttrall]

No, subfloor materials do not take the place of insulation.
There are however other ways to insulate the floor/crawl without putting insulation betweent the floor joists.

[Nick Ostrowski]

Dan, sounds like somebody just fell asleep on the original job and nobody caught it at subsequent sales of the house or didn't care enough to do anything about it. Regardless of flooring type, insulation should be installed.

[daniel nantell]

JIm
What are the alternate ways of insulating , you spoke of without using the insulations between floor joist. thanks for any info.

[Matt Fellman]

Foundation wall insulation was common around here until the mid-90's when I believe the code changed and called for under-floor materials.

IMO the foundation wall design doesn't work as well, especially when the foundation vents are left open. But, it does make the crawl space much easier to get through and MUCH easier to find problems.

As I force my way through endless seas of fiberglass under-floor insulation I often wonder to myself what excactly I'm there to look for? Sure, you look around plumbing clusters and other suspect areas but overall, there's not much you're going to find.

A non-insulated crawl in a 1993 house is not surprising. It's a recommendation but not a defect.