How important is it to have insulation inside walls around a shower?

[KCEdds]

I had to have my stand-up shower floor ripped up because the concrete sub-flooring had disintegrated and was covered in mold causing a horrible smell.

When my tiler removed the concrete floor and six inches of tiles from the shower wall near the floor I could see some insulation between the studs. But, there were gaps and areas without insulation.

Should I buy some and stuff it in before the dry-lock goes up? If I don't will it make the shower a bit colder in the winter? We live in a 70-year-old house that is drafty, so the temperature is a big concern for us.

Thanks!!

[yona4u]

My fiance and I also own an older home that we are remodeling. It is over 100 years old and has plaster and lathe walls with no insulation. As we are removing the old walls, we are insulating and putting up drywall. By all means, while you have the walls exposed, insulate. You just cannot go wrong.
If you are doing this yourself, make sure you are using the right grade of insulation or you could be wasting your money. Example: 2x4 joists usually use R-13 or R-15, not R-19. R-19 is usually for walls that have 2x6 joists. This is important since if you use thicker insulation for your wall joists size, and are therefore crushing the insulation a bit, it decreases its value. This information is per: insulation contractors. I sure hope this helps. Good luck with your projects.

[GabeS]

If it's an exterior wall then put insulation. Depending on how you are constructing your shower would determine if you put a vapor barrier directly on your insulation. You can't have 2 vapor barriers or else moisture would get trapped in between and cause problems.

I say this because a lot of tilers put vapor barriers on the outside of the cement board or sheetrock with different products. In that case you wouldn't buy insulation that has a foil face.

Compressed R-19 in a 2x4 wall will lose some of it's R value, but will still have a higher R value than R-13 in a 2x4 wall. Look up compressed insulation charts if you want that verified.