I am considering having retrofoam installed in my walls, and ICYENE foam (spray foam) on the kneewalls and floor of the crawlspace in my upstairs (1.5 story house sorta resembles an "A"). I have the older style romex (the house was built in early 1940's)and I know the boxes for some of the lights and some j boxes may be upstairs. My questions are would there be any concern of the insulation damaging the wires by moving them, and what about covering the ones upstairs.

No worries about the wires, they will be fine when fully encapsulated by the foam (only the old knob and tube type wires must be in open air). But the boxes are another story. I've found that if there is even the slightest opening, the foam will get into a box. Best to kill all the power to the affected boxes while installing and then open every receptacle, light switch and ceiling box afterwards to check and clean out any foam that got in.

However, I would also carefully check that 60 year-old wire before enclosing it. If you see any corrosion of the wires, I would strongly consider replacing them now, before you fill the cavities with foam.

Isn't it the job of the foam guys to check this stuff???

Come on, Pete. Be realistic. How many of them do you think are going to bother?

If I understand the way this stuff works, I wouldn't want it in my home. There are two reasons.

One is that I remember the unexpected health effects of earlier foam-in-place insulation products, and I'm leery of anything similar that has chemical reactants.

The second is that I have enough trouble fishing cable in walls with blown-in cellulose and fiberglas insulation. Foam-in-place has to be much harder to get through. Or am I missing something?

Actually I don't find it particularly difficult to fish wires through foam. The fish tape moves rather easily through the foam right next to the drywall, and pops right out into the box opening, when you're lucky anyway. Occasionally I have a hard time with it, but no more than snaking through any other type of insulation.

We use foam for some applications (mostly Tiger Foam), and the new stuff is much better than the old. The manufacturers claim it is the most fire resistant insulation out there, even better than fiberglass, and when installed correctly it is amazingly effective, as it seals the wall tight to any air infiltration. It's polyurethane based, and essentially only gives off steam as it is applied. We'd use it more but it is very expensive, and other types usually beat it out on cost. But in some cases, where you need a very high R value per inch or want to insulate walls without opening them up, it's the best way to go.

"How many of them do you think are going to bother?"

I am doing my second renovation where they are using Icenene(sp). The shoot the stuff on the underside of the roof. The only real issue is at the eves where the foam will actually meet the ceiling.
I strongly feel it is the responsibility of the foam people to look into, if not provide an MSDS, about the reaction of their product with other compounds.

I was told there is no harm to any wiring with the stuff they are using. And they asked if any fixtures or enclosures needed to be boxed around that I did not want foam infiltration.

The fish tape moves rather easily through the foam right next to the drywall ...

Tried it with lath and plaster lately? ;-)

Other than income property, I've only owned one home with drywall, and that was many years ago.

Jeez, david, sorry about that. Hope you can afford a new home someday! (Jess kiddeeng.)

Fishing behind plaster and lathe is hell, no matter what insulation is behind there. Used to do it a lot when I worked in San Fran, but haven't worked with the old wood lathe for 6 years now that I've moved further north. New plaster jobs use the metal lathe, which doesn't grab the fish tape like the wood would, but it's still a royal pain.

BTW, we've been using the durorock paperless drywall exclusively for the last 2 years, and though it's not fun to work with (lots of fiberglass fibers in your skin) it does seem superior in pretty much every way. We often put a smooth drywall compound skimcoat over it to mimic plaster, and it looks pretty darn good. No popcorn for us.

Fishing with lath & plaster is a pain even when there's NO insulation. It's also all kinds of fun to cut holes in plaster for old work boxes.

That's part of the price I pay. Financially and otherwise, old houses probably cost me more than new ones. I still like 'em, except for income property.

I suppose I'm being annoying and pedantic - but "lath" is the correct spelling. Adding the E makes it a machine for turning wood or metal. ;-)

Dang, now I gotta look up "pedantic" too!

We use a cutoff wheel in an angle grinder to cut through LATH and plaster; works much better than a sawzall, and doesn't shake the wall apart.

I knew how to spell it. I was just testing you.... (Yeah, that's the ticket, just testing!)

If your wiring is that old I am going to guess that it has no grounds. Consider rewiring before you fill the walls with foam.

We use a cutoff wheel in an angle grinder to cut through LATH and plaster; works much better than a sawzall, and doesn't shake the wall apart.

Interesting! I've used a rotozip with the rpm cut way back (otherwise the lath chars and fills the house with smoke). It's slow. Does the cutoff wheel avoid that problem?

David: Yes! It works great. No vibration, easy clean and quick cuts. We've also used small circular saws (like the little battery-powered ones) with various types of masonry or metal-cutting blades, and that works pretty good too. Works best to plunge the blade/cutoff wheel in and then pull out, and then plunge back in as you work your way around the cut, rather than plunging in and trying to cut along a straight line. It also works well for cutting out old boxes so you can pull new wires in, and then install a handybox using the E-Z-IN box supports. Cuts right through any nails or brackets holding the old box. Try it. You'll like it.

My walls are not true plaster (some kinda wallboard skimcoated?) I dont think. The wall covering is 7/8 of an inch thick and is not drywall, but doesn't truly appear to be wet plaster (no lath of any sort). Although the ceiling where I can see from the upstairs may have some sort of lath, its pieces of gypsum about 3/8 thick with paper on both sides.

Any how I am definitelly considering rewiring first. The lower lever receptacles would be easy because of the basement, same with the light switches. Getting to light fixture is gonna be a PIA in the two bedrooms and the hallway. The upstairs also shouldnt be hard as I can bring a wire up next to the plumbing vent.
I am thinking of removing or somehow reusing the existing box or putting a new box where I removed the old one as to minimize patching, and abandoning the old wire inside the walls. I am going to have to look upstairs some more to refine my exact plan (the house started out with 4 fuses when it was build, fuse 1 north half, 2 south half, 3 two kitchen receptacles, 4 basement receptacle.)
The original panel is now a J box and each circuit from that connects to a breaker in the basement.

I am open two any advice/products to make things easier.

I am thinking first I should get a general idea how the existing wires are run in the walls.

Also I know would have to add receptacles and do some things differently to meet modern codes. So I thing I will find out what version of the NEC my local code is based on then get a copy, or should I spring for the latest model? What about those code check books? Anyone ever used those?

We icynene'd our new house and did not find the foam getting into the electric boxes to any significant degree (open low voltage boxes are another story). It does apply to the underside of the roof sheathing, not to the attic floor, so wiring in the attic is wide open and cool. They also completely covered double insulated recessed cans without an issue. I can't imagine how one would snake inside a foam wall however unless they did not fill up the cavity.