Until the end of the 19th century, stone was widely used to erect building walls. Consequently, the buildings were neither insulated nor waterproofed until the 1940s. In the 1950s, wooden planks were replaced with the first insulating materials and intermediate panels. In some cases, simple black paper served as a vapour barrier on the inside and as an air barrier on the outside. We should keep in mind that possibilities were limited at the time. Heating costs were not high, and the poor quality and high cost of materials were a barrier to accessibility (Bergeron, 2000).
Before the democratization of building materials, most buildings from this era were insulated with newspapers, animal wool, wood chips and sawdust. History books show that subsistence motivated the ingenuity of the builders to ensure the survival of the occupants, especially during harsh winters. They had to insulate to the best of their knowledge, often at low cost on a shoestring budget to survive the outside elements.
Under such conditions, materials were often not enough to retain heat and ensure the thermal comfort of the occupants. Demonstrating the rise of real mobilization and awareness regarding the importance of building insulation, the Association des entrepreneurs en isolation du Québec (now Association d’isolation du Québec) was created in 1959.