These days I just disable 2.4ghz completely since all our devices support 5ghz and we have enough (2) access points around the house to give a good signal anywhere.
That's fortunate, what usable range do you see with your 5GHz network? I find the range is pretty dismal even with a wood frame and drywall house. My AP can be right below me and the signal is only perhaps 50%
Wifi Analyzer will show the signal as coming from 30+ meters away when it is only about 4m (with multiple walls and floors in between)
Insulated walls often have foil backed insulation which is really good at blocking wifi. Even with devices the same side of the wall, the foil makes nice constructive and destructive interference patterns that mean a device that's working great can lose all signal if you move it a few inches.
I really wish insulation makers would use a different backing material - the supposed reflectivity of the foil doesn't really add much to the insulation properties anyway.
It’s more common in roofs than walls. but is becoming more common on both. As people continue to take house performance more seriously, more aspects are being addressed. unsurprisingly, foil reflects radiant heat gain when you’re trying to cool. maybe directly from the sun and that emitted from hot siding.
> the supposed reflectivity of the foil doesn't really add much to the insulation properties anyway
Can you elaborate on that? Seems hard to believe. There are many kinds of insulation without foil, and the foil backed variants tend to be more expensive. It's hard to imagine that we'd be making the stuff like that without a good reason.
Foil backing is normally used on polyurethane foams, and is necessary to give the panel sufficient structural rigidity during manufacture.
One could use a plastic film instead though, or even corrugated cardboard.
The effectiveness of the film for insulation depends on many things.
Energy is lost through radiation, conduction and convection. At every layer of a house wall, the contribution of those effects varies widely.
Within the panel, radiation has near zero impact, because the foam material is directly in contact with the foil.
Outside the panel, the foil might have a benefit. The benefit would be maximized if there was a multi-millimeter air gap, followed by a very hot surface (Radiation doesn't scale linearly with temperature).
The foil also has a downside for insulatitive properties... The aluminium the foil is made out of conducts heat very well.
That means if part of the wall is leaking some heat (for example has a nail through it), then the foil will spread that head sideways through the wall, increasing overall losses, sometimes dramatically.
The "good" reason is often that the seller can talk the buyer into a higher price for the extra "feature". It can even be higher marginally: i.e. insulation costs $0.50 to manufacture, and they can sell it for $1; adding foil costs an additional $0.15 but now they can charge $1.50. This is common, even pervasive, with consumer pricing.
WiFiMan reports -85db and 80m when 3 floors down on the opposite side of the house from 1 Ubiquiti U6 Mesh. We have a second U6 Mesh to cover this area and users roam between the two when on the second floor where we are most of the time.
The house is detached, very open plan, and doesn't have many solid walls. We also have traditional wall radiators, I imagine the lack of underfloor heating and foil insulations allows wifi to travel further between floors.
