Insulation suggestion for my old house
v ail
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Charles Ross Homes
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Insulating an old home bang for the buck
Comments (5)someone needs to get into your attic and look around. the best scenerio would be to hire someone who can advise you as to your best options for your specific home. there are many energy raters in florida, you could make some calls and hire an independent third party. I don't know how it works with BPI, but as a Resnet energy rater we do inspection & testing for air leakage into the house, and duct leakage. there are two seperate testing dates, prior to any upgrade, and once upgrades are completed. the first to establish a baseline for your house, and advise on upgrades. the last is to verify that house leakage, duct leakage and any issues that were addressed accomplished what they were bid to do. as your house has both cinderblock and stick frame construction, and age of house I would suggest that you have considerable leakage. blower door & duct testing would measure and pinpoint the leakage areas, so that they can be addressed. a couple of cases of caulk can do wonders to reducing air leakge into the house. as can mastic sealing of ductwork. trying to heat and cool a leaky house is expensive. if you make the house tighter and reduce the duct leakage it is a good investment. when replacing a unit as old as yours with a more efficient unit could cause problems for ductwork in a vented attic. your existing ductwork's r-value is somewhere between R-2 & R-4. with new variable speed equipment the low speed of the unit will be colder than high speed. ductwork in a vented attic in our hot humid climate condensates. installing open cell foam to fill the roof rafters to full depth, and to cover the faces of the rafters is a good investment. this would make mastic sealing of ductwork viable as compared to upgrading ductwork to R-8. it would also put ductwork in a conditioned space as the attic is now unvented. if you can get a foam company that has worked with hvac contractors..or visaversa..you will be dealing with like minded people. it makes a difference. most of our house leakage is from the living to the attic space. moving the thermal (insulation) barrier to the roofline with foam also moves the air barrier to the roofline. so the recessed lights don't suck air from the attic. cost of foam is higher, and you should keep in mind that you still need to meet code. this is not the 3-4" average fill bid. R-values for La. are R-30 for attics we meet the cathedral attic code with 6-7" get several bids and ask to visit an ongoing or previous install. understand that while the depth is increased that once they are on the job and set up its a matter of spraying more product. it doesn't double the price. as to where it leaks in the walls of the house, the blower door test will pinpoint these areas for you. location of the leaks depend on construction of house. each house is different. best of luck....See MoreInsulating a 107yr old house
Comments (18)Adding another layer, or two, over the plaster will have the same detail-deadening effect on the inside as extra layers of stucco will on the outside. You'd have to move all your trim, fir out all your opening jambs (window and door) etc., to fix this but then you also must extend or re-wire your outlets and wall switches .... well, it's a big job! Re insulating to the max in the attic. I was not suggesting insulating the undersides of the roof, unless you have heated/conditioned space just under the roof. In that case it should probably be done, but you can't just tack up insulation under the roof sheathing. You must arrange to have some channeled air -baffled barriers between the top-side of the insulating material and the underside of the roof. Look for info about insulating a cathedral ceiling to see what I mean. As for the walls, if they aren't plastered up there, then I would rip out sheet rock or paneling and insulate and, more importantly for rooms at the top of the building, install a vapor barrier before reclosing the wall. I wouldn't insulate between the floor joists on the enclosed space, but of course I would between the floor joists of any unenclosed, unheated space. And I would consider using an insulating product with the highest R-value per inch of depth. When insulating (assuming you're are not doing the whole house) put your money and effort into the upper areas/surfaces first, and then cut the infiltration pathways by caulking and sealing like a demon. I'm not familiar with a stucco-coated house, but in a frame house with wood siding, you could see evidence of moisture being trapped in the walls when paint peels off the outside, or mold grows on the inside walls or your walls get stinky and moldy internally. Not a pleasant thought! Good planned ventilation (kitchen and bath fans, primarily) goes along way to fixing this issue. But you can also but vapor retardant paint on all your walls and ceilings, which reportedly helps a lot. Now for the op-ed on this subject: Plaster by itself, especially old plaster on wooden lath, can be a huge moisture mediator, all by itself. And hollow walls allow a good deal of vapor and air to move harmlessly to the outside. (At least in wood-clad house, I'm not familiar with stucco.) All the steps we take in closing up a house in the name of energy efficiency may, paradoxically, be somewhat interfering with the time-tested engineering of these old building systems. And certainly, I believe the standards that are used for new houses which require intense efforts at moisture/vapor management are successful and necessary in builings built of more complex man-made components. But I'm not so sure that one should blindly transfer the standards of one building system backwards to buildings of another construction system. The good news is that older buildings can be quite tolerant, and apparently unharmed, by tightening up and some insulating (especially of attics) without vapor barriers. Just be aware that you can, even in the laudable effort to improve energy costs and loss, create another problem. For myself, beyond the above steps, I try to achieve overall building energy efficiency in different ways, on other systems (heating, laundry, appliances, lighting) and "forgive" the energy inefficency I can't cure unless I tear down more of the still-intact wall covering materials. And naturally, whenever I have an occasion to open a wall for any reason, then that portion in insulated and vapor barriered before closing. I find one of the most satisfying things about living in and owning an old building is that it keeps me aware that there are many different solutions for things, and the latest and greatest modern notion may have nothing on what was common a hundred years ago. Have you looked into the useful series of Preservation Briefs from the National Park Service? I'll attach a link; many topics are available for free on-line and I've always found the info very helpful. They cover a wide range of topics including energy efficiency for old buildings, and most importantly in your case, care and repair of stucco (along with window repair, roof, plumbing, building assesment, etc.) HTH Molly Here is a link that might be useful: Series of Preservation Briefs, List of topics...See Morenew insulation in old house... which product?
Comments (5)Are you sure there is no wall insulation? I can't imagine a recently redone lathe and plaster wall without insulation (and the necessary warm-side vapor barrier). Usually the dilemma is a house like mine with no wall insulation and original plaster and therefore no way to insulate without damage to the historic materials. Don't get confused between the vapor barriers installed in the wall assemblies just underneath the interior wall finish, i.e. on the warm side of the insulation and the moisture and air infiltration barriers installed under the sheathing or other exterior cladding. The former is to block tramission of interior moisture into the insulation material where in cold climates it can condense and get trapped causing mold problems. The two later products are intended block exterior moisture, primarily rain, from being driven from the outside into the wall assembly. The standard order of march in weatherizing an old house: insulate the attic cavities, first; then do a heroic job with the caulk gun to eliminate small air leaks, inside and out and install or replace weatherstripping around openings of doors and windows; then look at wall insulation. Note that under floor insulation is not high on this list even though it is an intuitive thing. Floor insulation projects are usually aimed at stopping air infiltration but most insulation materials aren't designed to combat infiltration, per se. However, tightening up other, higher, parts of the house will prevent them from drawing cold air up through the floor in the first place. This overall plan of attack is based on first doing the things with the most efficient payback in energy savings for the dollars invested. And sexy, or not, attic insulation and caulking are the top two. For under your structure, you may need a vapor barrier laid on the dirt to stop moisture vapor from rising from the soil into your living space and the framing of the structure, and possibly ventilation of the crawl space (this is the controversial part and I think depends,greatly, on local conditions especially your outdoor drainage situation.) BTW, I would carefully assess the choice between wood siding and Hardie-plank type products. They are not equivalent in how they look and I think the HP makes an old building look odd. Unless you siding is totally rotted, you can probably rehab most of it, then buy only a small amount to finish the job. There is a series of National Park Service publications regarding the care of old buildings. One title is devoted to weatherizing old structures. I've attached a link below, scroll down the list of titles until you find the ones that interest you. HTH, Molly~ Here is a link that might be useful: National Park Service Preservation Brief Series - Wide range of old house topics...See MoreFiberglass insulating from the outside on old house
Comments (4)its an unusual way to go about it, but doesn't mean you can't do it that way. you write about ducts in bathroom wall having cellulose stuck to each seam. unless you clean and seal these ducts you'll just be sucking fiberglass rather than cellulose into the air stream of the duct system..to circulate through the house. use a paint on mastic to seal the joints of the ducts while you have the walls open. ( from your comments ducts are in walls...I'm guessing) face of insulation would go to the warm side of the house, but think about it for a minute...blown insulations have no facing or vapor barriers. so are they (vapor barriers) really necessary? there are a couple of schools of thought on this. food for thought...and google search. not a discussion I have time to get into today! putting conventional insulation into the stud bays, then a foam sheathing board to the exterior of the wall is an excellent start to an air tight wall. caulk your sole plate to slab. tape all the seams of the foam board, and then side with whatever your choice. the foam board will add R-value to the wall in addition to the air sealing properties. your goals should be to stop air movement through the wall, and to seal duct leakage. once wall is air tight from outside. you then focus on air tight from inside. caulk door & window moldings to walls. ceiling moldings to ceilings & walls, & floor moldings. seal gaps in sheetrock ceilings at recessed lights, bath vent fans, stove vents and any penetrations through the ceiling in to the attic. I personally detest cellulose. not only for the reasons you mention, but the fine 'dust' finds its way into the house through all cracks in walls and ceilings. best of luck....See Moremike_home
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