http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=287x6865Mind_your_head Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-12-08 09:59 AM
Original message
Winterizing help needed please
I live in a 40 year old house. Most everything in it is, unfortunately, original 1968. I know I need new doors, windows, and insulation/siding, but don't have the money for any of that.
The house has always been very cold/drafty, but last winter we had a week of particularly bad bitter cold. Well with that bitter cold, I could REALLY feel where many of the worst drafts were coming from ~ around the doors, around most of the baseboards and from the corners near the fireplace. Btw, it's true of all the rooms, but the room with the fireplace has two outside walls - north and west facing - and sits on a slab, whereas the rest of the house has a basement. This one room is the WORST!
Anyway, in my panic and frustration imagining my heating bill skyrocketing, I took duct tape and taped around all of the baseboards/corners/doors - and it helped enormously - the drafts were THAT BAD.
Winter will be here before we know it, is there anything I can do to help minimize the drafts/keep the heat it? Or will I be stuck looking at duct tape on my walls, baseboards, and back doors/windows again this winter?
Oh, one more bit of information - the outside wall with the fireplace - at ground level there is dirt/a small garden bed there. I was thinking of shooting some kind of foam in there at the base, but I don't think that will work with it being dirt there.
My suggestion is that the headless primitive develop some backbone, some spine, and endure the cold.
After all, that's what everybody in the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants with free medical care for all have to do.
Husb2Sparkly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-12-08 10:57 AM
Response to Original message
1. I won't even get into the 'why' of the drafts .... but you might try this .....
..... remove the baseboard moldings and try to insulate behind them. Once removed, what you **should* see is the base/sole plate (a 2x4 laying on its side) sitting on the concrete slab. The wall studs stand on edge on top of that. The wallboard should stop about a half inch above the slab. That gap is what you want to insulate. The gap is important. It keeps the wallboard off the slab and allows the house to 'move' without cracking the walls. But soft insulation put in there will not cause any harm and should stop your draft.
Note that sometimes this gap is quite large ..... even to the point of fully exposing the sole plates and making the very bottom of the studs visible. That's just lesser quality workmanship, but no cause for panic. The fix is still the same .... insulate the gap.
You could use pink fiberglass insulation cut into strips to stuff in there or you could use that foam stuff in a can. The foam is spendy, to start, and also is a little problematic. It is very hard to control the thickness and any cured foam that stands proud of the wall will have to be trimmed off before the baseboards go back on.
Apart from a full insulation job, this should be a permanent repair for you ..... and quite cheap to do. One roll of insulation will likely do your entire house. the rest of the cost is your labor and the nails, putty, and paint to reinstall, patch and repaint the baseboards.
You know, this house here, built in 1892, is like a sieve; there's no point in doing more than the minimal to keep out the cold (putting up the winter windows) or to keep out the heat (the house being 60% windows, all windows are usable and have good screens).
One accepts, adapts, and moves on.
As long as the pipes don't freeze, all's right with the world.
I use the cats as a thermostat; when they started cowering underneath the blankets on the beds, I figure, ooops, it must be getting cold in here.
What ever happened to the old-fashioned American fortitude?
