Comments on: Weatherizing an Old House: An MLK Day Service Project

By: Don R

Don R — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 16:30:25 +0000

Does it matter if you use XPS or foilfaced Polyiso foam board?

How did you attach the foamboard? Roofing nails with wide heads?

What type of tape did you use to seal the edges of the foamboard?

Thanks!

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 12:30:45 +0000

In reply to Tom Coradeschi. Tom: Yes, on the two sides where the joists were open to the area beneath the floor, we sealed them with foam board and spray foam.

By: Tom Coradeschi

Tom Coradeschi — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 16:48:55 +0000

Allison: Awesome job in support of those in need!

Question which comes to mind – when you were adding the rigid foam to the kneewall, did you take any steps to prevent cold (or hot, in summer) air from running under the interior floor?

By: Mike Barcik

Mike Barcik — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 18:36:44 +0000

Our standard practice has been to get a short list from the head of the MLK Service project. The candidates are usually houses that have had some form of other repair done in prior years – plumbing, structure, ramps, painting, etc. – they are “in the system”.
We pick a few houses to inspect and try to gauge ease and appropriateness – we generally select 2 homes plus a 3rd in case we finish early. Sometimes we do pre-blower door testing but our time up front is often limited. Later, we can do test out – I have some data where we’ve easily obtained at least a 25% reduction and some as high as 70%!
Our standard effort is to pull registers, wash them, shop vacuum as far in as we can reach, and then seal the duct from the inside with mastic and the boot to the subfloor (and then replace the register). We correct or at least clean out the dryer vent as well. We often seal AHU and plenum connections too (if they are accessible). All of this is fairly volunteer friendly.
My wife actually led the effort of the duct upgrades and showed me the giant hole – I glanced down and thought it was a duct running through a bigger duct. We felt cold air and quickly realized it was a hole to the basement dirt floor.
With more volunteers, we might have gotten more done below the house but this project focused heavily on the attic and knocking out around 500 s.f. of kneewalls was a major effort. Once they rewire and remove the old knob and tube, we’ll see about completing the rest of the attic – more balloon frame blocking, soffit dams, raised and insulated catwalks and storage platforms, and adding more loose-fill insulation.
While this is the first time I’ve encountered a window unit in a kneewall (BTW, we did airseal it from the inside), it’s not the first time we’ve had a register with no boot that connects directly to the foundation! Crazy stuff is more common than you think! Cheers, -mikeb

By: Robert Adams

Robert Adams — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 01:43:17 +0000

Interesting stuff in those attics… Knee walls are kind of a new thing here in TX as 2 story houses weren’t very common place until the last 10 years or so. I would personally never own a two story house unless the kitchen, master BR, living room were on the main level.

Before christmas I spent a day insulating the attic some more. I wasn’t able to get out to the edges and install any good baffles because the pitch of the roof so when you blow it in you just bounce it off the decking and keep as much in the attic as possible. Ended up putting in 46 bags and I wasn’t able to move the next two days. Low pitch roofs suck. I had planned to do it last spring but we went from winter to 110* like flipping a light switch.
I will say that over the last few days when it was 10* for around 10hours straight and not much warmer during the day the heater ran noticeably less than I expected. Basically just a little more than it would have on a typical cold winter day. The real test will come when the miserable season starts called summer. Oh and the garage never got below freezing since I also insulated it at the same time.
Once I’m done remodeling the house I’d like to encapsulate the crawlspace but it’s hard to find good companies to do that here since crawlspace houses are a rarity and only in houses from the early 60s and older. I’m too old to crawl around there and do it anymore. Hopefully we will move to a cooler state before I need to have it done…

By: JC

JC — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 18:29:37 +0000

Nice work Allison !

Someday I’ll have you guys redesign the duct work in my townhome. I’m just waiting for a lightning strike to burn it to the ground or one of the large Oaks to fall on it. 😉

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 13:56:23 +0000

In reply to Syd Barringer. Syd: Yeah, that window unit in the kneewall is a sure sign they had heat gain problems in the summer.

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 13:55:36 +0000

In reply to Eric M. Eric: This is the only one I know about for this type of project, but there may be others.

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 13:54:57 +0000

In reply to Loretta LaCoy. Yes, it is, Loretta!

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 13:54:17 +0000

In reply to Scott. Scott: The plan for the weekend was to fill the the joist cavities and then insulate with rolls of fiberglass insulation over the top of the joists. That may not happen till next year now. I'm not sure how they found the hole under the couch, but my guess is they were looking for vents they could seal with mastic from the inside. Maybe Mike will provide the answer.