Insulation
One of the things I did, and felt was really important with the renovation was put in some insulation. The house had no insulation. Zip. Nada. None.What does it mean to have a house with no insulation? Well from my 6 years of living in it, I'll tell you. For one, you can hear everything that is going on in the streets. Of course, you can blame crappy windows for that too. Second, heat and air escape. I had a tough time getting the house up to 75F during the winter if I wasn't cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Because I had to balance my desire to walk around the house in flip flops with wanting to conserve energy and not spend too much on heating fuel, I kept most of the house in the high 60s when at home (low 60s when not) and limited my heated paradise to my bedroom. Or, stayed in the kitchen, particularly after the installation of the heated floor.
Now, now I have insulation and it is a beautiful, beautiful thing. The thermostat is timed to go to 71 in the morning, 60 when I leave, and 66 when I return. There were times when I came home and it was 70. The heat stayed in, all due to our friend, insulation.
I have a friend who has an older house too. Not as old as mine a 1930s(?) bungalow. He suspects it has no insulation in the bottom portion. He thinks the attic level bedroom might be insulated as it keeps in heat. But then again, it could be just the heat rising.
Labels: house maintenance, houses
posted by Mari @ 27.11.07
4 Comments:
That's the first thing I noticed when I moved to both the West Coast and the East Coast - you could hear stuff going on outside! In the Midwest we don't deal with winter without insulation, so the homes are sound-proof as well.
I have to get insulation in my small 1910 rowhouse soon. I got an estimate for $1700 from Flood, which seems about average/reasonable to me, but I'd love to hear recommendations if you've got them.
Uhm, don't know. Is that blown in? Just the attic? Walls and attic? Regular old fiberglass or something greener? Too many factors to guess.
I was going to blow some tigerfoam into the walls of my freezing back room but i discovered that its just nasty plaster (with hair chunks) laid directly on the crappy brick. what little mortar was left on the outside was sandy & the bricks were crumbling. Had to repoint the whole rear of the house. Its still freezing cold back there but a little better. The ceiling is probably uninsulated.
In the main part of the house ive got that old loose paper stuff mixed with pillows of fiberglass in the attic - a vile mess!
perhaps in the future i may go for the low profile compacted foam sheets for insulation so i dont have to build out 4 inch studs on all of the walls....and its not dusty.
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