It also turns out that some home improvement projects can have the same effect on architects.  In January, I started the seemingly simple project of painting the living room.

The first step was to do a little prep and repair work on the existing plaster: scrape down the high spots, patch a few cracks and replace a few small areas that had been poorly repaired in the past.

“Sweetie, while you are at it, what would it take to remove those ugly, old, non-functioning baseboard radiators?”  I figured a few hours to rip them out, a few hours to patch the plaster and a few hours to install new baseboard.  All in all, not too much extra work for a much better result.

Let’s just say that the baseboard radiators pulled off more of the plaster than expected.

In the midst of working I realized that the inside face of the windows was warmer than the inside face of the walls and that the Living room was rather uncomfortable.

“What if I insulated  the exterior walls?”

For about $400 I could add two layers of 3/4″ R-5 rigid insulation and a layer of 1/2″ gypsum board, and the energy savings woudl pay for this in about three years.

I finished installing the vapor barrier today and started hanging the gypsum board.  The steps that led up to this:

• Remove baseboard radiators,
• Remove window casing, sills and stools,
• Remove wooden fireplace mantle,
• Insulate double hung window counterweight pockets,
• Repair double hung window counterweights,
• Cut back carpeting,
• Install insulation and furring strips, and
• Install blocking for hanging pictures and window treatments,

More detailed descriptions of these steps shall follow in future posts.

Dan Bossenbroek.

The downside to storm windows is that they make your double hung windows much less effective in the summer time.  By raising the lower sashes on the cooler side of the house and lowering the upper sashes on the warm side of the house, the warm air in the house will exit through the open upper sashes and draw cooler air in through the open lower sashes.

You can remove the counterweights for the upper sashes and insulate the concealed spaces in the walls.

First, secure the upper sash in place by driving a screw diagonally up through the bottom of the sash and into the jamb.  You may not need to do this since many old sashes have already been painted in place.

Next, carefully remove the casing around the window.  Run a utility knife around the perimeter between the casing and the wall in order to cut any paint or caulk that might be connecting the casing to the wall.  Insert putty knives in between the casing and the wall and between the casing and the window jamb in order to begin to remove the casing.  Continue this process with a pry bar, being careful not to damage the wall.  This will expose the counterweight pockets next to the window.

After removing the casing, cut the cords for the counterweights for the upper sash and remove the counterweights.  A great way to remove the nails from the casing without causing any damage is to clamp on to the nail on the back side of the casing with a vice grips.  Pry the nail out a little.  Straighten the nail and re-clamp the vice grips tight to the wood.  Repeat this until the nail comes all of the way out of the back.  This process will not mar the finish on the good side of the casing.

There are a couple of ways to insulate the counterweight spaces.

1. Measure the width and height of the pocket.  Cut rigid polyisocyanurate insulation to fit snugly into the pocket.  Polyiso has one of the highest R-values available.  Install two layers of ¾” insulation and push tight to the outside of the pocket.
2. Get some PVC that has an inside diameter at least ½” larger than the diameter of the counter weight.  Cut it to length – 1” less than the distance from the bottom of the pocket to the pulley.  Insert the counterweight into the pipe.  Secure the pipe to the window jamb.  Stuff batt insulation into the remaining space in the pocket.

Replace the casing.  Drill pilot holes for the finish nails to help prevent splitting the wood.  Set the nails and fill the divots with wood putty.  Lightly sand smooth, and finish to match the rest of the trim.

Tools:  Drill, drill bits, screwdriver bit, putty knives, pry-bar, hammer, scissors, vice grips, utility knife, tape measure, finish nails, sandpaper and nail set.

Materials:  2” screws, wood putty, and rigid insulation or batt insulation & PVC pipe.

Dan Bossenbroek

The first thing that you need to do is to remedy any moisture problems that the walls might have.  Moisture and insulation are not a good combination.  Make sure that all of your downspouts drain away from the house.  The ground should slope away from the house too.  If you have paved surfaces that adjoin the wall you should caulk the joint between the pavement and the wall.

Second, figure out if your crawl space is vented to the outside or deemed heated by the building code.  Vents are typically 8” tall by 16” wide and are placed equally around the perimeter.

If your crawlspace is vented, you need to seal the vents.  First close the vents if it’s possible, then cut a piece of rigid insulation, treated plywood, or aluminum flashing to fit snugly into the opening.  Next seal the crack around this with caulk or foam insulation in order to make an air tight seal.

The main enemy of crawlspaces is moisture, so every step must be taken to keep moisture out.  Cut strips of 6 mil plastic sheeting one foot wider than the crawlspaces walls are tall.  Staple the edge of the plastic sheeting to the sill plate around the entire perimeter of the crawlspace.  Overlap the sheets by 6” and tape all of the joints.  Now you have a dry surface for the insulation to rest against.

The next step is to install the insulation on the walls of your crawlspace.  Kraft faced fiberglass batt insulation works great in this application.  If you purchase the batts to fit between the floor joists, it will be easier to install in vertical strips, but then you will be left with 1 ½” gaps between the pieces below the floor structure.  Or you can add wood framing or cut strips of insulation to fit, but that’s a lot of work.  If you install the insulation horizontally, you will need to cut slits in the insulation so that it will fit around the floor joists.  Staple the insulation to the wood joists to hold it in place.

Most crawl spaces will need two horizontal rows of 22 ½” wide batts.  Use duct tape to secure the lower row to the upper row.

Once the insulation is in place, you will want to seal all of the seams between the insulation.  Duct tape will fit the bill here.  Installing the insulation in long horizontal strips will help reduce the amount of seams that you will need to seal.

You will also want to seal the joint between the batt insulation and the floor joists and sub-floor.  If your house is fairly new and everything down there is fairly clean you could use more duct tape.  However, if your house is fairly new the crawl space is probably already insulated.  So, if things are a bit dirty in your crawl space a good product to use to seal these cracks is foam insulation.  Spray a small bead between the paper and the joists and floor above.  Wait for an hour or two and then return to seal any remaining gaps.

Next you should cover the entire floor with a plastic sheeting vapor barrier.  If you won’t need to go into your crawl space very often then 4 mil plastic sheeting will work, but 6 mil is recommended.  Now that your crawl space is heated, you want to keep any unwanted moisture out.  Overlap the joints of the plastic 6” and tape all the joints.  Tape the joints between the plastic and the insulation as well.

Your crawlspace will now be heated, but there is no need to dump a bunch of extra air down there.  So it’s a great idea to seal all of the joints in the ducts in the crawlspace.  One might think that this would be the perfect use for duct tape, but I have found that aluminum tape works much better.  It sticks much better and lasts much longer than duct tape.  It is a bit more expensive, but you might want to use it everywhere in this project instead of duct tape.  The one drawback if aluminum tape is that it will tear and puncture easier than duct tape, so a little more care must be used when installing it.

Since your crawlspace is now heated, the floor above it should be considerably warmer as well, and thus will be much more comfortable to walk around on in the winter.

Dan Bossenbroek