Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Geo Project

Thanks Dwight. Airtightness is my biggest problem, plus I don't think my walls are insulated as well as they could be, but I tried, I really tried.

The house is 110+ years old, and when I re-sided the house I tore off 2 of the 4 layers of siding. I then drilled holes in all the wall cavities to blow in insulation, but at some point in the past, someone put fiberglass insulation in the walls. I couldn't get any cellulose into the walls other than the one South facing wall. The living room is actually an addition, made from hollow block. I firred out the block, and put 1" to 2" thick foam sheets on the walls, then 1/2" OSB. That brought the block wall out to the same level as the origional house exterior walls, and I then wrapped/taped the house with Tyvek.

All the wood single pane double hung windows have been replaced within the past 2 years, and I blew 20" of cellulose in the attic last Fall. The biggest problem is the cold that migrates up into the house from the crawlspace. Hopefully, the plans for next year is to re-do all the supply water pipes with Pex, and upgrade the galvanized pipe to cast iron drain system with Plastic to Cast iron, then call someone in to foam the underside of all the floors and heat ducts. Currently, the heading ducts run under the house in the crawlspace (counterflow forced air furnace) and they are single wall uninsulated metal ducts.

My only concern with going to Pex vs. copper is any rodents chewing on them. Right now, the water pressure in the house is terrible because it was put together with whatever galvanized pipe they could get, from 3/4" to 3/8". I helped things a bit by removing the 3/8" galvanized pipe they had feeding the water heater and changing that to 3/4". The current plan is to go with Pex and not have any copper fittings in the crawlspace that could freeze and crack. The downside to that is if the Pex freezes, I can't use an open flame as a heat source to thaw the pipe.