Air sealing question

I have a leaky, builder grade house. It was built in 1997, as cheaply as a house could be built at that point. Windows are poor quality, doors are poor quality. It's decently insulated, but not air sealed at all.

From the inside of my house, there is drywall, then a 2x4 studwall with R13 fiberglass, then a layer of blueboard insulation, then vinyl siding. The seams of the blueboard are not taped. No OSB or plywood sheathing, no housewrap. When the wind kicks up, it finds the seams in the blueboard and works its way into the house.

I know that the best solution would be to pull the siding, sheath it properly, replace windows and doors, foam, then housewrap. Unfortunately, that's a huge job, and just not in the budget right now.

Would it be worthwhile to simply unhook the siding, and tape the seams of the blueboard? The siding is 17 years old, and while it's pretty faded, it's not too brittle yet. I was going to use the foil tape, and have some that's rated for cold weather usage.

Thoughts? I'd like to eventually have an energy audit done, but am going to wait until I've eliminated some of the major leaks, like the lack of housewrap. We don't have a state funded program that I know of, and I'm not spending hundreds of dollars for someone to tell me something I already know.

@EatenByLimestone - I've done some work with sealing up the drywall, but I think that's going to give limited improvement at best. Most of my house is carpeted, and I don't have easy access to the lower edge of the drywall. I've pulled lots of trim off and sealed underneath, and gone around most of the outlets, but the air just finds another way inside.

@velvetfoot - the blue board is 1/2" thick.

@flyingcow - do you have a brand of the window film that you like? I've used it in the past, but with limited success. I also have 3 and 4 year old daughters, as well as a dog who HATES the mailman and UPS guy. Most of the plastic ends up with holes in it anyway, unfortunately.

@semipro - I've heard the opposite about the Tyvek tape. I'm gonna give the aluminum tape a try, and check it after a year. I'm not pulling the siding all the way off the house, I'm just going to unhook the bottom of each piece and work on it that way. I don't have the proper ladders and scaffolding to bother with trying to put siding back on after taking it off.

Thanks for the thoughts.

@semipro - I'll see if I can find the Tyvek tape. I had read a few random comments online where it didn't work for people, and when it wasn't on the shelf at Lowes, I stopped looking. I figured it wasn't there for a reason. I'll take another look.

@shoot-straight - I felt the same way when I discovered that. This is my second house, and I never thought to check for sheathing. I knew the windows and doors weren't very good quality, but I was blown away the first time I unhooked a piece of siding. I know that it's technically acceptable per the engineering standards, and it has the wood in the appropriate places to prevent racking, but I still wish it was there. I live in the boonies, and there's lots of people that like to practice shooting. I think OSB would slow down a stray bullet better than foam. That, and we live in tornado country. Granted, if that ever happens we should be in the basement, but what if we're on the way to the basement and a 2x4 comes through the wall? I'm in total agreement on doing it the right way, and doing it once. However, I'm a few years away from doing that. Pulling off the old siding, replacing windows and doors, putting up sheathing and insulation and air sealing, then putting up new siding is gonna be a huge chunk of change, and I don't have the time or tools to do it myself. I did it on my old house, but that place was half the size of this house, and I didn't have any kids at the time. This house is twice as big, I work more hours, and I have two small kids. I'll have to pay someone to do it, and it's gonna be expensive. That's why I'm working on little things right now.

@woodgeek - I'm almost done with the basement. The attic is next, probably next year unfortunately.

86020000 approx btu from wood pellets/5681 HDD= 15141.7/2412 sq ft = 6.28. I guess that puts me at moderate, although I don't know how much propane I burned in December for three days when the stove was broken, or how much I burned in the polar vortexes when the stove couldn't keep up. Oh, and we occasionally ran a space heater in the bathroom. That's gotta put me near the 7 mark? Either way, not great.

That was input BTU. I used about 253 bags, and used 8500 BTU/lb. No idea how many propane btu or electric btu we consumed. Not many electric, but propane was hard to tell.

Interesting. Love learning new stuff.

I discovered the lack of sheathing and airsealing in the process of installing the stove after I got shocked with propane bills the first winter. I had to open up the wall to move a drain pipe, and discovered the lack of osb, and a pretty decent breeze coming through a hole in the drywall. At that point, I just assumed that I had major issues, but the numbers aren't as bad as I thought they would be, especially considering the amount of wind I get living in the middle of nowhere. I think I'll still tape the horizontal seams because they are simple to get to, and then work on the attic. Thanks for the advice.