Plugging all the holes in my house

[wg_bent]

I finally got around to putting the insulation over the attic fan, and this year I also put a plastic stick on cover over it. WOW, what a difference. We've had to run the wood stove less and when we do the upstairs gets a lot warmer. I didn't realize how much I was loosing due to stack effect and the friggin hole. Also plugged up the crawl space vents (as per the building sciences reccomendation) and insulated the holes...another WOW. All that plus the newly insulated basement, and with the temps hovering around 35 out, the darned house is near 80.

Nice simple fixes can mean a big difference. I encourage everyone to find the holes and plug them.

 

[elkimmeg]

I had a really funny response but being a familly forum It was too hard to convert it

I been saying here for years axhillary heat and making your home more effecient go hand in hand..

Man next trip to the Bl's I got to stop by and visit warren and steal some pine

won't be tomorrow busy installing turner-n-burners stove

 

[johnsopi]

While our house was being built I used 3 cases of caulk doing all the seams of the outside walls. I think
this helped cut out some of the drafts.

Paul

 

[wahoowad]

Should I put plastic over the gable vents in my attic during the winter?

 

[struggle]

Should I put plastic over the gable vents in my attic during the winter?

It would seem to me this would be a bad idea. You still need ventilation up there. If you close that off and live in a snowy area you can create ice dams on the roof as the heat trapped escaping the insulation will get trapped under the roof and melt snow into ice dams. This was a problem I had in my garage until I insulated it and then the problem went away.

 

[wahoowad]

I assume the fellow above covered his roof vent - mineis just gable vents and not one of those spinning vents...? Heck, I don't know, just asking!

 

[begreen]

I think Warren is referring to a hallway grille or something similar that is between the interior of the house and the attic and allows the fan to draw heat out of the attic space with the replacement air coming from the interior of the house. This is a good plan in hot summers. Covering this grille with a sealed insulated cover in the heating season is the way to go.

 

[struggle]

I assume the fellow above covered his roof vent - mineis just gable vents and not one of those spinning vents...? Heck, I don't know, just asking!

We have a whole house fan as well as in the original topic thread. What I did with it was built a cover that replaced the fold up doors that go up when the fan is turned on. Very good idea like the original poster said, it lets a lot of heat out. Our did so much so that condensation would build up on the metal doors during the winter prior to making a sealed cover. I also stuff to blankets of insulation above the cover.

As for covering gabel end vents I still say this is a no no. Everything above the insulation needs to be vented. If you have ridge vents or box vents on the roof itself then it might be OK to do as long as the ends vents are not the only lowr source of air movment in the attic area.

If it traps heat inbetween the roof and the house insulation then a problem could arise with ice damming.

 

[kd460]

Ice dams are damn expensive. The first winter in my first house (ranch style) had them so bad I would get icicles from the roof edge to the ground. Fascia and plywood all rotted around the entire perimeter of the roof. Roof replaced that following spring. After I insulated (it had only 3 inches and lots of recessed lights, a losing combo for michigan winters), I needed to INCREASE the ventilation in the attic space. Whenever you insulate, you need to ventilate as well.

As mentioned earlier, covering vents is a bad idea. Ice will form on the underside of your roof and the moisture will promote growth of black mold, not to mention the damage to the wood and decrease efficiency of insulation. Gable vents can be eliminated if you install a continous ridge vent, but don't do it if thats your only means of venting. Eave (overhang) vents are highly reccomended as well.

Your time and money would be better spent at adding insulation on the cieling of your living spaces (or the floor of your attic-same thing), checking seals around doors, windows, any thing that passes thru the walls from inside to outside like faucettes, spickots, dryer vents, etc.

While it ain't glamorous, that clear heat shrink plastic for the windows works really well during the cold months. Insulated drapes/shades can be made from el cheapo wal-mart type bed spreads (the insulated kind), heck you might even find a nice purdy one with a pink flamingo pattern. KD