Wonder if I'll have to relearn the stove this year...

[joefrompa]

House is being re-sided. Original siding was asbestos shingles nailed into furring strips that were attached to sheetrock that was on stud.

No actual air barrier except the sheetrock, and it had TONS of holes in it throughout the entire house.

Now I'm re-siding with 3/8" foam put over the sheetrock and tyvek on top of that, taped and caulked seams and such.

I'm wondering if the house is gonna be much more resistant to feeding air into the stove now, and wonder if I'll have to re-learn the sensitivity of the stove.

I'm VERY excited to have this done as I'm eliminating some huge leaks + adding about ~1.5-2.0 r-value to the entire exterior siding of the house + making it alot tighter overall. Really hoping to see some significant gains in heat retention come winter. I'm actually gonna let my wife keep the thermostat at ~63-65 and use the stove to hold the house there or raise it up a few degrees higher, so it better hold the heat in now!

(last year was 55 degrees at night and no higher than 60 during most days, 63 if the stove was off altogether - used 150 gallons total oil).

Joe

 

[blujacket]

How much attic insulation do you have? That is where you have the most heat loss. Not saying walls are unimportant. I put r-30 rolls on top of 5" of cellulose 2 years ago. Made a huge difference.

 

[joefrompa]

roughly r-38 attic insulation. blown in cellulose worth ~r-19 then a roll of r-19 on top of the rafters running perpendicular.

 

[joefrompa]

And, by the way, I'm not so much worried about the difference in heat retention in terms of re-learning the stove.

I think the house is going to be MUCH tighter - so the stove may not draft as well due to greater resistance on the intake side.

 

[PapaDave]

That may be an issue, but even if not, you'll be re-learning how much wood to put in and when, if the house will be retaining the heat better.
Hopefully, fewer fires and less wood consumed. :coolsmile:

 

[joefrompa]

My big, big desire is heat retention in the other rooms of the house. My experience, partly layout related, is that I can get my ~400 square foot living area up to 85 degrees no problem....then the rest of the house sits around 60. That's with fans, mind you.

I always thought it was because the rest of the house just lost heat faster than it would regain the little that flowed to it.

Hopefully, this year, that will no longer be the trend.

 

[CTYank]

Are you serious about sheetrock for exterior siding? Please say "no." Gotta wonder how anyone got that by a building inspector.

Better in soooooo many ways, you'd have removed the sheetrock, insulated the cavity (way beyond 3/8"), and gone for ply/particle-board siding. Sorry 'bout that.

Unless you have some sort of chimney-effect working, you will notice NO difference in supplying makeup air to the stove. Guaranteed you have many, many little leaks all over the place. Very difficult to really seal building envelope tightly, BUT sealing as possible is what enables insulation to work for you.

Enjoy, and hopefully you'll use less fuel, and give the stove an easier time of it.

 

[joefrompa]

from inside out, I have studs with cavities filled with ~r-11 spun fiberglass insulation.

Then on top of that is a sheathing material that, I was told by my siding guys, is a specially coated sheetrock used back in the early 70s. It looked/felt/acted like sheetrock when I was messing with it. I'm assuming the sheetrock acted/acts as a thermal transference barrier.

On top of THAT was furring strips and asbestos shingles - which was awesome at NOT providing any sort of air sealing while punching holes through the sheetrock barrier.

Now the sheetrock is covered in foam and then tyvek'd

 

[begreen]

Haven't heard of this process. Is this the product?

http://www.usg.com/sheetrock-gypsum-sheathing-panels.html

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Joe, we are in about the same boat here. We added 14" of insulation up top and up to 4" of insulation all around and tyvek plus new doors and windows. I expect a change somewhat but we also added a room so I'm sort of the opinion it will be about the same this year as last. The one exception and unknown is that I may have to put in an OAK. Time will tell on that.

 

[begreen]

It's great that you folks are tightening up your homes. You will notice a difference, especially on windy days.

Dennis, do you have A/C? Have you noticed any difference there?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yes we do and the house stays about the same or perhaps just a tad cooler. That is a good sign.

Wow. I just came back inside after doing a little work outdoors. The temperature is not high but the dewpoint is almost as high as the temperature. Feels just about like a sauna and I worked up a sweat just walking from the house to the barn. Yuck...

 

[laynes69]

We went from 3" of cellulose to 14" with a complete airsealing of our attic in late winter, early spring this year. I noticed a difference then, but haven't got to see how it will be come winter. Its made a 100% difference for summer, but will be curious when its in the single digits.

 

[begreen]

It's one of the best investments you can make. Pays back from day one for the life of the house, year round.

 

[joefrompa]

That looks like the type of sheetrock on my house, albeit from ~30 years ago.

I have a first floor attic that runs over my main living space (400 square feet) and garage. It's currently got r-19 in it. I think I might add another layer of r-19 perpendicular. It's also up against one of the bedrooms and I'm presuming there is insulation in those walls (it's sealed off). However, that bedroom gets freezing cold or boiling hot compared to the rest of the house. I haven't priced it out, but those sealed walls seem like a perfect candidate (to me) for something like 2" of thick foam board screwed into them and then taping the seams (with duct tape if need be for an air barrier) to create a fresh air barrier from the attic air.

 

[begreen]

Duct tape will be dust tape in a few years, especially in heat. It would be better to caulk the seams with a compatible, flexible caulk.