Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - Best approach to insulating 100 year old basement/crawl space?
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whf4
10-18-05, 09:47 PM
Hi,
I searched archives, etc, and was still unsure what to do.... forgive me if this has been asked and answered over and over again, and I didn;t find it...
100 year old southern MI house with approximately 18 in thick cobblestone foundation walls. A 15x15 full height basement, and the rest of the house a 5 foot crawl space, dirt floor, no moisture barriers or insulation anywhere. The house has vinyl siding and there seems to be blueboard under some of it-- out heating bills aren't terrible, so I know there's some insulation in there somewhere. The first-story floors are hideous cold. Where there is wall-to-wall carpeting it ain;t so bad on the feet, but the kitchen is awful. The crawl space is really cold (and wet)-- enough that the uninsulated forced-air heating vents blow cold air into parts of the house.
The threads I read argued about insulating the floor versus insulating the walls of the basement. I can't really see effectively insulating the floors because there is such a crazy mess of old disconnected knob-and-tube, old pipes, and so on running through the joists, except in the more recent add-on kitchen. I guess I could spray a vapor barrier from underneath and blow in insulation between the joists. I can't see doing the basement walls because they all have 100 year old mortar which has gotten lots of moisture damage and needs repointing- a big project which would have to come before any insulation. That project is awaiting gutters (yes, I bought a house without gutters, I know that was dumb)
The best option may be insulating the exterior of the foundation walls and also thus giving them some moisture protection-- but excavating all the exterior walls down 3-5 feet sounds pretty darn expensive as well, plus I lose all the shrubs.
Am I missing some good option here?
thanks in advance
-Cold feet in MI
I searched archives, etc, and was still unsure what to do.... forgive me if this has been asked and answered over and over again, and I didn;t find it...
100 year old southern MI house with approximately 18 in thick cobblestone foundation walls. A 15x15 full height basement, and the rest of the house a 5 foot crawl space, dirt floor, no moisture barriers or insulation anywhere. The house has vinyl siding and there seems to be blueboard under some of it-- out heating bills aren't terrible, so I know there's some insulation in there somewhere. The first-story floors are hideous cold. Where there is wall-to-wall carpeting it ain;t so bad on the feet, but the kitchen is awful. The crawl space is really cold (and wet)-- enough that the uninsulated forced-air heating vents blow cold air into parts of the house.
The threads I read argued about insulating the floor versus insulating the walls of the basement. I can't really see effectively insulating the floors because there is such a crazy mess of old disconnected knob-and-tube, old pipes, and so on running through the joists, except in the more recent add-on kitchen. I guess I could spray a vapor barrier from underneath and blow in insulation between the joists. I can't see doing the basement walls because they all have 100 year old mortar which has gotten lots of moisture damage and needs repointing- a big project which would have to come before any insulation. That project is awaiting gutters (yes, I bought a house without gutters, I know that was dumb)
The best option may be insulating the exterior of the foundation walls and also thus giving them some moisture protection-- but excavating all the exterior walls down 3-5 feet sounds pretty darn expensive as well, plus I lose all the shrubs.
Am I missing some good option here?
thanks in advance
-Cold feet in MI