Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - Insulation around sill plate(?) and concrete block??

Hello everyone. I went downstairs to the basement yesterday and it was about 15 degrees outside. This one part of the basement was very cold. Our house was built in 1942. So I started feeling for drafts and found some. They are coming from between the sill plate, hope that is right, and the face plate and also from between the sill and concrete block. These drafts I found out is why my kitchen floor is so cold. Our house had no insulation in it when we bought it. I have insulated the walls and attic since.
What can I do to fix this?? Caulking(lots of it) and fiberglass? W/ or w/o paper??
Thanks

Hi diyplank, You have discovered one of the major sources of heat loss in a home, especially older ones where the wood has dried and seams have opened up.

You have a couple of options, 1)custom fit pieces of rigid foam and seal around them with can foam (great stuff) or caulking. 2) Lots of caulking followed with the fiberglass insulation, paper on your side.

The rigid foam only gets part of the leaks, so you will have to caulk or foam the sill plate and any seams below the rigid. It's a tedious process, but well worth the effort.

The next step is to insulate the concrete walls, from top down to one foot below grade. A concrete or block wall is about as good as a single pane of glass for insulation.

There's more. The same leaks you are feeling downstairs are occurring through out your house. Many you don't feel because the air is leaking out. Now you may have gotten some of these when you insulated, but all electrical boxes, windows, doors, and floor to wall gaps are usually sources of air leaks. Chimneys, electrical wires and plumbing pipes and vents as well.

That should keep you bust for a while, and make a real difference in your comfort and costs.

HH
Bud

I knew I have had to do something about it for a while. Our money is tight due to daycare and this isn't an expensive process. I would rather use the fiberglass. I have some left from my bathroom remodel.

My windows I put plastic on them. They are the old sash and weight windows. They are horrible. A wind storm last weekend blew off plastic on 2 windows. That is how much air is leaking in/out on them.

I have a question about the fiberglass. Do I just cut the fiberglass to fit from the bottom of the floor to the top of the block and staple it to the wood? If I do that, it compresses the fiberglass. Should I rip some 2x4's and use them as studs? Also the sill plate does not cover the holes of the cinder block, I know if I put fiberglass up that will cover it but should I mix up some mortar and fill those holes?

There were some old fiberglass up but I tore a lot of it down b/c I was rewiring the house about 2 yrs ago. All I have to say is thank god fuel oil is down. I just pd 280 bucks for 125 gal. Back in June I got 125 gal and it cost me 495. Thanks for the info.

Well, that project is done. The kitchen floor is still cold though. My basement is about 60 degrees, the walls aren't insulated, but the kitchen floor is about 50 if not colder. What can I do? I have blow in cellulose in the walls, but under the kitchen window was missed. There were some foreseen problems so we decided not to tackle insulating that area below the window. So would that be causing such a cold floor? Could I throw up some insulation in the basement between the joists to fix it?? Thanks

Did you foam everything before putting in the fiberglass? Also do you actually heat your basement?

Yeah, I sealed the cracks between the block and sill plate, etc. then fiberglassed over. There are two heat vents in the basement and I keep one open and the other closed. We aren't down there more than 8-12 hrs a week. We have toys down there that our sons ride. Its just the fact of trying to get our first floor floors from being so cold. It was amazing at all the air getting in from the cracks. I could actually look outside by looking between the sill and block in one area. If you blow out your mouth, that is how much air was getting in. I spent 8.98 per 15 ft roll of R13 at lowes last weekend. I only had to buy 2 rolls and 4 tubes of caulking. Thanks

An added thought for your cold kitchen floor. I deal a lot with elderly folks who need about ten extra degrees to be comfortable. So we try to create a warm spot for them. In one case, we panned the floor joists and directed an air duct into two cavities. Since it was an air duct blowing into the basement anyway, no extra costs. The effect was a warm floor right where she liked to sit. Yours would be a larger area, but if one of those vents in the basement is close by, you could give this a try very easily. If you like the results, you can improvise some extra thermal mass and insulate the area so it holds the heat longer.

Bud
"Thinking outside the box"