House air sealing/insulation project.
 

So my wife and I purchased a brick house built in 76. 2x4 exterior wallas with double pane windows. The attic has roughly r39. My plan is to move some insulation and air seal any holes or seams. I’ll also be installing the soffit vents the hold the insulation back.

While I’m up there I’ll be adding 4 ceiling fans. The house only one ceiling fan in the main living room. None of the bedrooms have any kind of ceiling light or anything. I will also be installing the whole house fan that I removed from my old house before I sold it. I plan to start this project by this weekend as I will have some free time this holiday season. I will be sure to post pictures and things as I go.

I’ve already done a few things to the house like repair/replace broken/missing door gaskets on some of the doors. I still have to do the basement door.

Edit. I will be adding a few more inches of blow in insulation to bring me up to about r50

went up last night and did some more investigating.. found lots of things that can be fixed


can light not properly covered
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/member...75f80c88f.jpeg

large hole covered by a piece of cardboard
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/member...201e049aa.jpeg


top plate with lots of air gaps and holes for wiring.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/member...82e51abd5.jpeg

the return air ducts are on interior walls about a foot down from the ceiling. im sure im sucking in a lot of attic air every time the hvac runs..

well here it is two years later.. Im finally getting around to working on this lol

lots of dirty insulation over the tops of walls and holes for wiring.

Im probably 10 hrs in and another 10 to go. I have a very low pitched roof so its very hard to get to the outside walls to seal the top of the wall and put up the rafter baffles.

https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=387

https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=386

https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=384

https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=380

also a month or two ago i redid the ceiling in our "sunroom"

it was originally a drop ceiling and i finished it with drywall. They insulated most of it but did put any in some places. The picture with the ceiling tile missing is what i saw when i took that tile down.. no plastic vapor barrier or insulation :eek:

https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=388

https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=389

https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=390

its amazing the difference air sealing alone has made. We had some MAJOR leaks in the bathrooms and the kitchen. I can tell a hope difference in the comfort of the home. Im really excited to see what the difference will be when i get the r50-r60 in the attic..

Kitchen soffit with the cardboard cover removed. can see some previous water damage but its been repaired. that cavity was open down to the basement.
https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=393

this was the insulation that was over the cardboard for the kitchen. you can see how dirty it is.
https://ecorenovator.org/forum/pictu...&pictureid=392

Sadly i didnt take a ton of pictures. this was really a crappy job i think i have 6 whole days in it at this point. probably 15 cans of spray foam and 2 4x8 sheets of rigid foam to cover the bathroom and kitchen soffits.

Keep up the great progress though!! I have one of these projects to do on a '70's stick built house in Maine. Are you doing this all by gut instincts and a flashlight, or are you using an IR camera to point out the obvious spots to go for??

just gut instinct at this point. Im trying to get my hands on a thermal camera before i put the insulation up there. i dont really want to buy one just for this lol

You can rent a decent thermal imaging camera at Home Depot, do it on a day where the temperature inside and outside is significant.

I bought one of the phone attachable types used for super cheap on ebay. You could buy a cheap one, use it, and eventually sell it to someone else and recover most/all of your money back.

What he said. You can find the basic ones all day long on fleabay for around 100 bucks and the pro ones for maybe double that. As always, patience and persistence pays. I grabbed a seek Android compact last year for around 80. Used it for a while, then sold it for 100.