smoke tested my house looking for drafts. Found lots...

strider3700 · 09-29-11, 02:18 PM

It's getting cooler here so I was planning on putting away my ghetto whole house fan that I use for cooling.

Before doing that I decided to use it to see if it could create some negative pressure for smoke testing. It worked well enough.

I used a smoke testing pen which basically looks like one of those eraser pens but instead of eraser it had a really thick candle wick in the middle. just light it, let it burn for 10-15 seconds then blow it out. Packaging says it's good for 30 minutes and I think I may have gotten a little more then that out of it. $7 and it came with two wick things.

Anyways Here's some pictures of areas I found to be leaking.

In a different thread I discussed fixing the warped door frame and having cut the spray foam back away from it with a thin knife. Sure enough the air comes right through there now. the rest of the door that didn't get the foam cut was fine other then right in the corners where I'm still fighting the weather stripping trying for a perfect seal. Some caulking from the foam to the frame is probably the easiest fix to this.

My house has good windows that were poorly installed. The bad ones just have fiberglass insulation jammed in the large gap and then trim nailed on. They leak like this one does. The ones I've fixed by pulling the trim and the fiberglass and then spray foaming are far far better. 5 down 9 to go...

Everyone says framing to foundation can be a bad place. They are right. Caulking will be the quick solution but long term I want to cover the foundation with foam and carry it right to the roof before framing over the area. I did that on half of this wall when building the cold room and it's made a difference that you can feel.

Add in plumbing to the outside and it's even worse.

I've previously mentioned my pass through for wires from my antenna's. I thought it was pretty good. The gap around this wire was 1/16" on half of the hole. The air was coming in so fast you can't even see the smoke. Caulking would work but since I change the wiring so often I'll fill it with loose foam and then tape it up good.

This surprised me. I've previously added foam gaskets to all of the plugs and switches on the outside walls but I didn't realize that if nothing is plugged into the outlet then the air easily moves through it. We have those plastic baby plugs in most but it will very shortly be all.

This one makes me feel dumb. There is a very obvious downdraft coming from the fireplace that we don't use. the damper is closed and I can't see light but it's far from sealed. I'll have to look around to see what I can find to close this properly. I've never noticed that it felt cold around the fireplace but the downstairs woodstove does a good job heating the brick of the entire thing so it was probably just cancelling out upstairs.

I've previously mentioned the gap at the back between the windows when they are partially open. This shows just how fast the air comes through there. It's like having a 1/8" gap the whole height of the window. the foam backing rod worked great closing it up.

Surprisingly all of the roof lights looked good, I had previously worked in the attic so that appears to have worked.

09-29-11, 02:18 PM	#1
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	smoke tested my house looking for drafts. Found lots... It's getting cooler here so I was planning on putting away my ghetto whole house fan that I use for cooling. Before doing that I decided to use it to see if it could create some negative pressure for smoke testing. It worked well enough. I used a smoke testing pen which basically looks like one of those eraser pens but instead of eraser it had a really thick candle wick in the middle. just light it, let it burn for 10-15 seconds then blow it out. Packaging says it's good for 30 minutes and I think I may have gotten a little more then that out of it. $7 and it came with two wick things. Anyways Here's some pictures of areas I found to be leaking. In a different thread I discussed fixing the warped door frame and having cut the spray foam back away from it with a thin knife. Sure enough the air comes right through there now. the rest of the door that didn't get the foam cut was fine other then right in the corners where I'm still fighting the weather stripping trying for a perfect seal. Some caulking from the foam to the frame is probably the easiest fix to this. My house has good windows that were poorly installed. The bad ones just have fiberglass insulation jammed in the large gap and then trim nailed on. They leak like this one does. The ones I've fixed by pulling the trim and the fiberglass and then spray foaming are far far better. 5 down 9 to go... Everyone says framing to foundation can be a bad place. They are right. Caulking will be the quick solution but long term I want to cover the foundation with foam and carry it right to the roof before framing over the area. I did that on half of this wall when building the cold room and it's made a difference that you can feel. Add in plumbing to the outside and it's even worse. I've previously mentioned my pass through for wires from my antenna's. I thought it was pretty good. The gap around this wire was 1/16" on half of the hole. The air was coming in so fast you can't even see the smoke. Caulking would work but since I change the wiring so often I'll fill it with loose foam and then tape it up good. This surprised me. I've previously added foam gaskets to all of the plugs and switches on the outside walls but I didn't realize that if nothing is plugged into the outlet then the air easily moves through it. We have those plastic baby plugs in most but it will very shortly be all. This one makes me feel dumb. There is a very obvious downdraft coming from the fireplace that we don't use. the damper is closed and I can't see light but it's far from sealed. I'll have to look around to see what I can find to close this properly. I've never noticed that it felt cold around the fireplace but the downstairs woodstove does a good job heating the brick of the entire thing so it was probably just cancelling out upstairs. I've previously mentioned the gap at the back between the windows when they are partially open. This shows just how fast the air comes through there. It's like having a 1/8" gap the whole height of the window. the foam backing rod worked great closing it up. Surprisingly all of the roof lights looked good, I had previously worked in the attic so that appears to have worked.