On Nov 3, 7:57*am, "Robert Green" wrote:
I have an old 1941 brick Cape Cod house that has never been insulated
properly. *I've replaced the incredibly drafty multi-pane lead sash weight
windows with double-paned Andersens and have been generally pleased with the
results, energy $ wise.

But now I want to figure out how best to plug up the incredibly drafty
spots. *We pulled down the basement paneling to redo the electrical and
found the beginnings of what looked like one of the old East-to-West Berlin
tunnels and old termite damage. *We also found lots of places where the
joists rest on the cinderblocks where bugs have been getting in. *We figured
that out by the number of spider balls and webs surrounding areas where it
looks like there's just crushed stone filling the gaps above the
cinderblocks.

So, two questions. *When there aren't any tell-tale signs like spider webs,
how do you determine where the leaks are?

Second, is the blown-in insulation that I've read about for old brick homes
with plaster and lathe walls worth the effort? *How disruptive is it? *Will
insulation leak down the walls and into the basement (don't laugh - house
was built during the WWII paper shortage so there's no building paper
between floors and as vibration and age cause the plaster to disintegrate,
it all falls through the cracks in the flooring and into the basement as a
very gritty dirt that covers everything.

We first discovered this pulling ceiling tiles down. *There was several
pounds of the stuff on top of every tile! *Anyway, I don't want to shove
anything in the walls that's going to make that problem worse. *It's about
as hard to retrofit building paper as it is to add 1/4" to the stud you cut
too short, if you get my drift.

Thanks!

--
Bobby G.

Get someone to do Blower Door Test, a pro uses a fan in a special
enclosure that he puts in a door, there are gauges montoring airflow
and its hooked to a computer. He will tell you how many air exchanges
you have per hour, how many you should have and go through the house
with a smoke stick pinpointing the leaks. It helped me alot. It should
be around 300$