My 1950s era house has mostly pocket doors in it. Some are rarely
used; some, never. I looked at these and figured that lots of
heat/cool air being blown into living spaces is in fact, escaping
through these 2" openings. I got some white colored tape, last year
and covered the openings. Barely noticeable, but the tape eventually
gets unsticky and comes off. Looking for Version 2, I am considering
fitting some 2" X 1/4" removable trim which I could paint, fit on the
end of the door and which would cover most of the hole. Ideally some
sort of spring clip could be fitted top and bottom so that I could
snap it on the door, and easily remove it when the door was used.
Alternatively, I could screw it to the door, which would make it less
"portable".
Now, am I tilting at windmills? Is there a better method? Anyone
know of some clips that might work?
TIA
Roy

when you say that air is escaping through the slots, to where would it be
escaping?

bill


"Roy Starrin" wrote in message
...
My 1950s era house has mostly pocket doors in it. Some are rarely
used; some, never. I looked at these and figured that lots of
heat/cool air being blown into living spaces is in fact, escaping
through these 2" openings. I got some white colored tape, last year
and covered the openings. Barely noticeable, but the tape eventually
gets unsticky and comes off. Looking for Version 2, I am considering
fitting some 2" X 1/4" removable trim which I could paint, fit on the
end of the door and which would cover most of the hole. Ideally some
sort of spring clip could be fitted top and bottom so that I could
snap it on the door, and easily remove it when the door was used.
Alternatively, I could screw it to the door, which would make it less
"portable".
Now, am I tilting at windmills? Is there a better method? Anyone
know of some clips that might work?
TIA
Roy

when you say that air is escaping through the slots, to where would it be
escaping?

My 1950s era house has mostly pocket doors in it. Some are rarely
used; some, never. I looked at these and figured that lots of
heat/cool air being blown into living spaces is in fact, escaping
through these 2" openings. I got some white colored tape, last year

As a guess, into unused parts of the house.
Possibly, in a balloon-framed house,
up the wall-cavity into the attic and/or
down into the basement.

if the latter:
Are these doors and the places they lead to closed
pretty much for the season? If so, then I'd
open the doors all the way, cut foam insulation to fit
the openings, cover that with panelling, and stuff the
result into the openings. If the looks of that bother
you, leave the doors shut, and put foam inserts in
from the unoccupied side.


if the former:
Figure out how to dismount the doors (which will
probably involve taking the trim apart) and seal
the holes in the floor, ceiling, and back of the
cavity.

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:13:57 -0500, Goedjn wrote:
when you say that air is escaping through the slots, to where would it be
escaping?

My 1950s era house has mostly pocket doors in it. Some are rarely
used; some, never. I looked at these and figured that lots of
heat/cool air being blown into living spaces is in fact, escaping
through these 2" openings. I got some white colored tape, last year

As a guess, into unused parts of the house.
Possibly, in a balloon-framed house,
up the wall-cavity into the attic and/or
down into the basement.

if the latter:
Are these doors and the places they lead to closed
pretty much for the season? If so, then I'd
open the doors all the way, cut foam insulation to fit
the openings, cover that with panelling, and stuff the
result into the openings. If the looks of that bother
you, leave the doors shut, and put foam inserts in
from the unoccupied side.


if the former:
Figure out how to dismount the doors (which will
probably involve taking the trim apart) and seal
the holes in the floor, ceiling, and back of the
cavity.
Lets see if I can add some clarification.
First, I had no idea what a balloon framed house is, but after a quick
google, it looks to me like it is what I would call conventional
framing. That I have.
All doors are on interior walls and are normally open (some
permanently). Most used is the one on the baster bath. The wife and
I are alone in the house, so we leave the other doors open most of the
time. Each door is in a 2" X 82" slot, but each door is only 1 1/2'
wide. To me that leaves a path for air to move into the slot and then
up into the attic, or down into the crawl. While there is insulation
above and below, certainly these slots could be an a path of least
resistance for air to flow. Maybe I need to get some insense sticks
and do a few smoke tests.
The doors do not disappear into the walls, but are (with a gap on each
side) pretty much flush with the trim on the frame. So , the concept
of a portable piece of trim I could just slip into place over the door
end appeared to me to be the best solution. To the observer, it
would appear to be a piece of raised trim down the center of the
frame.
Any thoughts now, guys. Let me say I uninstalled one of these doors,
one time, and I'll never do that again. Plus there is no way to get
inside the slot without tearing down the wall.
Maybe a big roll of the white paper tape is/was the best solution.

You likely do not have any problem at all, and are needlessly worried.
Unless you are pretty sure you can feel a draft down to the basement or
attic, then you probably don't.

On an interior wall, the floor should do a good job keeping your
conditioned interior air from going down to the basement. The floor
most likely continues right under the interior walls. Same goes for the
ceiling (the 2x4 cap on the wall framing would keep most air from
getting up to the attic (or the floor above). And the wall studs would
keep air from moving horizontally for any distance beyond the end of
the door pocket.

If you are still worried though, convince yourself using your smoke
trick. Maybe one or two of your doors has a specific problem (an old
plumbing hole drilled in the floor that could be plugged, etc.), but
most will probably be fine as they are.

-Kevin


A baloon frame, isn't conventional. Or, well, it is not these days,
around here.

A "conventional" frame house is built one floor at a time, sort of. It
goes like this: First a floor is built. then 2x4s are nailed flat
horizontally on the floor where the walls will be. Then 2x4s (about 8
ft tall) are nailed vertically, and another 2x4 nailed horizontally
across the tops of all them. Then a floor is built on top of this. Then
build walls for the next floor, and another floor on top of that, and
so on. (Builders do it in a slightly different order, but to the same
effect).

In a baloon frame house, the exterior walls are built straight up two
or three stories high, using 2x4s that are 20ft tall or more. Then the
upper floors are sort of suspended in between these walls.

The difference is, with no insulation (and no "blocking" either), a
balloon frame house will have a continuous wall cavity the entire
height of the house, maybe even connecting the basement directly to the
attic. In a conventional house, each cavity is interrupted by the
floors and horizontal 2x4s at each floor. Hence, no possible air
connection from one floor to the next.