Posted on 01/03/2019 8:24:17 AM PST by jerod
To a cat, a barrier of any kind on their territory is something to be defeated. Their whole brain is evolved around hunting within a particular area, anything that impedes that is something to be circumvented.
I studied Earth Homes years ago,
Just go camping for a week and
You get over it!
And skinny burglers!
And when snow melts from the roof leaving white rafter lines on your roof you know you need more insulation. (You know that I am sure. Others might not.)
Windows = heat loss. A good reason for drapes and cellular blinds.
The Forest Products also developed Structurally Insulated Panelling.
One of the best/most cost effective thing you can do is caulk around every window and door. Then go up in your attic and caulk the seams where the ceiling drywall meets the partition walls. Also, seal with foam around any electrical ceiling fixture box, ceiling fan, bathroom fan, etc. Lastly, take off the cover plates and foam or caulk around the exterior wall electrical outlets. All of these small seemingly insignificant air leaks add up to the equivalent of leaving a window open a 2” all winter. Cumulatively these little things make a big difference.
Caulk is cheap $2.39/tube when you buy a box.
When you have icicles/ice dams you have heat loss. Unless you have skylights(another bad idea).
Insulating panels have improved greatly because the type of close cell foam used now is denser with a higher R value. They used to only be used in timber frame houses. Now they are used in other places too. However, everything needs to be designed around 4’ multiples. They are produced in 4x8, 4x10, 4x12 panels.
Even the 2” thick panels you can buy at any lumber yard or home center are a good alternative to spray foam when you have limited thickness to insulate. I used them to insulate a couple closets that were on exterior walls. The closets were always cold in the winter. I cut the foam to fit in the stud cavities and then spray foamed around the edges. Now the closets stay nice and warm.
I have been astonished to see my almost ninety year old father holding the door open, asking his Burmese cat if it wants to come in, and then waiting as the damn critter decides what it wants to do. Back in the day, I and my three siblings would have been at risk of at least quite a chewing out if we had been so fickle and slow to decide, but that cat gets away with that and more.
Spray foam is the way to go.
My house has spray foam in the exterior walls as well as the wall separating the garage from the rest of the house. In the attic we have 30” of blown in insulation over the living areas.
The windows that face East, South, and West have a subtle window tint that has a high UV rejection.
We can turn the heat or A/C off and it would take almost a week before we feel a difference in the temp inside the house.
Do you have an air to air heat exchanger?
IF I ever built another home I would spray foam. When I built my first house in 1989 it was too expensive. My last two houses were built in 1972. I have been trying to tighten the present house since I bought it 5 years ago.
The house I am in now was a custom built house for a Dr(MD) back in 1972. It has Pella windows and sliding glass doors. I rebuilt one of the sliders. A new one was $3K installed. I have replaced all of the rest of the exterior doors. When I moved in there was 6” of fiberglass insulation in the attic. There were also squirrels living up there and in the basement. I blew in a foot of bonded cellulose on top of the fiberglass. I also replaced all the soffits and fascia with PVC boards and added proper vent in the eaves.
I have replaced all the exterior wood trim around the windows with PVC on the first floor and the ends of the house. I still need to replace the trim on the second floor front and back windows. They were in better shape because the overhangs protect them more.
Whenever I pull back insulation in the basement ceiling under the first floor empty acorns fall out. The door at the bottom of the bulkhead had a 1” space under it between the concrete floor. This was the first door I replaced.
I have wrapped all of the hot water pipes with the foam insulation. We have hot water base board heat. I live in NH, so AC is not something we concern ourselves about too much. A window unit in your bedroom in July is really all you need.
There is not much else I could do to insulate this house without replacing all the windows. That is too expensive for the return on investment. All the windows work. Pella made a good window in 1972.
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