the not entirely snug house

[lauradi7dw]

After an energy audit several years ago, we decided to have insulation blown into our walls. We learned that the insulation-blowing companies wouldn't work with anyone who had knob and tube wiring. We had all of the wires in the house checked, many replace, to the tune of many thousands of dollars. The blowing guys showed up, cut a few exploratory holes, said we already had wall insulation, and left. But the interior walls are still transmitting the outside temp a lot - cold to the touch today (even though it is now above freezing), hot in the summer. I don't know what to do about it, but it is annoying.

Comments

[nosrednayduj]

Your energy audit people should have been able to tell where you had blown insulation. Unfortunately, it slumps after a number of years and apparently can't be fixed. Our energy audit people showed us an IR picture of our walls, with where the insulation was and where it had slumped. Seems stupid that it can't be fixed, can't they just blow some more in on the top?

But at least you won't be burned to death by knob and tube wiring catching fire...

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I heard from someone else that the IR picture should only be done in the winter, when there is a big differential in the inside/outside temp. Ours was in the summer. We also get leakage around our window frames, but supposedly window replacement isn't the best investment.

The electrician was happy to take our money, but said that he thought the fire risk was very low, and had never heard of a case of a housefire that could be definitely shown to be caused by knob and tube. There were a bunch of house fires in Somerville in the late 1970s, I think, that were widely believed to be caused by old wiring, but I don't know for sure.

[nosrednayduj]

We were underwhelmed when we got our old storms-over-windows replaced; it was not tighter. But we got the wood frame windows cuz they looked nicer. Vinyl is way tighter. Oh well. At least our kids didn't get lead poisoning (which is what caused us to do the window replacement in the first place)