Insulate Old House Floors

Insulation on this old house.

Insulate old house floors.

The answer to making an old house inhabitable is insulation. If you are insulating a crawl space be sure that entry points are appropriately covered to keep rodents out how to insulate walls in an old house. An uninsulated floor allows heat to escape making the house less energy efficient. In the quest to make our homes warmer and more efficient floor insulation is often overlooked.

If you want to insulate a floor assembly by leaving the joist bays empty and installing rigid foam on the underside of the joists here are a few things to keep in mind. Follow this old house online. According to the 2012 irc the minimum r value for floor assemblies is r 13 in zones 1 and 2 r 19 in zones 3 and 4 r 30 in zones 5 and 6 and r 38 in zones 7 and 9. Since warm air has a tendency to rise and cool air to fall insulating the attic is the place to start.

This answer will vary from old house to old house. If you have 2 inches of insulation your floor has an r value of 6 4. Many homeowners have made the. Even if you bought the house with insulation already installed into it it s best to double check.

By insulating an old house we preserve its beauty and historical significance as well as its energy costs. For extra protection add batt insulation to floor joists. The insulation must meet doe standards. Knowing how to insulate walls in an old house may not be as important as knowing whether to insulate them.

Most homes require at least r. If the attic is unfinished the insulation should be installed on the floor. People fall in love with the character rich architecture of these homes but they don t want the crazy heating and cooling bills that come along with that character. Multiply the total inches of insulation by 3 2 to estimate the existing r value of your floor.

Original floors represent a precious link with the past their wonderful undulations. Unfortunately in old homes this is a common place for heat to escape so it s worth thinking about how insulation can make them more thermally efficient hold heat for longer and protect your home from damp. The insulation materials used in older houses are not as effective in keeping heat in as the new ones. As mentioned most heat loss is typically through the roof.

I get asked a lot about insulating old houses especially in the wintertime. A pier and beam home built on top of sturdy supports typically has an open crawl space between the floor of the house and the earth.