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Q. I bought a house three years ago. I am finding it almost impossible to keep it warm in the coldest months of the winter. Upon investigation I have found out there is no insulation in the walls. The house was built in 1943. It is a brick house with onl y three quarter inch oak strips between the wall and the brick. The walls are plaster. The heat in the bedroom is base board and in the other rooms is radiator heat. The upstairs bedrooms have no heat at all. Neither does the basement. The floors on the main level are extremely cold. My questions are what is the best way to insulate this house and will it be necessary to tear out all of the plaster walls or is there an easier way to do it? Also, can I put insulation in the rafters of the basement ceili ng to warm up the floors without causing any damage to the floors? I know I will have to upgrade the heating system sometime in the future, but need to insulate the house first. I would appreciate any help you can give me.
A. It’s not going to be easy. The way to go about making this house more wintertime comfortable is quite frankly a question of how much money you have to throw at the problem. A 63 year old house, no matter how well basically built, suffers from all sor ts of functional obsolescence. Starting from the least expensive approach to doing a complete make over requires a rational analysis and a step by step progression.
If you have a fireplace then I’d consider a wood stove insert for starters. They are work to maintain and the old joke that wood heats you twice, once while you carry it in and again while it burns, will become real and over time not so funny. A pellet stove can be vented out a side wall so that’s an option. Your hot water heating system is either oil or gas fired and I’ll bet that’s not cheap so any auxiliary heat source not using gas, oil or electricity will relieve that cost somewhat.
You can pipe baseboard heat to the upper bedrooms from your existing system. I’d suggest you get a plumber to help you do that.
If you can get to the attic space then add or upgrade any insulation there. It’s a place in older homes that gets forgotten. When the wind’s not blowing you lose about 40 percent of your heat straight up. If the upper level has a finished surface on the underside of the roof or ceiling joists with no hatch or access consider cutting one in so you can get in there. Also ensure that the attic void space has adequate ventilation.
Take a hard look at the windows and doors. Old single pane windows are basically holes in the wall. Even if you can only afford to replace them one at a time with modern double glazed vinyl clad replacement windows, do it. Double check the doors and un less they are works of art think about replacing them with metal or fiberglass, insulation filled, prehung exterior doors with tight weatherstripping and sills.
Your idea of insulating between the floor joists from the basement is a good idea and doesn’t cost much. Use unfaced (no paper or foil backing) fiberglass batts that friction fit between the joists and hold them in place with wire inserts at about eight een inch intervals. Push the insulation up to touch the subfloor and use six inch thick insulation at the minimum.
Now comes the hardest part-- the outside walls. If the walls are as you say, masonry and furring strips with the wall surface only, then the only way to really do the job is to stud up a wall on the inside of the existing wall. You’ll lose four inches of floor space per room. Use the stud space to rewire the wall because in 1943 they didn’t put nearly enough electrical outlets around. They didn’t know and they didn’t have building code enforcement. Then insulate the wall like it was a new house, hang and finish drywall, trim windows and doors and paint. If you're going to this yourself do it one room at a time and while you're working have a floor fan in a window blowing out and windows on the opposite wall open for dust control. I told you it wasn’ t going to be easy.