old brick houses, and below zero temps

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Carrieann

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We are in an extreme cold snap up here. The temps are in the 20s BELOW zero. Without the wind chill factor!!!

I live in an 1800s old brick house. We heat with a wood stove. The wood stove is in our living room. Usually the living room is about 80 degrees. This week it is running about 52!! My house is FREEZING!!!

When we were looking at the house we inquired about if the outside walls were insulated, we were told they were.

ha ha ha, NO way are they insulated at all!!! If you put your hand on an outside wall you can feel the cold air from outside pouring in. And to make matters worst, the windows are original or at least close to original.

This spring we will be looking into insulating the outside walls, but they are original walls, plaster. I don't know if we are going to be able to afford it. The walls may need to be torn down and replaced. And this is a big house.


I am FREEZING!!!!!!
 
I can feel for you. Our first house was built in the late 1800's. The construction was terrible. The 2x4's in the walls went from the basement to the peak (2 story house) and no insulation. Skinny single pane windows. When the wind blew so did my curtains! yikes!

we put plastic on every window and shut off every room we didn't use. had an electric blanket and wore lots of clothes. The heater was fuel oil - yuk!

The house was bulldozed a month ago. I would have loved to have been the driver. But when we were first married it was all we could afford.

Our house now has 2X6 constructed walls with lots of insulation and Anderson windows. We have a geo thermal heat pump and my house is a nice 72f 24x7.



How about an Eden pure space heater?
 
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A couple of winters ago, and ice storm caused us to be 5 days without electricity. We were blessed that we had gas logs downstairs in the den, and we had a gas water heater. The temp in the house stayed at 50 F. We bundled up in lots of clothes, slept under lots of quilts and blankets, and went out for our meals.

We had a generator, but had to use it at the greenhouse.

Sending you WARM wishes!
 
I feel for ya! I am very cold natured so I have difficulty tolerating the winter.

You might try keeping boiling water on. It increases the humitity level which helps a little. The trick, however, it making sure that you don't forget it and it boils dry!!!!
 
You may qualify for a no interest loan to insulate and replace windows. They drill holes in the outside and fill with insulating foam stuff. My house is old too but I did get the no interest 20 year loan to replace the windows and it made a big difference. I used to use the plastic sheeting where you tape it and then blast it with a hairdryer to tighten it. That worked pretty well until my cat clawed holes in the plastic, bless his heart. My house is small enough to keep fairly warm but I believe the insulation has all decomposed by now. Its probably just full of squirrel nests. Maybe thats whats keeping it kind of warm.
Good luck and try the plastic if you don't have a cat.
 
For now, a quick fix is covering your drafty windows with heavy material. It doesn't have to be "curtains" even, if you don't sew or don't want to invest in them. Just find some affordable, heavy fabric and drape it over your curtain rods. Figure about 2 1/2 x the width of your window will give you great coverage. I have even used fabric on the north wall of my bedroom - a very chilly room. I measured the width and height of the wall, bought enough fabric to create panels that all together measured 2 x the width and 3" longer than the height. I laid a piece of wood that spans the wall 3" down from the edge. Folded the fabric over and stapled the fabric to the wood. Then I wedged the wood up at the top of the wall under the ceiling. Perhaps it was because of this 'workout' but I thought my room felt warmer immediately.

I've done the plastic thing too - it really does make a difference. Good luck! Hope you like hot coco - that's one way of keeping warm!
Leah
 
leah said:
For now, a quick fix is covering your drafty windows with heavy material. It doesn't have to be "curtains" even, if you don't sew or don't want to invest in them. Just find some affordable, heavy fabric and drape it over your curtain rods. Figure about 2 1/2 x the width of your window will give you great coverage. I have even used fabric on the north wall of my bedroom - a very chilly room. I measured the width and height of the wall, bought enough fabric to create panels that all together measured 2 x the width and 3" longer than the height. I laid a piece of wood that spans the wall 3" down from the edge. Folded the fabric over and stapled the fabric to the wood. Then I wedged the wood up at the top of the wall under the ceiling. Perhaps it was because of this 'workout' but I thought my room felt warmer immediately.

I've done the plastic thing too - it really does make a difference. Good luck! Hope you like hot coco - that's one way of keeping warm!
Leah
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smart lady!

you know that is how they insulated Castles long ago - tapestries.
 
Yes, USE heavy fabric draped over your rods. It really does help. Since I don't have my belongings therefore no drapes or curtains on the windows. We are using blankets draped over the rods. We got them at Kmart for like $6 and it really helps to keep the house warm. It's been -6 during the day here and at night -11. I don't know what the wind chill has been but that's what it's been reading on my car. Brrrrr!!!! I guess it's moving your way now! :(
 
Insulate the decorations.

Yesterday night and today I insulated with r20 bats and vapour barrier, and a little Delta Fl and plywood for the floor the little room we keep our Christmas decorations in.

Have to keep them warm.
 
We have storm windows on the outside of all our windows, last year that was fine, this winter.....

I will do the plastic thing as soon as the temps get up over 32, way too cold to do them now, it will never stick.

We do keep water going on the wood stove all the time we are home, it does help with the dry air.
We also do already keep all doors closed that we are not using, but our house is about 3000 sq feet, so that only helps some.

I love my old house, just what I wanted, lots of character but I didn't sign on for the lack of insulation.

I am also very cold natured, I can be cold even when the temp is in the high 60s low 70s. I always joke that I was born in the wrong part of this country.

We are putting wood into the stove every half hour, but it is working overtime just to keep the house at 50.

Can't wait for the outside temp to get to 0!!
 
We have a 70 year old house about 1300 sf.
We've replaced almost all the old windows (only one left to do).
Had "blown in" insulation in '75 which didn't make it down through the fire stop between the floors (so we found out this summer). Horsehair plaster and lath walls all through. The rooms we've redone now have sheetrock over the horsehair or have been stripped to the studs and insulated with pink stuff covered in sheetrock.
We had a wood stove in the basement (rock walled basement) and vented through two grates in the first floor, heat rises, no need for upstairs. The two vents had fans inside the piping to push the heat. Most of the time we could regulate the stove to maintain about 65-70 on days the temps were in the teens. We would really load the stove and open the drafts to get her to pump when single or below 0 and keep the house mostly 62-68. We'd use 6 cord of wood per winter.
Thermal draperies - you can buy just the thermal liners if you wish - they work great.
Next on our list, my kitchen is over a "crawl space" (was once a porch). We need to reinsulate the walls in that room - blown in now compressed - and put styro insulating boards under the floor in the crawl space. Kitchen is the coldest room (right now it's 70 in here and it's -5.5 outside)
Have I said I Love My Wood Pellet Stove!
 
So much for GLOBAL WARMING, ey?

Carrieann said:
We are in an extreme cold snap up here. The temps are in the 20s BELOW zero. Without the wind chill factor!!!

I live in an 1800s old brick house. We heat with a wood stove. The wood stove is in our living room. Usually the living room is about 80 degrees. This week it is running about 52!! My house is FREEZING!!!

When we were looking at the house we inquired about if the outside walls were insulated, we were told they were.

ha ha ha, NO way are they insulated at all!!! If you put your hand on an outside wall you can feel the cold air from outside pouring in. And to make matters worst, the windows are original or at least close to original.

This spring we will be looking into insulating the outside walls, but they are original walls, plaster. I don't know if we are going to be able to afford it. The walls may need to be torn down and replaced. And this is a big house.


I am FREEZING!!!!!!
Click to expand...

We're ALL FREEZING, so Al Gore's SHAM and SCAM of GLOBAL WARMING goes right out the window.

In fact, my understanding is that, he's had to change that old mantra of GLOBAL WARMING to CLIMATE CHANGE under our current set of circumstances.

Rather than going through the expense of insulating the outside walls, think about adding a layer of insulation from the inside. It's still works, but lots cheaper than tearing down and replacing your existing walls.

Might use 2" X 2" fur strips with styro sheets in between, and throw up another layer of sheet rock over that, which should give you the same, or better insulation from the inside.

As to the OLD WINDOWS?

If they are still good, and you don't want to replace them, you can remove the inside molding and insulate in between the framing and cork the seams before you replace the inside molding.

In the meantime, get yourselves an electric blanket with dual controls and SNUGGLE UP to the one you LOVE THE MOST!
lol
 
A fifth wheel is our bedroom, cold is having to go between and apartment and a trailer at night and in the morning. Snow, freezing weather, rain...
it build strong people!!

We all have electric mattress pads that help keep us warm and we have an oil electric heater to keep the air warm,, most nights it seems to do it's job.
 
Toto, never thought of insulating over what we have. Just ran it by the hubby, he said, yeah, it can be done. But, we have a lot of windows and a few old fashion glass doors which all would be sunken into our new wall, might look goofy, especially the doors, but it is something to think about. Thanks.
 
Rhonda, our kitchen is also over a crawl space and is by far the coldest room in the house. It was an addition in the 20's we believe.

Right now, the water in half our kitchen is frozen. The sink works, but the fridge and dishwasher are frozen.

Going to bed now, wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Have 3 think blankets on the bed and the kerocyne (sp?) heater is on.
 
a few winters ago, we finished our basement and when we did, we insulated it with the best possible materials. we also had a vented gas fireplace/stove installed. having that done was the best advice we got from the carpenter who did the work. living in the chicago area, our winters can be brutal and i am all about comfort if affordable/possible. while it was expensive and we had to bite the bullet (about $2,700), it was worth every penny.
 
TOTO said:
We're ALL FREEZING, so Al Gore's SHAM and SCAM of GLOBAL WARMING goes right out the window.

In fact, my understanding is that, he's had to change that old mantra of GLOBAL WARMING to CLIMATE CHANGE under our current set of circumstances.

I concur and Al Gore can kiss my big fat irish frozen ass :bootyshak
Click to expand...
 
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