Tony, Are the walls of the house a solid plank wall or are they of stud wall construction? I ask because during renovations I discovered that the core of my "1930s Arts & Craft" house turned out to be an 1873 last of the plank houses. Use of the familiar 2x4 stud wall construction was not that commmon before the 1870s. Fear not, however. I adjusted to the situation by building a new 2x4 stud wall about two inches inside the original solid plank exterior walls, or just enough to give me the depth needed to insulate with R-19 fiberglass batt insulation. You do not have to remove any of the original plaster. You just encase it behind the new wall. I finished off with a poly vapor barrier and the conventional sheetrock drywall on the inside. By maintaining a gap between old and new and limiting the number of places where you attach the new wall to the old wall to just a few locations, you can also achieve some substantial sound deadening capability. The older outer wall will not transmit the vibrations of highway traffic to the new wall, and into the room. The downside of this approach is that you will lose about six inches of floor space along the outer walls. You will also have to trim out affected windows and doors to reflect the thicker wall, which requires a lot of detail work like carefully removing existing trim for re-use and ripping new wood to proper widths, etc. If the trim has a natural wood finish it is a real trip custom mixing several types (oak, walnut, cherry) of stains to get one that matches the old wood. The deeper window sills however make great places for plants. In several locations in our house leaving the old plank walls exposed and finishing them with clear polyurethane created a great accent to adjacent plaster or contemporary drywall surfaces. The key to refinishing though is not to sand the plank but rather lightly wire brush off the oxidized wood on the surface and cleaning with TSP or other non-phosphate cleaner. This way you can preserve the dark patina of the old wood. Enjoy the next two decades of the My Old House experience. George Frantz
--- On Thu, 12/11/08, Tony Del Plato <[email protected]> wrote: From: Tony Del Plato <[email protected]> Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Insulation To: "postingsustainabletompkins" <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, December 11, 2008, 2:24 PM Hello TC Sustainers: I just bought a home built in 1850 and want to insulate portions that need it. Any thoughts or experiences with Airkrete, Cellulose, Icynene or Polyurethane as well as contractors would be appreciated. Tony Del Plato -- An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living. - Nicholas Chamfort _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
