Adding more insulation on the exterior of the wall if done right will save you a boatload of money. On the exterior of a building you best results are going to be from a rigid insulation board. There are at least 2 types 1st is just an insulation board and the 2nd has aluminam foil on both sides you must choose according to the siding you want to install as to what insulation board is best. For example; horizontal cedar lap siding does not like aluminum for behind it. Before installing any type of rigid insulation on to an exterior wall surface you must make a way for the water vapor to escape to the outside air.

I recommend 1 product “mortairvent” Made by Benjamin Obdyke, it’s only 1/4” thick installed over the tarpaper, than you install you insulation board next and finally your siding. It’s made of woven plastic with enough rigidity to keep 1/4 inch air gap to allow the water vapor to escape either by going down the wall to be vented at the foundation line or vented at the soffit line of the house.

Using an exhaust fan below 300 Cubic feet per minute, most houses have areas that leak this much air into these houses. Newer homes leak about 150 cfm around windows and doors.
If an exhaust fan is turned on blowing out 300 cfm, your short 150 cfm and it will draw it from a bad source. One of the easiest places for the air to come into the house is by sucking the air out of the chimney either the fireplace or the furnace chimney.

We remodeled a house along with the kitchen; we installed a 1280 CFM exhaust fan. We told the homeowner that he need makeup air he refused Than came thanksgiving, the family was there the owner has a 5’ wide and 4 tall open wood fireplace the fire was going for about an hour when the wife turned on the kitchen fan. Instantly the fireplace chimney reversed bringing the smoke into the house the fire in the fireplace was still burning but the flames were blowing horizontally into the room. He wanted a quick fix so he had a 12” fresh air intake installed into the cold air return on his furnace. This did fix 1 problem the fireplace now works properly while the kitchen fan runs on full speed.

If the furnace is running it was not sided to handle super cold air coming into the heat exchanger. With this much cold air coming into the furnace, the furnace cannot heat the house because now it has to heat the incoming cold fresh air. The other problem is that the heat exchanger is being stressed with 400 ° on the burner side and -10° on the other side this shortens the life of the heat exchanger by years.
If the house is warm because of the fireplace the furnace won’t turn on. With the fresh air dumping in to the return air plenum, the super cold air is now coming out all the vents cooling down your floors making a draft along the floor to the fireplace and the kitchen stove.
The proper way is to bring fresh air into the house and run it through a furnace designed to temper the makeup air.

Having it warmer also helps your vehicles start faster as well as better engine oil viscosity, because the engine block is starting warm.

Using a compact ceiling gas heater works great. We have installed several of these units. You can bolt them to the roof framing members and or floor joist system. You can mount them up tight or drop them down to a lower height if you have a 9’- 14’ high garage ceiling. By installing the unit at the back of the garage and blow air cross the garage to the far front corner this will get the greatest way to stabilize the temperature in the garage. This will also dry your car off and the floor. By keeping your garage temperature at or above 38° you should never have the garage floor flaking or popping of concrete from the winter weather.

This furnace also can be vented both out the wall and/or through the roof of the garage. Giving is a way to really maximize your opportunity for the best installation.

2 types of Solar thermo panels

Home made solar collectors have a couple of problems: They are not sealed and filled with inert gas (argon gas) there by missing a key way of collecting solar heat. Improper way of winding the tubing inside the panel is another problem.

Flat panels commercially made are a great way to collect heat. You can set the collectors on most any type of roofing system. They also can be joined together for a greater Btu output. The maximum output will yield you any where between 50-70% of your domestic hot water. Having extra cash to go green is great but if you need this to be your main heating unit for hot water or limited location for hot water storage, this is not the system for you at this time I’ll check these systems out every couple of years for better results.

Cleaning cycle for the burners at least every 2 years
Fuel – Natural Gas, Propane
When gas is burnt it’s by product is water and Carbon Dioxide add this to a steel heat exchanger this creates rust. When rust flacks off the exchanger it falls on to the burners below creating bad combustion an lose of efficiency.

Oil #2 a Oil burners are a unique creation they blow fuel oil out at 100 PSI This oil is ignited by 2 electrodes at 10,000 volts. If/or when the electrodes burn back, and /or twist it will soot up the heat exchanger and flue again loosing efficiency.

Heat exchangers over time loss there integrity from the heating 350° 72 times in one cold winter day. When the exchanger breaks, cracks- carbon monoxide is now being pushed in to the house.

When you move air for heating and cooling you must clean or change your, also check to make sure your furnace fan blades are clean. If not use a screwdriver and clean each fin. Just have more air moving through the furnace will increase your heating and cooling efficiency.

Systems check –
Proper start up of burner -does it start with a bang or take a long time to light
Make sure the high limit control shoots down properly at the right temp.
Check for proper airflow out of the blower check the fins on the blower fan for lint buildup.
Cost of a new heating and cooling system with ductwork – $ 15,000.00
Cost of a new Geo system with ductwork – $ 24,000.00 with a well system
Cost of a new Geo system with ductwork – $ 18-20,000.00 with a in ground loop system
Cost of replacement of a furnace & AC system. $8,500.00
Cost of replacement of a Geo system $6,500.00

These foundation walls were built good but they were not designed for your soil type and/or hydrostatic pressure of your lot.

In the 2nd picture it shows that wall is buckling inward, with a closer look a the picture we see 3 problems.

1. The ground is almost level with the top of block wall. This creates other problems that we will talk about on another post.

2. The yard next to the house is flat- when it rains where will the run off go?
If the soil you have is poor or unsatifactory; silty clays, organics, or peat,etc. these types of soil make great lakes, they don’t drain, they pond. Because there is no place for the rain water to go then it seeks the next available spot -loose soil. This type of soil has a lot of voids or air pockets. Every house that has frost footings and /or a basement has loose soil from 2′ and up to 8′ away from the house. The rain water runs into the soft soil and around the foundation of building. This inturn compounds the problem pushing hydrostatic pressure on the foundation walls.
3. Remember the wall has a horizontal crack it now lets water into the house

1. Remove the dirt next to the house
2. Push the block wall straight
3. Install 3/4″ Rebar in block and fill the block with concrete
4. Install a drain tile system
5. Water proof the wall with Black dog Waterproofing system
6. Put a Geo grid system to keep the dirt from mixing into the rock
7. Install any size rock from 3/8″ up 1 1/2″.

You are looking at 2 cross sections as to how to build a frost footing.
The first picture shows how 98% of all house frost footings are installed. With this type of design there are some problems.
1. Where there is a 42” frost footing required the install 1-7 1/2” high footing 4- 8” blocks which = 40” with mud joints 41 1/4”. If they install a 1/2 high block the total height is 44 3/4” no problem except the code requires the grade height to 8” lower than wood framing and or wood siding. Making the frost footing only 41 1/4 with a high block and no wood siding. But you house has wood siding and no half high block the frost footing is now 36 1/2”. So in picture 1 the water is up to the top of the soil on the exterior. When it freezes in the winter we know water will expand and increase its mass crushing the insulation decreasing the R-value and allowing the water to freeze to the footing, which will move it, laterally inward or vertically which ever is easier.
2. As the temperate of your frost footing drops in the winter your concrete slab will also reflect how cold it is outside.
3. The Rigid foam insulation must be covered because the ultraviolet light from the sun will break down the insulation most contractors cover it with aluminum sheathing. Aluminum and does not like concrete or salt, it will corrode and eat the aluminum. Yet they pour concrete up against the aluminum shield and don’t tell the owners of the houses not to salt their sidewalks.

Gypcrete is a lite weight cement mix which uses gypsum instead of sand and a high quality Portland mix making gypcrete.
In commercial applications Gypcrete is used as a sound deadener and a fire retardant between floors.

In a residential setting it is normally used to cover over infloor water heat pipes.

The gypcrete companies can pour the gypcrete at a minimum of 1/2”. A good thickness is 1” or more, this includes pouring over all types of pipes. (know this there is no law to protect the homeowner about gypcrete). Gypcrete must have a load bearing floor under it to support it, and the finished floor and it live load (furnishings and people). If you are installing the gypcrete 1 1/2 or less – it must bond to the structural floor below. If you need insulation under the gypcrete, install the insulation than install 4’ x 16’ wire panels with 6” x 6” grids anchored to the floor below the insulation with the anchor not less than 2’ square on center. The wire mesh helps stabilize the gypcrete and keeps it from braking up in the future.

I’ve installed urethane foam insulation in a 5000sf house and was very unhappy with the results of the product. Where ever there was a gap in the wall sheathing it expanded to the out side of the house where we had tarpaper covering the wall sheathing it bulged the tarpaper out about 1 1/2”. The list below will list the pros and the cons of urethane foam.

Pro- R-value is 7 for every inch of foam sprayed.

If you need stability in your structure this foam will stiffen up the wall sheathing. (Like when you use built right it’s a little spongy this will stiffen it up.)

You can get a high R-value in small spaces like on older homes where the roof framing meets the exterior walls where the max. Space is only 3” you still get and R-Value 0f 21.

Now the cons
Had to move a door bell wire home owned changed their location what should have been a 1 minute job ended up being 30 minute and this was repeated several times with different change orders.

Using urethane foam in a 3.5”(2×4) wall cavity has same R- value as Icyene Insulation.

In basement energy walls using urethane foam in a 3.5”(2×4) wall cavity has a total lower R- value that of Icyene Insulation. Using urethane the max. spray depth is 3” with a max. R-21 while the basement energy walls are held away from the foundation wall 1/2-2”giving move room for insulation, making Icyene the winner in this location.

Using urethane the max. spray depth is 3” with a max. R-21 while Icyene Insulation has an R-Value of 6.0 and Icyene can be sprayed full depth of the stud cavity. A 6” stud has and R-Value of 5.5 x 6 = 33 R-Valve.

Urethane insulation is a closed cell insulation which means as the foam is being sprayed it creates bubbles. Inside the bubbles are an oil-based gas locked in these billions of bubbles. If or when the walls of the bubbles break down the gasses will migrate out of the stud cavity.

1. You have brought the cool weather into the foundation;
Let me explain; If you have a block, or clay tile wall system air inside block is chilled the cold air drops to the footing no big deal if you live in Nevada to Virginia.

But if you live in New York – Idaho and North we have problems. The cold out side is so cold that it can freeze the footings of the house.

With a poured foundation it takes longer but can still happen.

Freezing the footing is not a problem, the problem comes in when the ground around the footing freezes, now we have a making of a disaster. 90% of the time there is groundwater next to the outside edge of the footing in some cases I’ve seen footings and basement floors sitting in water.

When adding a cold winter to this mix and the ground water freezes around the footing, the water has to expand 10% when it turns to ice, on the inside of the structure is forces the water in to the cement slab and sometimes through the slab on to the floor above.

But the water under the footing has no place to go, so it lifts the house (heaving it) and not evenly breaking the concrete wall cracking sheetrock, plaster, and stucco right up to the roofline.

I’ve seen a shift in trusses like a bulge on a roof, magnifying the problem as it lifts the structure up.

2. Water – IE moisture loves to migrate into concrete. We have seen a commercial building that is a warehouse. When it was built they excavated a sump and filled it with sand compacted it and than built on it.

Now 5-10 years later the concrete walls are flaking paint, and chips of concrete pop off up to 24′ of the wall. What’s happening? The high water table is back in the ground, water can migrate through concrete vertically 28′ from the source of the water.

Remember nature’s rule-water must be allowed to expand, and if it cannot, it will move what ever is in its way to expand 10%.

Know this if you don’t remove the moisture (water) from the footings it will remove paint off of concrete and have popping chips of concrete.

If there is water against your foundation wall when it freezes it will blow the face off the concrete and in a few years there will be major holes in your foundation not only letting more water in but also exotic organisms and creating a mold problem in the structure.

This condition was and is being caused by no insulation on this area. With no insulation in this rim joist and the warmest air in any area is located at the ceiling. This air also has the most humidity in it.

When the air migrates across the ceiling to the out side wall 2 thing happen.

The 2nd thing that happens is it starts a thermo train where warm air rushes to the exterior wall, it cools and drops to the floor, then the air migrates across the floor to the center of the house where it’s warmed back up.

Warm air being lighter than cold air it moved back up to the ceiling and the process starts all over.

Adding insulation to the rim joist slows down the thermo train. If you install the wrong type of insulation you will cause a lot more mold and rot and invite many different type of bugs to live with you.

The worst type of insulation is porous type (fiberglass, cellulose, mineral wool etc.) If this type is to be used install a vapor barrier on the warm side of the insulation to keep any humidity from getting into the insulation.

Vapor barrier can be 6-mill poly — insulate, caulk all surfaces with a polybutylene caulk this stays soft than apply the poly over it and staple the poly in place making a perfect seal. Do this to all rim joist areas.

Vapor barrier can be foam board — insulate, cut the foam board to fit snug in each rim joist space then caulk all edges of the foam board.

Another way of getting around the problem is to insulate the rim from the outside. This only works in new construction while building.

Move the rim joists in 2″ and install a 2″ foam board and then sheath over it. The drawback is you must install solid material where you are going to add a deck or other structural framing.

Another type of insulation that can be used is Icynene this you can by on E-bay or hire a contractor to have is sprayed into the rim joist cavities.

This type of insulation will not allow the humidity to pass through it making it great for this type of application.

For example, fiberglass insulation is open cell.

Roll out a batt of fiberglass insulation, place a 1 1/2″ x12″ pipe vertical on top of the insulation and pour 1 cup of water into it.

What happens?

That’s right — it runs right through.

This means it is a porous (permeable) type insulation.

Using porous type insulation in stud cavities, then covering the insulation with 6 Mill poly and sheet rock, you have made a perfect wall.

Until you add people -

First, they are going to want electrical in the wall. This means holes through the sheet rock and poly allowing moisture to pass into the cavity.

Next, they’ll add pictures and wall decorations. Now we make several holes leading into the stud cavities.

Each 1/4″ diameter hole lets 30 liters of water (as vapor) into the stud cavity.

Having open cell insulation allows the water to freeze on exterior wall sheathing.

In the spring the frost thaws and the water migrates down the base plate and starts the rotting.

If we install an open cell insulation in the stud cavity instead, moisture has a very hard time migrating into the cavity.

Fiberglass insulation — made from sand
Mineral wool insulation — made from slag steel
Cellulose insulation — made from paper

Urethane insulation — made from Urethane (oil base)
Polyurethane insulation — made from Urethane (oil base)

Icynene Insulation — made from water (water base)

If you have allergies Icynene Insulation is the easiest on your sinuses.

Some insulators are spraying 1″ of urethane into the cavity and filling the rest of the cavity with fiberglass, which does no good.

The urethane is in the wrong location in the cavity — it must be installed on the warm side of the wall. The same is true with foam insulation board installed behind vinyl and aluminum siding.

Installing poly or urethane film on the cold side of the wall only ads in the ability of collection of moisture pasting through the wall cavity allowing it to condensate on the film and migrate to the bottom of each stud cavity.

Only way for the water to escape is to work it’s way through the bottom plate and the floorboards.

This turns the boards to soggy wood and in 2-3 years the wood first starts to rot until the water has a way through, the next years the wood dry rots, which is no better.

For more information on open cell insulation http://www.home-elegance.com/articles/74/insulation-in-stud-cavities-part-2/

This will happen at the top of all the walls and under all the windows as well as where wiring is run through the wall, the wiring holds up the insulation from settling
downward but below the wiring there again is no insulation.

Using an Open Cell insulation this sprays in place and bonds to the studs wires and wall sheathing locking it in place.
The only draw back with Open Cell insulation is trying to fish wire into new outlets it’s hard to do.

While fiberglass is easy just move it to the side pull the wire into place and install your electrical box, O by the way installing wire this way losses all you r-value in that stud cavity by moving the insulation you have created a void on the one side and on the other side you have pushed in to much insulation and have less R-value.

What is R-Value and what R-Value do I need?

Insulation is rated in terms of thermal resistance, called R-value, which indicates the resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating effectiveness. The R-value of thermal insulation depends on the type of material, its thickness, and density.

In the case of Icynene these are the facts:
Thermal Resistance R 3.6/in x thickness of stud
2×4=12.6 2×6=19.80
Heat flow reduction through 1.0″ = 72.7%
Heat flow reduction through 3.5″ = 92.2%
Heat flow reduction through 5.5″ = 95.0%
Heat flow reduction through 10.0″ = 97.3%

What does this mean?
Example-Look at your living room wall let’s remove a 14″ x 14″ piece of sheetrock & poly on the insides and on the out side let do the same size and location, remove the siding and wall sheathing so on both sides of the wall we can see the insulation.

Now lets say it’s —2° below 0 and on the inside it’s 7° degrees.

Standing out side dip your hands into water and place them on the siding just above the hole how long will be able to stand there before your hands freeze?

Lets do the same with a house made of Icynene Insulation. Again how long before your hands freeze?

A Fiberglass insulation — Never and instead your hands should be dry in under 6 minutes at —2° below °. Above the hole the temp should be on a calm day about 5°

A Icynene Insulation- in about 30-40 Seconds major frost burn should start.

The deference is that fiberglass insulation slows the air movement down inside the stud space while Icynene creates millions of little air pockets but not allowing them to move.

Fiberglass insulation with out poly and/or wallboard on the in side and wall sheathing on the outside is really a very poor type of insulation in and of it’s self.

Now lets put a blanket against the door. Next there is no air moving across the door and the blanket is like adding a blanket of insulation on the inside surface of the door.

The new freeze point is now located at 1 1/2″ into the blanket so when the blanket is now removed the moisture in the blanket has frozen to the door. With this under standing let’s look at your windows.

A window with Low E II will have an R-value of 3.5 – 3.75 Now let’s add drapes on the windows and people blame the window that it is bad.

When in fact there are 2 problems 1 no air movement across the surface of the window and the humidity in the house is to high for the exterior temp.

Install an electric heat thermostat on the entry wall then install the electric heater in the floor joist under the entry and wire it into the electrical panel.

(Use a 220-volt heater) Set the thermostat about 5 degrees above the room temperature this will dry the floor out and dry the boots and shoes.

If you set the temp higher you only waist electricity.

The code also requires that 1/2 of the depth of the excavation around the building is back filled with course fill rock, sand and/or gravel.

This helps drain groundwater down to the draintile. If the excavation was 8′ deep, then you must back fill 4′ with course fill.

If you are building heavy clay, the building site may have pockets of water or even underground rivers. To help keeping your foundation wall protected install Blackdog waterproofing.

Using Blackdog waterproofing is 1 way to insulate the foundation and drain the whole depth of the hole to remove all the groundwater.

The reason why water expands upon freezing is because of the strong hydrogen bonding between the water molecules. Water is polar having a positive end nearest the Hydrogens and a negative end nearest the Oxygen atom. Therefore the positive ends of some water molecules attract the negative ends of other water molecules.

When groundwater is next to the surface it will push hydrostatic pressure and/or heave frozen dirt against the foundation wall.

When you have high level of ground water and/or let’s say you build a house in clay, then back fill area is more porous fill because you are in clay the ground water goes where it can travel easily in porous soil, now the porous soil is full of groundwater and winter sets in the frost goes down for 10″ in the central part of the country to 6′ or more in the northern parts of the country.

When the ground water freezes ground it’s the volume of water expanses10% larger than when it was in the liquid form. Creating an incredible force on any foundation whether it’s a full basement or just frost footings.

Making a place for water to drain is a prudent and proper thing to do; it will save your house now and in the winters to come as well as reducing the risk of mold problems.

Next when humidity gets into Cellulose insulation it makes the insulation ball up or clump together in semi-hard chunks.

When this happens you are now losing you R-value. Let’s say the roof leaks Cellulose becomes a lot a 100,000 sheet of wet paper towels that will not let air in or the water out.

In 48 hours you now have mold growing. It’s just not good insulation.

Putting equipment above ground level often results in wasps and fowls finding a place to make their nests.

Putting equipment on roofs becomes a pill for the maintenance person and the equipment now has an opportunity to leaking into the home.

Putting the equipment at ground level opens up the opportunity for small animals to chew the wires and make their home in it.

Installing the equipment in the home or a mechanical room keeps the wildlife out of the equipment and makes the environment safe for the technician to maintain it.

Electricity has been the most costly in the past 30 years, but with energy costs jump on oil it may be the way to heat and cool the home.
• Gas

Next to electricity gas would be the easiest product to maintain.
More…
Simple concepts and the largest number of contractors work with this type of equipment.
Gas has long been the leader in affordable heat.
• Oil

Oil is a good option, the concepts are simple but there are very few contractors who really understand how to fix the equipment when it needs maintenance.
• Solar

Some solar systems are very easy with little to no maintenance.
However, the investment and size of the equipment is often large for the small return of investment.
• Wood

Wood, appears to be cheep, but requires vehicles, chain saws, a huge source of wood and teenagers.
• Hybrids

Dual fuel, Water source heat pumps, and much more are good options.
The concepts are simple but there are very few contractors who really understand how to fix the equipment when it needs maintenance.

With direct conditioning of the air, you will get the quickest response from the equipment onto the air that is possible.
I.E. Coming home to a cold house the air will cool down the faster because you are directly cooling the air.
You can moisten, clean and condition the air. More…
• Radiant Cooling

With radiant conditioning of the air, it will take forever to get the home cool in a desirable amount of time.
To my knowledge – no one makes this type of equipment.
The concept is the same as the earth losing heat at night into space.
I know of a couple of people who ran cold water in their radiant panels, only to find out that the humidity condensed on the panels and piping and ruined the non-stone construction of their homes.
• Convection Heat

See Radiant Cooling above.

With direct conditioning of the air, you will get the quickest response from the equipment onto the air that is possible.
I.E. Coming home to a cold house the air will warm up faster because you are directly heating the air. More…

However the furniture will feel cold for some time.

You can moisten, clean and condition the air.
• Radiant Heat

With radiant conditioning of the air, you will get the slowest response from the equipment
Onto the air that is possible.

I E. Coming home to a cold house the air will warm up slower because you are directly heating the objects that will in turn raise the air temperature.

However the surfaces facing the radiant heat warm before the air gets warm.

This type of heat comes in varieties of forms, standing radiators, in floor heating slabs and tubes, Radiant panels and tubes, and even the old European wood stove which is covered with ceramic tile.

There is no way to moisten, clean and condition the air
• Convection Heat

With convection conditioning of the air, you will get an intermediate response from the equipment onto the air that is possible.

I E. Coming home to a cold house the air will warm up somewhat faster than radiant heat because you are directly heating a medium that then needs to heat air.

The objects will in turn become warm because the air temperature is rising.

There is no way to moisten, clean and condition the air.

Did you know that the roofing manufactures will not warranty their products if the shingles are installed improperly?

The warranty does not warrant that your roof shall not leak. But instead they warrant that their product “shall not fall apart over normal weather conditions”.
More…
The contractor is responsible for the rest.

1. To make sure that the roof decking is structurally sound, solid and uniform (no damage, loosening, lifting or sagging), for a better roof deck plywood sheathing is better than Norboard/oriented Strandboard.

Moisture inside of the attic freezes on to the roofing nail on the attic side of the roof sheathing.
This moisture works on the Norboard sheathing.

In time the sheathing breaks down much quicker than using plywood sheathing.

What does this mean?

In about 6-10 years down the road when a high-wind storm comes your shingles are no longer fasted tightly to the roof deck and portion of your roof will blow off.

You say “No problem – insurance will pay for it.” and you pay a higher premium for that privilege and keep paying for years to come.
2. The code requires Ice & Water Shield to be installed 2′ beyond the inside surface of exterior roofs at the eve line.

The material is designed to keep water from getting to the roof decking.

The problem is the water sits between the shingles you see and the Ice & Water Shield.

Moisture on backside of the shingles makes the shingle break down and crumble leaving you with exposed Ice & Water Shield and gutter flashing.

Now the water is no longer going into the gutter in this area and instead is going between the gutter and fascia board and getting into your overhang.

Easy solution – install 15# tarpaper above Ice & Water Shield. It wicks water away from an area to a place it can evaporate.
3. The best way to make a roof last the longest is to keep the attic air temperature and out side air within 2° degrees of each other.

1. This keeps the shingles from baking in the summer or creating ice dams in the winter.

   To achieve this, have a well ventilated roof.

   Continuous Venting in the soffits, and/or roof venting – as in ridge vents or metal roof vents. Gable end vents are great if you can in corporate them in the design of the building.