Blow Hole

One of the first shocks of homeownership was the first gas bill. We left the house unoccupied while we worked on it for the first few weeks, so I was quite suprised when a 300$ bill showed up for heating an unoccupied building.

It was obvious that the many air gaps in the structure were doing nothing for it's energy efficiency.

Since then, I have been on a hunt for airleaks in the building. In a house that is designed to be windows-up in the summer, that eliminates the summer months as a rational point to find small leaks; the house breathes through the open windows and there is little movement through other routes.

Now that winter has returned, the problems of last spring have again become obvious.

The current home repair goal is to eliminate drafts and heat loss for general comfort and to further buffer the upstairs temperature, which only seems to have a Goldilocks temperature for 4 weeks out of the year. In the past few weeks I have been weather stripping the doors and windows, insulating the steam pipes (subject of an upcoming post), and draft sealing the attic.

The foundation has a small portico structure that extends under, and to a degree, supports the front porch. The porch is decked with tongue-and-groove boards, so I thought it might be air tight, especially after the brickwork in the foundation was fixed. However, while insulating the steam pipes, a strong draft was still coming in through the portico.

I solved that little problem.

I had originally designed a more elaborate, removable plug that used large pieces of polyethylene sheeting as the air seal. However, when I started cutting the board and really examining the shape of the hole and the discomfort of crouching in the crawl space, I resolved to act on the more direct cut/tape/foam permanent installation. If there is ever need to access the interior of the portico, the foam is easily enough removed, and this approach is completely air tight.

While installing the plug, the velocity of the draft through the gaps in the side increased as I plugged them. The flux of air was actually substantial, like the exhaust of the shop vac or a wimpy leaf blower, probably driven by convection of warm air out of holes in the upstairs. A few hours later, The Girly commented that it seemed a lot more comfortable. That can be taken as progress.