Follow up on the snow on the roof. Checked again and noticed a little spot close to the eave where at the wall between the stove room and living room there was no snow. Went back in the house and checked that area only to find a little strip of old insulation vapor barrier was pulled back and there was a small piece of insulation missing. Don't know how I missed that, but I stuffed some insulation in there and moved the VB back over it. I'll go out later to see if anything has changed. We're getting a lot of blowing snow today. I'm hoping to find snow there. That spot runs along that whole wall, and the gable wall that's opposite both still only have the original R-11, and I was planning to cut and fit more up there. Guess I need to do that ASAP.
The winds have pretty much pushed most of the snow off the roof, so I haven't got a clue whether what I did helped or not.
While doing a bit of wiring for a new outlet, I decided to pull some more insulation in the front wall. When I pulled the stuff above the window header (which isn't built quite right), the one siding board behind the header was wet. All the way across that part of the wall. No other part of the wall was wet. Stuck something down between the 2x6s making up the header and there's nothing there. No spacer, no insulation......nothing. So, I'm wondering if there was warm air migrating through the heard boards and hitting the cold siding boards. Very weird. Same thing on the other side of the wall. Weird. Never seen anything like this. I had already bought a couple cans of "Really Cool Stuff" (foam in a can), so I foamed the header. Makes me want to pull the siding and see WTH is going on........or tear down the whole thing and do over.
No, I'm not. The front windows get a good amount of abuse when it rains, so it could be. Which is why I'm considering pulling the siding. It's been on my to do list for a while anyway. Suggestions?
Hard to tell without a picture - if there is trim around the window and the siding is clapboard or vertical(T-111 or board/batten) is there plywood sheathing? It's not uncommon for water to get over the upper window edge and if the header isn't a full 3-1/2" good void for water migration
Pretty sure there's a strip of metal over the windows (forget what that's called...drip cap?), but the bottom corners are rotting. Some is due to the aluminum frame sliders though. Brick mold framing the windows outside. Almost forgot, the nails coming through the pine sheathing have water and ice on them, even when the insulation was still up. Siding is aluminum clapboard look w/ about 7-8" reveal. I've thought of going to T1-11, since it's easy and not too expensive.
I'm leaving insulation pulled out until that dries some. If it gets wet again after i put the insulation back, the siding is coming off.
moisture/frost on the nail tips is probably an air infiltration issue. If it were water getting in the wood will be stained. The drip edge should be up behind the aluminum(assuming it is) just spray it with garden hose - if things aren't frozen solid up there, or move down south like some other sane individuals
Yep, drip cap is under siding. I'll try getting some caulk on there ASAP just in case. With all the other stuff I have to do, I don't need to redo siding.
One disaster after another. Did you ever think but if it wasn't for no luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all? I have to hand it to you. You are certainly persistent. Your payback is waiting for you. Stay warm and well.
Did some more caulking yesterday in the stove room walls. Well, wall. Two more to do. Wherever 2 pieces of material come together got done, and I discovered the headers have nothing between the 2x6s. Foamed those. Now, I need more foam in a can and more caulk. I had no idea I'd blow through what I had. It took a whole can of foam to do 2 headers, and I have 3 more to do. The one above the door will be rebuilt by me, and done better when I reframe for a new door. Found a whole bunch of cold air coming in around where the studs and pine sheathing meet. I plan to caulk where the bottom plate and floor meet as well, since the floor at that point is cold. I'm sure part of it is the lack of insulation on the block outside. There's always (even when it's 5 degrees out) a little strip of melted snow around the perimeter.......heat loss. The house is definitely holding heat better now that the insulation and caulking are being worked on. I can see a slight reduction in wood use already. Put 4 splits in this a.m. and got the house temp up, and the house is holding at about 70 3.5 hours later, where before I would have needed to reload by now. I could get used to this.
It's not so bad. I can work at my own pace, which anymore isn't very fast. I work a little, stop for a sammich, digest, then go back at it for a while. When I go in the attic, I have to take as much with me as I can to the farthest reaches where the stove room is. It'll get easier (yeah, right) as I get closer to the hatch, except that's where all my wife's crap, um, stuff is. I said it before, this is a long term project. Told my wife this morning I was sore but didn't know why. Her response........you're old. Gotta love her for reminding me, eh?
Forgot to mention, this is with the insulation still out of 1/2 of the north wall on the r/h side of the stove. The living room went down to 68.5 about noon:30, so I put another load of 4 splits in.
I put some of the old insulation back in the walls for the day and when I pulled it back out, the nails were cold and very slightly wet. Not happy, but evidently, it's been like this for a while, so......... Checked the roof of the stove room for melting and found a couple smalls spots where the snow we got last night is slightly gone. I'll need to address that. Before insulation (BI), that part of the roof would melt pretty quick. Still getting some melt and icicles, so I'm not sure what's up there. I put a little more insulation along the gable end, and planned to do the wiring for the wall outlet, but I guess I didn't plan well enough. I'll need to go back up to address the warm spots, and do the wiring, but I need to get a light too so I can just do it all at once. @basod, I caulked the drip cap yesterday where the siding overlaps and at the top corners where there are some gaps. Spring may find me residing at least the front of the house. Maybe I'll put up some foam board while I'm at it.
After following my gut instinct and doing some research, the problem may be too much moisture in the house. Normally, this place dries up in the winter and I keep a large canning pot full of water on the stove to replenish that moisture. It's just odd that it's only that one horizontally run board that's getting wet. It's the darker one, and it's not dark due to being wet. Seems to be colder right behind the top of the header. That board goes the width of the room behind the brickwork and header on the other window (l/h side of stove). Well, ignore all the above. I just pulled out the insulation I temped back in and found some other spots that are wet/damp. So, cold wall and warm moist air colliding creating this in certain spots. Humidity is down to 33% this morning because I pulled the pot off the stove last night. It was 38 yesterday. I'm going to add insulation to plumbing......things I don't like to do.
Dave be careful about too much insulation around the plumbing in walls - insulate the exterior wall behind the plumbing, one of the few places that preventing heat loss will make you curse later
Ah, I see what happened there. The thought in my head didn't translate well to my typing. What I meant was, that I don't like plumbing, and plan to now add insulating to the things I don't like, which includes plumbing. Clear as mud now, I'm sure.
