Although some experimentation with earth sheltering (burying part of the house underground) is going on in Canada, our soil conditions and frost penetrations make this type of insulation uneconomical. Most earth-sheltered homes are found in the middle and southern areas of the US, where it is us...
This is a quick summary table of all the common types of thermal house insulation. You can find details on each material by looking up "insulation" then "types".
A respectable rewinterizing job need not include the addition of insulation into the walls. They are the most difficult (and expensive) parts of the house to re-insulate, and usually have the poorest financial payback of all re-winterizing tasks because:-- Walls are finished on both sides, and i...
Ed and Sharon in Manitoba just bought an old house in Manitoba and it is very cold, there doesn't seem to be any insulation in the walls at all. They have been told that it was double brick construction with plaster on the inside. Well friends, it was probably built by someone from Toronto who ...
A while back Glidden Paints had begun marketing Ceramic InsulCoat paint in Canada, claiming R-24 insulation values for a coat of paint. Does this new high tech paint really provide the equivalent of an R-24 insulation value to your Canadian home?No! In Canada, even the best reflective paint wil...
Gary from Thunder Bay, Ontario, wants to dig a relatively small storage space under his cottage, through the crawl space, although he plans to make it about 8 feet deep, and wants to know just how to insulate it to keep the contents from freezing.Aside from putting about 4 inches of foam insulati...
Insulating on the outside of the house is quite easy if there are no air spaces between the insulation and the warm house. Check out: OLD WALLS CAN SABOTAGE INSULATION EFFORTSSimply attach insulated sheathing panels or foam boards directly to the studs, or to the old sheathing, or, in some cases,...
There is a lot of debate about whether to put a vapour retarder (vapour barrier) on an insulated wall behind shower tiles. The code has not historically been specifically clear on this so we get lots of different interpretations. What the code does say clearly is that we should not have two vap...
-- Take care of air barriers, ventilation and vapour barriers before insulating. Check out these three topics in the Search Tab above.-- Don't block the eave vents with insulation.-- Do cover the top of the outside wall.-- Don't put plastic foam on top of porous insulations (batts, loose fill) a...
Most of our ordinary fiberglass insulation is a skin and breathing irritant. That is why we wear gloves, long sleeves, a cotton mask and glasses. For a bit more money you can now buy itchless rock wool (Roxal) and even itchless fiberglass. If you are all itchy, pour milk over the affected area...
