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[intensedrive]

Large winds before cold front makes me want to quit and move south.  My drafty farm house has no chance against high winds. Furnace blower never shuts off, I can fill the boiler full and be out of wood in 4 hours.  It's like survival mode to make it.  Sorry i had to vent...

[E Yoder]

Yeah, I'm sitting here drinking coffee and listening to the "winter roar" behind my house, the wind on the ridge above me. Forecast looks like winter is here for sure.

[Roger2561]

Sorry you have to live that experience. 

That reminds me of how I grew up in this old farmhouse before we tore out all the walls and insulated everything and replaced the old single pane windows with double pane, gas filled windows.  It made a big difference.  I occasionally will experience a slight draft on the high windy days but nothing like it was when we were growing up.  I can remember having the wood stove just cranked to it's limit and still had to cover over with blankets to read, watch TV, etc...in the living room; our bed rooms were not heated.  It was nothing for the temps to drop in the 30's overnight in the bed rooms.  Roger

[Rockarosa]

I sided my old farmhouse and put  one inch Styrofoam insulation under the siding. I cannot believe the difference in the heat and how much less wood that I burn. New windows all around also. 25 degrees last night and the fire is still going after 12 hours.

[wreckit87]

My house is only 20 years old but has a similar issue in the living room. There is a big bay window that juts out further than the foundation and I don't know what's under it for insulation but the living room is always 5 degrees colder than the rest of the house, unless it's windy then it's 10-15 degrees. Short of tearing all my siding and sheathing off and spray foaming the whole North wall, my next best option is more heat. I have a roll of PEX leftover from a job and a used 3 way zone valve from another job I'm going to use to build an underfloor radiant system in the joist spaces and tie it in with my OWB loop, just to see if it'll help. Won't cost me anything but a few hours labor so it ought to be worth a shot.

With that said I stopped by one of my renters on Monday. Their farmhouse was built in 1900 and has typical insulation for that era. New furnace and ductwork in 2014 when I bought it, heated pretty well for what it was but still had drafty windows and the like. They've been there 3 years and the old masonite siding was garbage, so this spring I gave them the ultimatum that I'd paint that crap siding and polish the turd a little bit and rent would stay the same OR I'd put new siding and fanfold on the outside with new windows and doors all around for an additional $150/mo if they signed a new 2 year lease. They wanted option B, so I had the work done which was completed mid-October. Went over there Monday to sign the lease and asked if it was any less drafty in there now, the lady sent me home with a pile of baked goods she was so happy lol. The guy said the furnace runs almost never now, and apparently they shut the thermostat OFF every day (for some reason, I don't think they understand how thermostats work) and only turn it on when they get home at night. It was 72 degrees in the house while I was there and 16 degrees outside, furnace hadn't run in 14 hours. Amazing what some good windows and a little insulation will do!

[mlappin]

A cousin bought my great-grandfathers farm, it has the new house eon it he built during the depression, still cold, but Grandma said it was a huge improvement over the old as when they woke up didn’t have to shake the snow off the quilts in the morning.

Done a ton of remodeling, our bedroom is the one I’ve always had, when single I could place a glass of water on the floor and have it froze in the morning. Wife didn’t care for that at all, have done a ton of remodeling, still no heat/ac vent to that room but just running the ceiling fan year round is enough to keep it comfortable.

[Mr. Maple]

  Our old farmhouse used to be so bad in the bathroom facing the west that the toilet paper roll would sway back and forth while sitting on the John.We took the drywall off,replaced the window,then bought one of those do it yourself spray foam kits from Lowes ,did that wall,another wall in our living room,and the subfloor underneath our living room floor,then laid new flooring,made a huge difference.If I were to build a new home it would be spray foam top to bottom. Did the attic this fall even,upstairs is now warmer that furnace isn’t running much,so using even less wood

[Roger2561]

Marty - It's funny you mention water freezing in your bed room.  My dad wore dentures since he was in his early 40's.  He always put them in a glass on the end table by his bed.  One morning he got up and the dentures were froze in ice in the glass.  He had to wait an at least an hour before he get them out and have breakfast.  Mom thought it was funniest thing she ever saw.  It wasn't long after that, that mom and dad decided to do something about the drafts in the house.  I should add the house is an 1840's 1 & 1/2 story with a full basement.  Roger 

[mlappin]

Yah, last addition on ours was 1908. Not a full basement though, like 3/4’s. The original walls that are left are fieldstone, the rest are block.

[Roger2561]

In 1993 we had the house jacked up and the old field stone foundation was removed, new walls and floor were poured.  In the winter it got so bad that we had snow coming in between the rocks.  In the spring we literally had a small river coming in one end of the basement and out the other.  It never got cold enough for it to freeze though.  We hoped it would, we would have our own private indoor ice skating rink.  The memories...     Roger

[mlappin]

Somebody in the area did just that, except they jacked it up and moved it to the other corner of the property then poured a bigger basement, moved the house back, got the house wrap on and the floor over the additional basement then must have run out of money, been like that so long the house wrap is going to hell and shredding off with each good wind.

Our house has 1” thick poplar planks on the inside, then lathe and plaster over that, if I had known that all that blown in wasn’t going to end up all over the floor I would have started remodeling sooner. When remodeling a room we look for any voids where the blow in didn’t reach, fill those, then drywall over it. Outside gets fan fold then a house wrap over that and vinyl. Just fanfold and house wrap makes a huge difference, then get rid of the old wood frame windows that actually rattled in the frames when the air got dry and the house is stupid easy to heat now.

Remember as a kid getting out of bed, grabbing a few blankets then standing on a register with em.