Placement of Vapor Barrier?

[q]Situation:  antique  8-in thick brick home constructed of sun dried bricks with plastered internal walls and no vapor barrier.  How to protect against the combination of weather and internal moisture?  The proper technique, as I understand it, is to paint the external walls,. presumably with latex paint, to prevent leaching  of external brick surfaces from […]

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Crawlspace Strategy… The PlenWood System

If you are going to have a crawlspace, then consider using some variation on what it called the “Plenwood System” This was promoted by most of the big wood producer associations around the US. It is really a good system, but it didn’t go over well, because 1) they didn’t really promote it hardly at […]

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Installing insulation in attic

Does anyone have DIY experience with putting in insulation? My mom has decided she wants to add extra insulation and feels it’s a DIY job… advice? — I added blown in insulation to what was already in the attic. I bought 20 bails of R-19 Cellulose Insulation and that came with a free rental of […]

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Insulating the crawl space under my house

I have a house that was built in the 50’s. It is pier and post construction (the house has about a 3 foot crawl space underneath). We noticed in January that the floors, even with carpet, were always cold and often felt damp. ( not actually wet, just from the cold) A friend of ours […]

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Vapor barriers for walls

What do I need to know about vapor barriers and wall insulation. I will be re-doing some of my outside walls and want to add insulation. Some walls will be accessable from the inside. Some, from the outside (maybe). Some may be accessable from the inside now and the outside later. What do I need […]

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Rotten, moldy sill plate

We decided to get rid of the carpet in our basement in an effort to get rid of some mold and see if our allergies improved as a family. Well, the carpet and padding are gone and we’re working on a couple areas of the lower wall around the room. In the process of scraping […]

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