Hurricane Shutters, Heart Pine, Insulation and a banner
A potpouri:
I received this email:
A couple of suggested topics for the blog, the first has to do with hurricane shutters for these wood frame houses. I have heard ¾ in plywood sheets or sheets of lexan plastic. Either works; the question is how to mount them without damaging the wood frames around the window.
The second item, we need a Seminole Heights house banner. Tampa Heights has one. It can be seen at http://www.tampaheights.org/images/bannerLg.jpg
Also on our email list were these 2 questions
"This cold weather is driving me nuts. It costs a fortune to heat the
place b/c the walls and floor don't retain the heat.
I know the attic is the most important to insulate as that is where
most of the heat loss takes place. I am going to replace the existing
insulation on the attic floor.
Has anyone insulated their walls? Has it made a difference? Has anyone
insulated their floor from below the house or added additional
insulation in the rafters of the roof?"
"I will need a bunch of heart pine. Where can you buy it? Is there a
local place?"
8 comments:
1.I have yet to execute this idea, but I have thought of making the storm shutters the same size as my screens. Assuming you have the original double-hung sash windows, you can use the same hanging hardware along the top edge of the panel. Add a couple of hook and eye latches on the inside of the panel to secure it. This should make installation easy and will only leave a few relatively inconspicuous eyes along the inside of the jamb.
2. The insulation in the attic is the most important, but insulating the walls and floors will help a lot. Insulating the walls involves removing a piece of siding along the top edge of each wall and blowing the insulation into each studbay from the outside. Probably best left to a professional unless you're pretty handy. Doing the floors is just as you'd imagine, crawling under the house on your back. Not a lot of fun, but not too difficult.
3. If you are looking for heart pine flooring, Home Depot carries a line of pre-finished 3/4" solid heart pine flooring made by a company called DBM. The last I checked, it was selling somewhere in the $5.00 per sq. ft. range. This is the best deal that I've come across.
Used heart pine flooring can sometimes be found on Ebay.
We resided (wood) one side of our home and in the process put in insulation. Honestly if I had the paint job to do all over again I would have replaced all the siding in place of scraping and put in insulation. We used rolls that fit perfect between the studs. We did a lot of work around that time so it's hard to say if it cut our power bill, but it did cut down road noise.
Heart of pine can be purchased in large quantities from Goodwin pine in Micanopy, Fl.
http://www.heartpine.com/
Anonymous #2....thanks for the Heart Pine in Micanopy link.
Devon...thanks for the shutter and insulation info.
Anonymous #1 thanks for the insulation info.
I will insulate one way or another this year. I run my heat at 80 degrees and it is still very cold in several rooms, namely the ones I occupy most. The a/c unit is new and blows heat fine. The house bleeds heat something awful.
Also the link to the Tampa Heights Banner is:
http://www.tampaheights.org/images/bannerLg.jpg
I know we have lots of artists in Seminole Heights. Hopefully someone can draw up something cool. Maybe a bungalow with downtown in background, the river and some other items unique to Seminole Heights.
Be cautious when insulating your floors. You can create moisture issues and warp your floors. Our houses were built to let air flow freely under them.
Read up on this carefully before attempting it or you could replace one problem with another.
ANON #3:
Running your heat at 80 degrees? WOW! I am stunned. I heat at 65 degrees, and have an energy efficient heat pump as part of the CHA unit.
I don't mean to pick on you, but that comment just blows my mind. Seriously, dude, your electric bills must be outrageous. That's so damn hot- considering we have yet to even have any kind of noticable winter this year.
Wowza. And, I moved to Tampa from further-south climes.
Have you thought of having the thermostat relocated? With the newer digital ones they tend to only reflect the space they are located in.
err...insulated the old bungalow atttic space up to 30R value. More expensive but average electric bill is $80=90 / mo and that is a/c at 78 degrees, heat at 65. 1200 sq ft bungie, with all the original ancient energy inefficient windows
Good topics! Especially appreciate the lead on the lumber from Micanopy.
Great advice on hurricane shutters Thanks Devon
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