There are four special temperature considerations in the basement.The air temperature in the basement is not always the same as that in the rest of the house. In a house with exterior basement insulation, the massive foundation wall is warm and slows down temperature changes (hotter or colder...
Any of the following five factors can make matters worse:-- Thermally conductive soils: Dense soils that hold water fairly well, in contact with the basement wall are asking for trouble. Clay soils are even worse in that they allow migration upward of water through capillary action, the prim...
The three fundamental cures for basement problems are: removing the water from the outside, using granular back fill or a drainage layer against the foundation wall and insulating on the outside of the basement. Any one could stop or prevent a problem, all three of them together is the bes...
This is the most controversial question about basement insulation. Everyone, however, agrees on two points:-- Outside the wall, go as far down as you can afford to. -- Concrete block walls have large continuous air cavities that run the height of the wall. (The code now requires that this air ...
Air leaks account for the greatest loss of heating dollars from Canadian homes. These are easily solved by sealing. The greatest conductive heat losses occur through the basement. Canadian basements typically lose more heat than ceilings because attics usually have a little insulation (eve...
Doors are large openings in the wall which fall somewhere between windows and walls as far as the heat losses go. You can lose as much heat through a door leading to an unheated garage or basement as you can through the front door.It is now common to buy insulated metal or fiberglass doors th...
You can either insulate the existing doors yourself or buy insulated doors.Often a door to an unheated garage or basement was never intended to keep the heat in. In addition to weather-stripping these doors, add insulation to the outside. Foam panels are the easiest way to do this, but they ...
Caulking is actually a common name for what is properly called "sealants".Contrary to the recommendations of almost every handyman book from the US, do not caulk on the outside of the house except where necessary to keep rain, driving rain and blowing snow from penetrating into the wall. Any ...
There are really only two practical methods to scientifically test for heat losses in a residential house:Infra-red thermography: using infrared sensitive film you can take a "heat picture" of the house. Hot and cold areas show up on the infra-red film to give an image of your house -- it's more...
When scientists measure the movement of heat (thermal transfer) through a material, they calculate it in something called the U-factor, a measure of thermal conductivity. A small number indicates a material that conducts heat poorly and a high one indicates a material that conducts heat well....
