Inching Along
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The Cross House
Before.
After.
Your email address will NEVER be made public or shared, and you may use a screen name if you wish.
Wow!
You are amazing!
Remarkable work!
Wow, this looks awesome! I wonder if there’s a reason, why is the wood paneling underneath here horizontal, and the other corner you had to redo was diagonal? Excuse me for my ignorance, it just occurred to me that it looks like each was originally built the way you replaced it, but… differently.
Wow, that’s impressive! Fast and good work.
Well done, Ross. The Babysteps Method once again proved to be effective.
Wow, that was fast. Great job.
It’s fascinating to watch you transform an area in such a short amount of time, Ross.
Once again, Superman has saved the day or I should say Cross House! WOW!!
Looking at the Before I’m reminded of the view into my sister’s wall after an ice dam. She took advantage of the situation to add some insulation. Have lived in a late 19th Century home of much more modest proportions, I was quite impressed with the improvement in comfort that a bit of insulation made. Our mother inherited an 18th C farmhouse and it was quite lovely to have the draft at the end of the living room go away, after the installation of a little insulation in just one wall. I know you’ve spoken of how the plaster and wood regulate the temperature of the building but my experience with insulation has been that it’s a marvelous thing. I wonder what the reasons would be for not insulating, not as a project, but piecemeal as exterior walls are open? What problems can insulation introduce?
Now this could be ENTIRELY inaccurate because I’m relying on my memory and that likes to mimic Swiss cheese, sooo, large pinch of salt at the ready? But, I THINK Ross said that the dead air space between the interior and exterior wall of a wooden building is needed to let it breathe? So stuffing that space full of insulation will have the same kind of effect as you wearing a plastic bag on your head.
Not suffocation! EEK! Though maybe it is, really… 🤔 But condensation. Blocking up that evaporation space creates damp between the walls where there was none before and then rot sets in. So a steep price to pay for more warmth. :O
Now I’ll patiently await Ross to step in with his red pen and correct all my inaccuracies. I hope I remembered/understood at least part of it rightly.😅
I’ll see your Swiss cheese and raise you a couple of holes (I think I got my gambling terminology right). I thought part of the reason one sees so many homes with their siding off and Tyvek going up was that it’s a sort of Gore-Tex for buildings, allowing condensation to move out but not in. I’ve even seen buildings where the siding hasn’t made it back on and the housewrap is doing the whole job of weather protection. That never looked like a good idea to me. Buildings do need to breath, for sure, and I thought Modern Technology had finally come up with some helpful answers.
Hahaha, I love the gambling analogy! It would be wonderful if there is a way for modern insulation to work WITH an old house, it would be even nicer if something using natural materials like wool could be used, I think. Sadly I’ve zero knowledge about anything like this. I think Ross has/had some exposed Tyvek on the outside somewhere… kitchen/servants hall? But we know he’d definitely not be leaving that as a permanent feature!
My modest home came with the spaces between the studs filled with fairly natural material. Bricks. They were special soft poofy bricks intended as a safety feature to stop fire. They may also have been intended as insulation but they were a heat sink so the R value was negative. They also fell apart and as the crumbs of terra semi-cotta fell down the wall they pushed the siding out. Over the windows the siding bowed out beyond the trim. I was thrilled to get the brick out.
Ahhhh. Sealed! So much better.