We built our house in 2018 and from the time we moved in, thev2nd floor has had a wide variance in temperature...often 10-15° hotter in summer or colder in winter than the thermostat setting. Almost 3yrs later we think we solved the problem. The handle of the damper in the duct to the 2nd floor is misaligned. No matter whether opened or closed it was actually at 45° in the duct restricting air flow. Fixed it and there's significantly more pressure at the 2nd floor vents and the rooms are the same temperature as the thermostat setting.
Well, that was fun. Not. Was sitting on the deck having a visit with my sister when we noticed a burning smell. Cut to me discovering my shop's heater exhaust packed with nesting material, eggs, and a well-smoked sparrow, all thanks to a failed vent screen that had finally rotted out after 10 or so years. Cue me climbing a ladder and pulling burnt remains down on me as I emptied the exhaust and wired in some new stainless screen. So yeah... learn from my "fun times"... have a friendly reminder, now that it's nesting season... might want to take a look at various holes into your house and make sure they're still properly protected against critters.
Well that temp fix definitely was temp. Time for a more permanent fix tomorrow, now that the hose clamp has shown up. Spoiler
I've done the same thing for my furnace and hot water heater exhaust. Those small birds are a nuisance for sure. Rat wire and a hose clamp works great.
Those little finches and sparrows are like hydra--kill one and two rise in its place. No sense trying to pick them off.
Doing some landscaping upgrades to the house. More specifically, I'm watching others do it while I stay in the comfort of the air conditioning. It's fucking HOT out there this week! Ripping out the 15+ year old shrubs that had taken over everything, putting in a nice brick border to help with mowing the lawn, and more low-maintenance upgrades. All the new stuff shows up on Monday. Spoiler: spoilered for size That being said, the best improvement to the front of the house showed up yesterday: Spoiler
Next major upgrade to the house will be to replace the interlocking brick with tinted and sculpted concrete. Get a nice, continuous pour for the driveway (widening the driveway onto the front lawn a bit), and then wrap it around the side of the house, along the back, and into a big patio area behind the shop. It'll replace a shitty concrete walkway and some patchwork stone work paths, and shitty bricks that are already there. Mind you, that won't even begin to happen until next year, as all the outdoor contractors are just slammed and have zero time to answer the phones, never mind schedule the work.
Landscaping is done... now just to wait for it and the grass to grow in. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Next up is a replacement concrete driveway.
Also had most of the back yard around the vegetable raised boxes changed up... ripped out all the sod and put in mulch, in prep for an expansion next year.
I have what I'm sure will seem to be a stupid question, but I never said I was a handyman so here goes: Under two rooms of our house, is a dirt floor crawl space, completely uninsulated, only plastic sheeting over the dirt. Ya gotta love the way old timers did things. As we're trying to get our house buttoned up a little better for energy efficiency I've put out a call to a contractor specializing in crawl spaces and basements. This space looks big in the pic, but it's only maybe 2 feet high, and my big ass isn't gonna fit through the little opening ( picture Winnie the Pooh stuck in Rabbit's hole ) or be able to maneuver around under there. Theres the wood sub floor, and then hardwood flooring over top of that. Here's what I'm wondering: If we were to carpet those two rooms with the thickest padding available, do you think that be of any benefit comparable to if we insulated this crawl space?
Carpet and padding has an R value of 0.2 - 2.0. The worst insulation you would put in the crawl space would be R-13, but R-30 is recommended, so that's the way you should go. You would notice a huge difference between the effectiveness of carpet and insulation. Is there any way you could do spray foam in the crawl space? That would seal up the air gaps too.
https://www.houseneeds.com/learning...-heating/flooring-r-value-different-materials You’ll get some insulating effects but nowhere near that of proper insulation.
I just got off the phone with a contractor who said he could do the entire ceiling of the crawlspace ( under the floor ) of closed cell spray foam insulation 3" thick for what I think is pretty reasonable. So we're very likely to go with that. In fact, I'm going to see what it would cost for them to do the underside of our roof in the attic vs. the cost of material for me to insulate it myself with old school rolls.
Yeah and like I said, the price is less than what I was expecting. Now the trick is to get them here, and figure out how to get a human in that crawlspace. It's a pretty small opening. But he said he has some skinny guys working for him.
Anyone have any experience with attic fans? The bearing in mine blew up yesterday. Had to kill the breaker for a room and some hallway lights to kill it. I think it's original to the house, so I need to update/replace it. I'm looking for something that I can have better control over... right now I have no way to turn it on when I want (it's thermostat controlled), or to just just it off... right now it's just hard wired into a power circuit into a spare bedroom. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm looking for something that I can control way better than just a hard-wired thermostat. I don't want to have to climb up into an attic full of blown insulation to turn it on/off or set a temp for it... there MUST be better solutions by now. I've Googled some stuff and found a few mentions of bluetooth controlled systems, solar panel powered ones, etc., but it all looks cheesy as fuck, and the electrician/hvac guys can show up for another 2 weeks. Thoughts?
I haven't lived in a house with an attic fan since the early '90s, but here's my take on it: Keep the thermostatic control, BUT have the electrician* install a simple switch to turn it off if you want it off. It should be a piece of cake. As far as recommendations on brands/ models, I have no idea. *Or you could do it; installing a properly rated switch on an existing circuit isn't rocket science, or even brain surgery, for that matter.