Ideas for insulating

[Anonymous]

Hey there,

We're in a 90-year-old row house and, boy, it's starting to feel chilly. Anybody have tips on insulating? (Curtains? Rugs? Anything???)

[Anonymous]

Moving?

A lot of air comes in from around a window and door, take a lighter and hold it up around the framing, seems, and under doors. It helps some but insulation in the attic, and in the basement helps a lot.

If you get new windows and doors, get the middle grade, no need to get the ones for the artic cirlce.

[Anonymous]

All of the above. And you can put rolled up blankets or draft stopper by the doors

They have drapes that are supposed to help insulate/block out noise and light as well. We have those in the bedroom.

[Anonymous]

If you want to spend a lot of money, replace your windows and insulate the attic.

If you want to spend a little money, install rubber weatherstripping around all your doors. (Don't get the foam on a roll stuff... get the metal strips with rubber flanges and install with the included screws.)

If you want to spend no money, figure out some strategic arrangement of vents and doors. For example, in my house, I close the dining room vent because it's open to two other rooms and doesn't need it. I close the guest room vent when we're not using it. I keep the basement door open to allow the heat to rise, and I close doors to bathrooms and closets. The point, of course, is to concentrate and direct the air flow to the parts of the house where it's needed most. Make sure that none of your vents (including the intake) are blocked by furniture.

Oh, maybe you don't have forced air... well, if it's radiators, I'm not sure if the same theory applies. With air, less in the basement = more in the living room. Not sure if that's the case for radiator heat.

[Anonymous]

If you have original single-pane windows (as does our 100-year-old rowhouse), I recommend the plastic window insulation kits--you tape a piece of plastic around the inside of your window, shrink it with a hair dryer and leave it in place all winter. I've found that the Ace Hardware brand is the clearest. It can look a bit ghetto, but it really does make a big difference--we use them every year.

I'm also a big believer in insulated curtains AND honeycomb blinds, on every window.

If you can get someone to watch your kids for a day, I highly recommend going up into your attic (or crawl space, in our case) and laying down insulation. Get the kind without batting and just lay it on top of what's already there. It'll cost around $75 for the insulation, plus your labor (took my husband & me, both of us utterly unskilled, about 5 hours to cover ~700 square feet). I haven't noticed that this has reduced our heating bill much, but it makes the house feel much more comfortable.

[Anonymous]

We're getting our insulation done in the attic by ACR for about a thousand dollars - http://www.acrinsulation.com/general-info/The-Leader-in-the-Insulation-Business.html.