Weatherproofing

The other day we realized that the living room would definitely be a lot warmer if we, you know, sealed up those gaps that light shines through. So Noel stopped by the hardware store after work to get a can of spray foam, which he used to make a bunch of these:

I think it kind of looks like pudding. Works like a charm, though!

This afternoon we decided to spend some time putting up tar paper around the house (tar paper is a stupid name for tar-impregnated felt, which is kind of unpleasantly sticky but also nice and strong and mostly weather resistant). This is largely to protect the walls from weather, but it also helps with the draft situation. Here's the alley before we started:

We unrolled it all the way, then worked our way across stapling it up, cutting out for the pipes and so forth as we went.

The tricky bits were where multiple services exited the building, like here where we have an outlet, the sump drain, a spigot, and our gas meter all in one tiny spot.

Here's the first layer of tar paper up, without the additional layers where we had to cut around services.

The we went through and carefully trimmed around openings, making a flap to cover any horizontal slits.

To do the top of the wall, Noel cut a roll of tar paper in half and we slid it up under the siding. It looks kind of nice when it's done. Hmm, maybe we should paint the base of the house black when we repaint.

It was dark by the time we got all the way around the house (and we definitely are not finished), so I can't show you the photos of the amusing mess we made of the back wall, but maybe tomorrow, in between concrete batches, I can get a photo.

Technorati Tags: weather

posted by ayse on 12/01/06