I just spent this past weekend in Massachusetts doing some weatherization on my Mom’s cape style house. It was built in 1953 and had an addition added circa 1960. The addition is a den built off one side and connects to a garage. The den has always been cold and drafty. Through the years, my parents had made attempts to insulate the foundation/crawlspace, and caulk cracks without much luck. With the recent cold weather, Mom has been complaining, so I thought I’d have a go at it.
I came across several building techniques that seem questionable to me, and wonder if they were the norm back then. First off, I am starting to think there is no insulation in the walls. Certainly there is none under the bay-window. (There were cracks in it which I could look through) The common wall with the main house is cold. It is t&g paneling and there are some drafts coming through the joints and along the mop board. I suspect the addition was built on top of the siding because the trim on the outside looks like it is scribed against the shingles. It seems to me this is asking for air infiltration, no?
There was a gap between the oak floor and the mop board where cold air was coming in. Because of the paneling, I thought I could do a better job caulking if I pulled the mop board off and caulked behind it……but it had been installed before the floor…the floor boards butt up to it, and are scribed around the door casing! I looked around the house, and all the floors were done this way. The more I look around this house I grew up in, I see things with a fresh eye. There are cases where the molding is scribed and butted rather than mitred, etc.
The builder (long deceased) was a local recommended carpenter. Is this a case of the way they used to do things? Or was the guy just a hick with a hammer…………
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I am no expert, but I am local, and I have found that most of the houses built around here in the 50's are of pretty crappy construction, particularly the "post war cape" and a big step down from the mass produced houses built from about 1910 until WWII.
Insulation in the 50's is a crapshoot, some have it, most don't. Consider yourself lucky not to have sawdust or cork insulation, which was widely used here in the 50's.
When they built the original part of the house, my parents went with the 'latest thing' which by their description is a radiant foil paper. They always regretted it, and sometime in the 1970's had insulation blown in to the north walls. Dad also put a lot of insulation in the cap. I just thought that by the 60's insulation would have been standard.......
also lots of air leaks in attics of those homes due to openings all the way to the basement
I just thought that by the 60's insulation would have been standard
Probably depends on the area, but around here (midwest and mid atlantic) it was well into the '70s before most houses had any insulation.
When gas was really cheap, no one cared that their house was not efficient, since their gas bill was only $15 a month or so. Around 1977 the gas crisis hit, and insulation became common.