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House built in 1979 needs improvement

TheRealSamsquanch | Posted in Green Building Techniques on

I want to start improving my current house that I am living in. So far I’ve been spray foaming all the obvious stuff and fixing air leaks from vents etc. I want to know what order to address the common deficiencies of a house built in the late 70’s on the Canadian prairies. 

So far the main things I’ve found are:

No acoustiseal for top plate penetrations in attic
No vapor barrier in rim joists. Most are inaccessible unless I start tearing down drywall or cutting subfloor but I’ve spray foamed the ones with penetrations. The fibreglass has spots where it’s dirty from air infiltration in the joist space. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I don’t have a dedicated combustion air intake for my water heater and it still draws from leakage. I’m allowed 50K BTU before I need a dedicated intake and I’m sitting at 36K right now. SaskEnergy is offering 1000$ rebates for on demand water heaters so I might just do that this year.

Vapor barrier on wrong side of garage ceiling. living space above garage and poly is on bottom of joists below insulation. The garage insulation has spots where the insulation was popped up and there are air gaps between it and the poly.

No insulation over exterior concrete. 

I’m unsure if there is acoustiseal between the poly and the walls and if I can seal this from the attic. 

HVAC ducts aren’t duct sealed and leak into joist space (return leaks the worst)

For 1250 sq ft of attic I have 4 soffit vents cut into plywood soffit. There is some rust on 10 yr old roofing nails from excessive humidity.

One bathroom fan has a vertical vent that isn’t insulated and is only a few feet long. This could be rerouted to a wall vent with 15′ of insulated flex.

Wood fireplace is unused and not capped

Dual pane wooden frame windows everywhere along with original doors. Some windows have failed seals and condensation inside if them. Lots of the interior panes are removable and I’m pretty sure they leak.

Attic access hatches have R12 at best for insulation.

R20 blown in insulation in attic. I don’t want to touch this until I’m confident the attic is air sealed goodishly.

2×4 exterior walls with fibreglass batts and sandwich bag material for vapor barrier. Lots of pan boxes for electrical aren’t sealed either. I was considering using those foam gaskets that go between the wall and coverplate.

Today I’m replacing a dryer vent with a flapper exhaust so I don’t bleed cold air in when not in use. It’s winter right now so I don’t want to start working on the roof but the attic is fine to work in. I’m not sure what to address next but I’m hoping someone here has experience with this type of construction. 

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