Hi all!

We live in an old two story farm type home from 1870. It is built in a more or less cross design, with the living room on the North end, dinning room, stairs, and "rumpus" room in the center (going East-West), and the kitchen on the South side. The center section (E-W) is over a basement of the same size, but the North and South ends are crawl spaces. There are some cracks in the old rock you could toss a rabbit through. The problem is the cold really moves under the house with ease, and in the great cold we're enjoying here, my pipes really want to freeze. What is a REALLY CHEAP way I can get a quick fix to at least stop direct air flow until spring? With propane so high, and us using 100 lb. a week to heat, we just can't afford much, but must doing something ASAP to save money on heating. We just can't afford much. PLEASE - ALL SUGGESTION WELCOME! (It's probobly 160' of foundation, outside length around. We've tried some foam... still need help)

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), January 03, 2001

Answers

Bank the house with hay , put black plastic up on the foundation .Hang blankets on walls and windows or even better quilts .Go to good will if you do not have enough .You could even staple plastic on inside walls.

-- Patty (fodfarms@slic.com), January 03, 2001.

Straw bales are real good. If you have snow, use that. Snow is a really good insulator. If you want real cheap and temporary, pile up leaves against the foundation. Or buy the sheets of styrfoam insulation and cut to fit and put them inside the foundation. Seal seams with duct tape.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), January 03, 2001.

I helped my neighbor with a similar problem. Our solution was to take Commercial grade tin foil and line the area under the house and up in the attic. using the poor mans secret weapon (duct tape) to connect it. It worked so well he waited 2 years to do anymore to it.

If there is a printing place near you try their dump. Large commercial rolls of paper are wrapped in strrofoam in plastic to kill off static. They call it waste we call in insulation. In fact its the same as AMACORE siding insulation. A friend that works at a printing place here insulated the whole church for $25 by utilizing the free stuff from work.

Hope this helps.

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), January 03, 2001.

Marty, you need to seal up the cracks to stop the draft, cement isn't expensive, and in the freezing weather you add an antifreeze formula so that it cures properly. After that take the great advice and hang thrift shop quilts, found foam, haunt new house construction sites, they're always throwing away perfectly good stuff. Even the home centers have huge discounts on 'damaged' merch, that could save you a bundle! Good luck, and stay warm!!!

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), January 03, 2001.

I use Eric's suggestion all around our 1862 era field stone walled foundationed farm house, snow is a great insulator, and we usually have enough snow to make it work well when the temps. are extremely low, and the winds kick up. Since the flower beds are there, they get extra insulation and protection too (have lots of perennials all around the house foundation).

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 03, 2001.

How about that expanding foam stuff? you could always knock it out later to do a more aesthetically pleasing repair. It's fairly cheap and gets into all of the cracks. Just use caution so that you don't actually push loose rocks out of the foundation with the expansion force!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 03, 2001.

Our first winter in this farmhouse, we used tar paper around the whole outside bottom of the house. We just tacked it up. It's very cheap, looks very tacky, but works. I took it off in spring. Then the next fall, we took sheets of metal roofing and cut them and nailed them up, like mobile home skirting, up and down, around the house. I painted them the color of the house and it looks fine.

Straw is a quick fix. You can stuff straw anywhere there is holes, and especially around the pipes under the house. I took 3 bales under there a few weeks ago, I am the only one who will fit under ours, on my stomach, inching my way down under the beams in dug out holes. I don't like it, but frozen pipes are worse. Once I had all my dogs follow me under there! Oh, the dust!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 04, 2001.

Thanks for all of the good advice. We're checking into cheap hay or straw that's too old for animals for putting around the outside, if we can find some. The stryafoam and foil sound good, as does the black paper on the outside. We have to see what we can manage.

Thanks again! :-)

Marty

-- Marty (mrs.puck@excite.com), January 05, 2001.