My next 20 year project

[brburns]

Well, I think I am going to move into my grandparent's old house after I sell mine. It is a 1890 ish home that has been in my family since it was built. Ther are a bunch of project that will be comeing up with it. One project is that there is no inulation in the walls. I am told that the walls are flled with bricks. I guess they thought that that would help keep it warm or cold. Has anyone heard of that being done? It sure makes it a pain to insulate. I have a feeling that I will be asking allot here soon. there is allot to be done and I don't hire anyone to do wook for me unless it's WAY over my head.

[imahic]

I've done the remodel thing and sure wouldn't want to start another one. I don't envy you at all.

[TDHofstetter]

Wow - THAT sounds EXTREME. Immensely heavy, too. We're gonna' hope that was never done, 'cause it'd be a real pain to undo. We'll find out in short order, though - you'll select one outside wall & pull the baseboard off. A little more than 2" up from the floor, where it'll be hidden by the baseboard, we'll poke a hole through the plaster with a discardable drill bit. If it hits brick inside (it'll go all the way to the BOTTOM, I'm sure), we'll pout. If not, you're good to go with something approaching the description of real INSULATION.

[brburns]

My understanding is that it was built this way. I have ALLOT of investigating to do....

[deepsplinter]

Mar 31, 2010 19:56:07 GMT -6 imahic said:

I've done the remodel thing and sure wouldn't want to start another one. I don't envy you at all.

Same here.

On second thought, I wouldn't mind remodeling another house, but I sure wouldn't do it while I lived in it (again).

I hope you don't need to tear out plaster & lathe walls.

IMO, nothing tests a marriage any more than remodeling a house (while you live in it) and going canoeing together.

[brburns]

Luckly there is alot of space in the house so 1 room can be closed off at a time without much inconveinence, except for the kitchen. Kitchen is one of the first few projects too. Although i keep telling my wife that I need my barn first so that I have a shop to build the cabinets in.

[CajunRider]

I'm with you there. Build your shop first! I didn't and I paid for it.

As for the big project, well y'all know how I feel about big projects.

[Joe Lyddon]

I would think the bricks in the walls for insulation would work pretty well... probably the best thing they could do in that day...

Concrete block walls work great keeping rooms warm in the winter and cooler in summer...

Why couldn't bricks work the same way?

It may be worth having some heating/cooling measurements made to see just how efficient they are... compared to new stuff??

Very interesting!

How about the wiring? Has it been upgraded?

I'll bet it's a real COOL / GREAT house to live in...

[rrich]

Sounds illogical to me, insulating a wall with bricks. Why not just build the wall with bricks if they were available?

As for living in a house during a remodel, there is only one requirement.

Both you and SWMBO must be "Fox Hole" types. i.e. When the Do-Do starts flying, you both dig a fox hole and wait until the Do-Do stops flying.

[sawduster]

I'm wondering if the house wasn't originally made of brick and then later got furred out for siding. Can't imagine using brick as rubble between framing members.

I saw pictures of my grandparents' house right after they bought it and the main part of the original house was adobe brick. It was later stuccoed and plastered inside.

[wisardd1]

spray fiber insulation that will fill in between cracks. That has to be alot better than breaking down walls.

[brburns]

It was definatly not a brick house later transfomed. I know that much. I don't know if the bricks were from a knocked down building or something....time will tell. I'm hoping not to tear out very many walls since 95% of the plaster is in great shape. I think we will have to wait a year and see how the heating actually goes. I was mainly just wondering if anyone had heard of house with this done, or if it was unique.

[Stretch]

I've heard of using brick rubble in the walls. From what I understand, if you want to insulate, you'll be better off leaving the outer walls as they are and then just adding framing up against the outer wall, insulating and drywalling. Doing it this way would also facilitate rewiring if that was necessary. It would just take some special consideration how you work around the windows.