Our smallest and oldest property is 70 years old. It's a small (1000 SF) 1 story brick home with an extension built roughly 25 years ago with wood siding built on a slab. The main section is on a crawl space.

Here's the problem. We are experiencing extremely cold weather which is becoming more prevalent in this area and the tenant is reporting that even though the heating system is working fine it can't get the house warm enough.

One of the main culprits is an exterior door off the side of the house. It has 1/4 to 1/2 " gaps between the door and door frame. The door is smaller than the ones made today and to install a new door would require increasing the size of the door frame but to do that we'd need to remove the brick on both sides of the doorframe.

We completed extensive renovations this past summer. I think that when we decided to get rid of carpet and refinish the hardwoods throughout we removed a barrier to the air from underneath the house. We can't blow insulation in the crawl space (I don't think) since all of the water lines are in the crawl space and I'm guessing that blowing insulation would restrict needed access. Also, the air vents for the crawl space are old and have no open/close option.

Two years ago we repaired the 3 walls of siding on the extension and replaced the drywall so that we could put new insulation between the siding and drywall. There are no air vents for heating/cooling in the extension since the furnace is in the attic and the attic doesn't extend over the extension. I would install an in-wall electric heater but it is a concrete wall that would be closest to the furnace so I'm not sure how that would work.

We also replaced all the windows throughout the house including the extension with energy efficient windows.

My plan is to install insulation in the crawl space. I've seen two options: double bubble insulation and foam board.

I also want to install new air vents in the crawl space. which is better automatic replacement vents or louvered vent?

I have a handyman who use to do framing on new homes. He recommends building up the part of the door frame to close the gaps and resetting the door. Your thoughts?

What are my options for heating the extension? Oddly it stays cool in the summer so heat is the concern.

Thanks in advance for your input.

What is the actual size of the existing door? We regularly cut down the height & width of doors to fit odd size frames. You could also add to the existing door to make it fit the opening better.

In the crawl space you should be able to add insulation at the rim joist that hangs down the inside of the foundation wall from the underside of the floor to the ground. Before doing this seal between the top of the foundation & the sill with either caulking or spray foam to help reduce air movement. It's also possible to spray fire rated foam on the inside of the foundation.

In our area for both attics & crawl spaces it's common to use exhaust fans controlled by both a humidistat & a temperature control. I would presume in NC you would be more concerned with high humidity than with heat in a crawl space.

You didn't mention anything about insulation in the brick walls. It's easy to blow in cellulose insulation from the interior provided there isn't any knob & tube wiring.

I didn't understand your concern about installing an in wall electric heater in a concrete wall. As long as you have a way to get the wire to it, the heater could either be mounted on the wall or a hole can easily be cut thru a concrete wall.

Door:

Rather than replace the door, you could replace the threshold to one that makes better contact and add a contact strip on bottom of door. The sides can be filled with insulation strips for doors. I doubt you need to remove it. If the gaps are that big, maybe you can add some wood to the frame to close the gaps and install weather stripping.

Floors:

I suggest spray foam insulation. It's easier to implement than cutting foam board to fit. While you're at it, look at the pipe insulation since the pipes are exposed. You may want to ask others on this, but if you insulate the subfloor, you may create an issue with moisture buildup in the subfloor since that moisture can't permeate through the flooring. Therefore, additional venting may be needed in subfloor. Also, are you covering the subfloor vents on the side of the house in the winter?

Walls:

Blown in insulation works best but it creates holes. The company we used made clean drywall cuts and used those drywall plugs to patch the holes so the biggest job was mudding and painting after insulation.

Attic:

1st things first.....Everything Steve (MA) (and others) have said, is super solid advice. You may not need any further advice. That being said.

I love a good mystery.....

Are you saying that the door (slab) is 1/2" smaller than it should be? Although ,not pretty, a strip of wood can easily be added to the hinge side and the top of the existing door slab. You may need to re-chisel the hinges, but no big deal. Box stores sell a weather strip kit that is wood w the removable(replaceable) vinyl weather strip. add that to the outside jamb. It covers at least a 1/2" gap. I am guessing that this is a 30"/32" door? As stated above, although probably not the best option, a solid wood 36" door slab can be trimmed down to fit(30" may be pushing it). Also, I have installed many doors in brick homes but have never had to cut the brick. It may involve some creative brick mold work,(or minimal brick mold), but there is almost always a way to make it work. I would be curious how your HM will add a 1/4" to the jamb (that will last.) He may be right, I just don't know.

As far as the crawl space, (adding to what Steve(MA)said above) I am a big fan of sealing off the crawlspace and making it a "conditioned space".(foam panels on foundation walls, multi layers of 6mill- or greater-mill plastic - open up a vent) This eliminates the craziness of how we suspend everything in outside air temp in a crawl space, while eliminating air movement. Honestly it's insane how we have done it all these years. This option may be a bit too expensive for a rental home, but I have seen it work miracles in drafty homes. Just a thought. At a minimum, do as suggested and insulate the rim w some foam board and expandable foam. With a little more effort, whoever is down there can also spray around the plumbing electrical lines, eliminating some of the chimney effect.

Best of luck.

Also...Does the home have pull down stairs for attic access? I don't know if my memory is completely accurate but something like 60/70% of heat lose is through that type of door. They are terrible. I build a box out of the 2" pink foam boards to be placed on top of the stairs in the attic. It's a pain to move out of the way, but it helps. The box stores sell a type of attic access cover w a zipper{??} door. Look near the pull down attic stairs.

Anything you can do to eliminate the chimney effect, will also eliminate drafts.

1Gr81, can you explain the construction of this box?

I was thinking how to stop warm air to escape this staircase and never heard anything like this before.

Nothing fancy. 2" thick pink foam sheets (box store). $40-ish. Cut into dimensions w a box blade(I actually use a table saw...but I digress). If you want to be exact, get a helper to close you into the attic (or make the helper do it...lol) and measure how much the stairs stick up when closed. Make the sides of your box a little taller than that and a little longer/wider than the opening...add top. Glue together w the foam adhesive/caulk. I get a little crazy and screw down some 2x4's around the perimeter of where the box will sit. I believe it helps it sit where it is supposed to. You can also add a piece of insulation on top to give it some weight.

Something to consider, is not making it too tall that it wont fit through the attic access, or if you are like me and trust no-one, assemble it in the attic and intentionally make it too big for a tenant to take w them. Sad but true.

Best of luck.

Thank you, 1Gr81!

I will show this to my husband.

As an energy auditor I would do a infrared camera scan to see where you are losing heat. The door is an easy fix so I won't duplicate above on that subject. I suspect that the slab in the addition is sucking all the heat out of that section. Concrete is R-1 per inch. Ground is 50 degrees and the room is 70 degrees your delta of 30 degrees has the heat going to warm up the slab. Remember hot AIR rises but heat doesn't care which direction it goes - it always travels to the nearest cold spot to equalize that difference. Walls are insulated as good as you can for now..... unless you add it to exterior of walls. Without being able to insulate the floor with ridged foam sheets between sleepers and a new sub floor you will need to add more heat.

As to the electric in-wall heater: our cabins have steel walls, can't be cut into without huge effort. So DH simply built a wooden box of nicely painted 2 x 4's, hung it on the wall, and installed the 220-volt in-wall heater in the box. It looks fine and works great.

Some of our places have had gaps and such around door frames. DH filled the gaps with expanding foam and framed around it with molding to hide it - it looked good.

Air sealing,air sealing, air sealing!!,

Get a blower door test, some utilities will do it for free.

It will tell you how leaky your house is.It porbably will surprise you.

Then use a large hi cap fan taped in a window with a plastic shroud and any fueled (HW,Boiler) exhaust blocked with fiberglass insulation so air doesn't come down the chimney from those. (important tape off the on/off switches with a note saying not to turn on until that stuffed insulation is removed!)

Turn on the fan which will make a partial vacuum, Like the blower door) but/and give you time to find leaks. In most houses adding up to a 3x3 foot window open 24/7 in ADDITION to what you need for good ventilation. Try to keep your place warm with such a window open all the time.

If you think your house is tight,..set up that fan and feel the air coming out,.. it is coming that fast in somewhere!

Try to set it up in a ground floor window ,in a common area open to most of the house ,then close all interior doors, crack open one at a time and note which room is most leaky and go after that one.

We mainly use DAP's Alex plus clear,..(note it drys pretty clear,doesn't look good at first) for caulking around baseboards,around window frames etc.

Do a post check, you should feel less air coming out of that room,.. then go to the next worse room.

It will make a difference, be sure to do the cellar!,.that air coming in will PUSH hot air out of your upper floors,..

Thats why if it very leaky down there, you wno't feel the cold air coming in as some TV, newspapers say to check on a cold day as the pressure is pretty significant and you won't feel the cold coming in,..

Amazing what you can do in an afternoon.

BTW. Sorry, but new windows unless really bad, are usually a big disappointment in saving energy costs.

Our resident energy auditor NHsailmaker keeps trying to tell us that but it seems that people still think it will work.

(there are reasons to replace windows but generally not for heat retention)

An infrared scan is also helpful,..even more if done when the fan is running.Many energy audits will use them,esp private companies that do them.

The fan we use draws almost 2 amps on hi,..you can get them for about 50 bucks,.they are often called portable whole house fans,..we bungee them in the window,...we also use then for drying,moving air around etc,..worth having around.

You can do a "poor mans" infrared scan not as good but telling,...on a cold day, pretend to boil 4 pots of potatoes as fast as possible,..adding hot water as necessary. have a few fans to push the vapor around the house. The moisture will collect on the coldest areas (note probably on those new windows) then on areas that are next (exterior walls) showing where it's the coldest.

My own house is pretty big,..people have a hard time believing how little we pay for heat in this cold western Ma town.After I got this place the utility called and thought we had installed a wood stove House built in 1900. not,.BTW ,I haven't gotten around to blowing insulation into the walls yet!

Crawl space, well it depends on what you think is OK to look at, I have used 4' wide reflective duct insulation,comes in a 50' roll. 1 1/2 or 2 inches thick (the first inch or two does about 90% of most insulation's that people put in. Many heating /plumbing supply stores have it.

Easy to put up,can be stuffed to cover sills, the reflective surface helps a bit with radiant energy bouncing back,.AND it makes your cellar SO MUCH BRIGHTER!

In moist basements we may put a layer of polyethylene plastic down first before the insulation,.,.makes the area MUCH dryer in summer.Helps a bit also with infiltration.

Thank you all for some great suggestions.

We figured out the problem with the door. The frame on the side where the latch plate is located has warped. The property was broken into the week we went to closing in 2007. The intruder removed all of the copper pipes and as an added welcome to the neighborhood kicked that door in. It was originally repaired by a door installation company (poor job?). Anyway our handyman is replacing the warped side of the frame.

The threshold is concrete but there is some space at the bottom of the door so we're adding a door sweep to close that off.

The crawl space.

He installed insulation backed with foil on the floor joists and replaced the old open vents to louvered vents. We are also replacing the door to the crawl space since the existing one has seen much better days.

The attic:

We sealed the attic and blew insulation in there about 2 years ago. It is a drop down attic door which was also replaced when we did the insulation. We also installed an attic tent cover which works very well. Liked it so much we put one on our drop down attic door. I'd never seen a drop down attic until I moved to the south.

Extension:

We have decided on a hydronic baseboard heater. The room is only 120 SF. I know they take a little longer to reach optimum heat but they are more cost efficient to run which I think the tenants will appreciate.

Duke Energy does free energy audits so I've scheduled them for next week. The changes will be completed and they can tell us if there is more that needs to be done.

We didn't replace the windows for energy efficiency they just needed to be replaced.

WNC, there is a cell phone that comes with an infrared app. I want to say the brand is Cat, as in Caterpiller tractors, not sure. My son has that phone because his phone always takes a beating, and that phone was designed for contractors. Pretty sturdy.

There is a Thermal Imaging app for both IOS and Android.

I never thought of that. I'll download it and see how it works. Thanks!!

Please come back and let us know what the audit says,..but man,.. with just 120sq you must be losing a lot of heat and I'm guessing its mostly infiltration losses,..In my apts I can heat 120sq in cold Ma with a 1,500 watt heater (BTW makes no difference if its 115 or 220V) or what tpye,..all 1,500 heaters put out the same BTU's,..

What kind of heat do you have now?

We have central heating and cooling only it doesn't reach the extension. The rest of the house is fine but I imagine that with the extreme cold we're having that room must be unusable. I'm just trying to find a way to make it comfortable without increasing their electric costs.

What is the central heating hot air or water?

It's a standard gas furnace and AC. The unit was there when we bought the place but works well especially the AC.

Sooooo, you are saying its a gas HOT AIR furnace? Duct work? Have you sealed the seams?

Another interesting thing we sometimes do is get a theatrical smoker,..Walmart has them really cheap at Halloween,...non toxic smoke,..we fill up the house with this smoke (buy the switch that keeps it on continuously)

In a little while you can't see your hand in front of your face,...a small fan to mix it up in the house. Then turn the fan around blowing IN go outside and see all the leaks of where the smoke comes out! You probably will be surprised!,..

BTW We usually tell the local fire dept that we are doing a smoke test,..sometimes have to convince them that its safe) thats because a passer by might call the fire dept thinking they are saving the building,..

This shows the leaks in the outer envelope,..both are important,..

Again you usually have to do air sealing once,..easier and more effective than you think.

SOME energy auditors will say your house is OK,..understand thats often compared to other leaky houses,..not as good as it could be.There are auditors and there are auditors,..IF you get a good one (and IF you can tell) they really help.

The links below will help you know if they are indeed good.

Here are a few good links,..note the British one,..very good,..but says savings of 10-15 %

I think we get closer to 20-25% .in some cases more. The difference of being clod and being warm PLUS less money and no drafts.

Take an hour and learn about these.

.youtube.com/watch?v=C7VXsih1WTo

youtube.com/watch?v=qogOn-IQrjc

youtube.com/watch?v=PYOhxK0yauE

take a break clear your head and then learn about the stck effect

youtube.com/watch?v=PYOhxK0yauE

youtube.com/watch?v=4WI4f_EK22E

Hollis, does that smoker leave any residue on stuff when it settles? That's an interesting idea.

No, it doesn't..I believe its just glycerine,.a few drops on a hot surface produces a lot of smoke,.At our Walmart they were half price the day after Halloween,..same with the fluid used.

My system is,..a remote on/off outlet switch to turn the fan on and off (although not considered toxic, not fun to be in the house while its filling with a more dense amount of smoke,as it takes a little while for it to become dense,....and better to be outside and see where the smoke is leaking out, and to shut it down before passerby's call the fire dept, a few fans to mix it up,.

I also buy the auto on control to keep the smoker going longer. For bigger units/houses I have two units,..

BTW every fall for years we would get a mouse or two,at our house..never could find out where they could get in,..

Put the smoker in the cellar, added the fan (any where in the house, interior cellar door open, saw a plume of smoke coming under a side porch,.hard to get to as I had to remove balusters to get in,..but when I did I found a space in the brick that was missing,..stuffed it with steel wool and cemented over it,...no more mice,