110 yr old house in Seattle VERY short crl sp

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
SpartanEpoxies
House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
L

lorrireynolds

Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
We have lived in our 110 yr old house for 25 years. We are on a very steep hill in Seattle and have underground springs running through solid clay soil. The finished portion is approx 600 Sq ft. The unfinished portion was never dug out and takes a 3 ft jump up then slopes back from 4 ft to about 1 foot. The posts sit directly on the soil.

This space is above our guest bedroom and kitchen that stays nice and cool in the summer ( our summer temps rarely reach above 85 f ) but is very chilly in the winter. We have falling down insulation, uninsulated ducts and pipes and some 6 mil plastic shoved up to the back and covering the majority of the soil in the more reachable areas, but not sealed.

My husband and I are in our early 60's and want to know if insulating the proper way has any real value to us. I know we can't do it ourselves and am not sure the payback is there.

Any thoughts?
 
Is this area open to the basement? does it have vent to the outside to allow airflow?
Does it have perimeter foundation?
And welcome to the site.
 
Thanks for the welcome.
It is not sealed off. There are 2 doors that allow access, one on either side of the basement stairs. There are no vents, but several gaps opening into the finished space (approx. 6"x15" ) yes, perimeter foundation, but we are not sure how deep it goes
 
lorrireynolds said:
Thanks for the welcome.
It is not sealed off. There are 2 doors that allow access, one on either side of the basement stairs. There are no vents, but several gaps opening into the finished space (approx. 6"x15" ) yes, perimeter foundation, but we are not sure how deep it goes
Click to expand...

If the foundation was the same depth everywhere you would have had a full basement so I would expect to foundation on the high end to be just below frost level. 18" to 24" inches below the ground level on the outside.

There 2 ways to do this
1. Make that space out side space with airflow below the framing with insulation between the floor joist. with poly sheeting covering the dirt sealed to the walls
2. 4" foam board around the perimeter as deep as the frost level and poly sheeting on the floor extending up to the top of the foundation and treat it as interior or conditioned space, allow air flow from the basement to the crawlspace.

In both cases any water issues have to be dealt with first.
 
So what is the downside of leaving everything as it is (other than the posts sitting on the soil)? Because of the tight access, I'm pretty sure that the cost to have this done correctly is going to be very expensive. I want the house to survive, but I also want there to be a financial benefit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top