Framing and Insulation Tips for Older Homes

When you happen to live in an older home, although it tends to have a lot of room and comes with a lot of charm, being that it also has a bit of wear and tear on it, understandably there will come many times when you’ll need to do a bit of upgrading to your home. This is especially the case as it relates to framing and insulation.

If after doing some inspecting, you’ve come to realize that your house needs some help in either one or both of these areas, we’ve provided some tips that can help you to frame and insulate your home effectively below:

Framing Tips

Whether you’re totally renovating a particular space or adding onto your house, there’s a pretty good chance that some framing is going to be required. Being that the process of framing basically sets the stage for the rest of what you’re planning to do, there are several steps that are required. First, make sure that you find the kind of framer, electrician and plumber who is not going to try to “hack away” at some of the structure that is already up. People who are framing a house have to carefully approach it. Something else to remember is to look for any indications of potential alignment issues; door and window heads should line up on both the inside and outside of the home. It’s also important to keep in mind that your house is probably going to need some blocking throughout it as it relates to things like bath hardware and recess light tracks. And finally, where you are planning to put cabinetry, you should triple-check the frame’s structure before finishing up the project. For more information on framing an older home, go to This Old House and put “frame an older house” in the search field.

Insulation Tips

As it relates to insulating an older home, we have some helpful recommendations for that as well. For one thing, being that it’s pretty common for older houses to have worn or very little insulation in the attic area, start off by inspecting that space. If it’s less than 12″ thick or it’s not made out of an eco-friendly material such as aerogel, then have it replaced. It’s also a good idea to inspect the insulation in your basement too. The same suggestion for the attic applies. Being that many older houses also tend to have drafts, make sure to also apply caulking to any place where there may be small holes or cracks along your windowsills or doors. When it comes to your HVAC unit, we have a tip for that too. If you’ve ever cleaned out your ducts before, you’ve probably read an article that talks about how to follow these ductwork guidelines and save money in the process. One of those guidelines would be to properly seal up any leaks that you might notice along the way. So, if you notice that your unit is leaking water, you should either contact a reputable technician or you can use some duct tape to close the hole up yourself. One website that can assist you with this is HVAC Quick. Just go to the site and put “sealing up ductwork” in the search field.