Charlie:
Mike from Galveston has written to us with a question, Tom. He says, “I own an old house built in the 1890s in Galveston, and it doesn’t have any insulation.” Hang on. If it was built in the 1890s, I’m thinking, how many times has it beat the odds?
Tom:
Before you get any further, the reason it’s lasted so long, because it didn’t have insulation. Insulation tends to prematurely rot a structure, especially if it’s used improperly which we talk about, about the foams and stuff, here, on the show. That is very cool.
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Charlie:
“I’ve been told,” he says, “you can’t insulate the walls because it needs air to breath and stay dry so it won’t rot the siding.”
Tom:
There you go.
Charlie:
See.
Tom:
I wonder who said that.
Charlie:
Tom Tynan, the Nostradamus of home improvement questions.
Tom:
Oh no. He never was right once.
Charlie:
Yeah. Should I use spray foam in the attic and crawl space to help cut down on air infiltration or fiberglass bats?”
Tom:
First off, formaldehyde-free fiberglass in the attic. It’s an old home. It’s probably vented really well. No backing on the insulation whatsoever. A radiant barrier would be incredibly beneficial and totally harmless to the structure as far as the heat gain in the summer because of the intense sun that hits Galveston, one of the most intense areas in our country as far as sun hitting down, believe it or not.
Charlie:
It’s all the same distance from the sun.
Tom:
No, you have azimuth and altitudes. You’ve got different things, and you’re an island, and you have reflection off the ocean.
Charlie:
Tom’s whipping out the geography. The geometry.
Tom:
I used to live there.
Charlie:
Actually geography and geometry. They converge again.
Tom:
Geometry is actually a religion. It’s the key to life.
Charlie:
Moving along
Tom:
We’re not going to go there?
Charlie:
We’re going to keep going.
Tom:
So…we’re going to insulate the attic. Keep the heat from getting in. Don’t do the floor and don’t do the walls, because it will rot it. In the floor, it’s not going to stop inflitration. You’re going to have a lot of infiltration, that’s what keeps the envelope dry.