vented cantilever

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Permalink Reply by Kari Sauder on January 26, 2013 at 6:26pm

found this "vented cantilever"  -- the builder used the same vented soffit in the cantilevered 1st floor that is used for the roof eaves.  There was just a little unfaced FG stuffed in first but I pulled that aside to see a pretty much air cooled space between the main floor and the finished basement on the windy west side of this home.  I reinstalled R19 faced FG, cut blue board to fit between the 2x4's and foamed all the edges and joints before re-installing the soffit -- much warmer at the living room bay window. -- Oh yes, I stuck caulk backer - foam strips in between the top of the brick and the 2 by framing also.

Permalink Reply by Stan Kuhn on January 26, 2013 at 6:38pm

I'll bet a nickel that 99 out of 100 of these that you come across will be the same condition.  One I found had a suspended ceiling in the basement, even more gross.

Permalink Reply by tedkidd on January 26, 2013 at 8:47pm

Awesome post Kari, thanks for sharing. Look at that discoloration!

+1 to Stan's post, though his number might be low, 9999 out of 10,000? After all, even if they wanted to do better and knew how, the work would put them at competitive disadvantage. So there is no compelling counterbalance to NMEB (not my energy bill), or reason to cure building science ignorance.

You have before and after blower door numbers and home sf? Love to know how much that tightened things up.

Permalink Reply by Kari Sauder on January 27, 2013 at 6:30pm

I like the NMEB acronym -- I'm going to use that again.  I'll have to look for the pre & post BD nos.(It's been more than a year since I ran the post)  This home had a kitchen soffit open to the attic with 7 chimneys ( I mean can lights) and one of the kitchen walls containing said soffit was common to the main bath where there was a fairly good size whole cut in the wall and vanity back for plumbing (the reason why this interior bath with no window and no heating register was leakier than all the other rooms)  When I can, I'll post a picture of the "panned return" for the master bedroom -- the one where you can see the backside of the fiberglass tub -- NMEB!

Permalink Reply by Bob Blanchette on February 21, 2013 at 5:59pm

NMEB is why electric air handlers get installed instead of heat pumps...