OT I'm winning a few battles....

...in the war on the stanky basement under the old farmhouse I bought last summer. Twenty one room house, 1860's era, fireplaces in every room...unfortunately burned to the ground in the 1930's. So they took one corner of the foundation and built my little house on top of it in the 1930's. Then they added an addition and garage...looks like 1950's or 60's on the addition. Cute place now but the basement...whew! Mopped it out with bleach water, including the walls and improved on it a LOT. Decently dry with new perimeter tile system and two sumps. Got the softner running yesterday and found that the really old drain it drains into must be collapsed...water coming up everywhere. So...getting to the point...I finally pulled the access off the crawl space under the addition. Been some squirrels under there eating black walnuts at some point. Most of the insulation bats they pushed up into the floor joists have fallen down. Wondering if anyone here has had to install overhead insulation and what is the best way to keep it up between the joists? I cannot emphasize enough...I only want to do this ONCE. Really creepy in there. What I would really like to hear from someone is "I did (blank) four years ago and it's still working". Anyone had something they used that held up over time?

An insulating company can net the floor joist space and then blow either fiberglass or cellulose in the joist spaces. The netting seems pretty durable and will breathe too. I wonder if it would be possible to rent a blower and do the same thing on your own?

Friend of mine once asked what's the best they could do on there house. I told them peanut butter on wires a suicidal mouse and good insurance. Just a thought

They make a spring wire thing that will hold the insulation up in place. It fits between the floor joists. Check with the lumber yard.

I took all the insulation down under the 120 year old house we bought last year. I will put the new insulation up with the joists wire like Glen said. They sell them at Lowes and Home Depot or anywhere they sell insulation.

Is your crawl space floor finished or sealed? What are the soils? Is it damp? We've done several unoccupied crawl spaces and have put a 6mil. poly down as a vapor retarder. Now the code dictates that a 10 mil. vapor barrier under all slabs is required. I'm not saying you need 10 mil., but a 6 mil. would contain the moisture under that space. If your soils are sandy and dry then venting below the vapor barrier would probably not be necessary. If you think it will be then a run of 4" perforated drain tile scratched into the soil under the vapor barrier as a way to vent it. A run in the center with trunks off of it is effective. Hook onto or continue one end to an outside source and let it breath. If you don't think the moisture in the crawl space is high than a vapor barrier may not be needed. I have seen assemblies that have installed a fan on a humidistat to control the moisture, but again a simple free air vent might do the same for you.

I haven't been in there yet. Pretty darn cold and I wasn't wanting to mess around with it just yet. I figured when we start getting the Spring rains I can get in there and see how damp the ground is. I am wondering if anyone has used those spring holders on the insulation and how well they held up over time? They are not expensive, I suppose I could go get a pack and stick them up in the basement rafters with a couple pounds hanging from them...see if they stay up there? Might be a good test before I get in the dirty hole and try them?

Dave,
DB4600 hit all the high points. Im 20 miles north of you (same climate). Here is what I did in 1995.

Plastic barrier.
Insulation with the netting/wiring as mentioned.
Foundation vents. Inspector said these were a must. Open in the summer, closed in the winter.
Same size as a cinder block. I installed 3.

I sold the house in 2004, everything was still perfect.

Similar house to yours. Built in 1920, dirt basement. Added on a couple of times.
No sump pump originally, only a clay tile in the corner of the basement, where water came rushing in every time it rained.

Rick

Dave,
I wasnt completely sold on the wires when did mine. So we also ripped a bunch of 4 inch by 8 foot long pieces of 1/2" OSB and also nailed those up under there. Probably overkill but it worked.

Rick

I have had the "wires" under my house holding up 6" fiberglass batts since 1985 and they are still working just fine. Sid

Dave I have seen the poly barrier put down onto the ground and then spray foam on the walls and floor areas really worked well. I'm not sure how big of space u have to work in but they guys I saw so it were shaped like beer kegs and just slid along spraying like no spot was gonna be out of their reach. They had a 500 dollar min charge for setup but were pretty fair per square foot after that 500 was used up.

One of my dads buddies had something like you are talking about. Finally got totally "P" off and built an entirely new basement next door and moved the house! He and the wife got tired of the dirt basement and low clearance Etc. Cost of digging and fixing stone work it was cheaper.

You can buy a wire you put between boards to hold it in place. About 17 inches long. I think menards and lowes sells them.

I wonder how the sprayed foam would work. if its anything like what is shot in a water heater it will out last all of us

I also thought of the spray foam.

Gene

There you go! I needed to hear that!

It is a small crawl space. I would say 15 x 25 at most. Just need to get those insulation bats to stay up in the joist. Then I can assess the ground and see do I need the moisture barrier or maybe insulate the block walls and leave the crawl space open to the basement. The basement itself has a very old concrete floor Several years ago someone cut the concrete away from the perimeter, put in french drains and sumps, repoured the floor.

Appreciate the input! Just do not want to waste time on those wires if they don't work.

Dave an Uncle of mine told me 50 years ago the best remodeling tool on an old house was a D-8. LOL I have found he was not far off. The house I am living in now we bought 35 years ago. We did some remodeling then, well and 200 amp electric system. Then we have updated over the years as well. My 2nd son lived here for 15 years and did very little other than maintenance. We have decided to stay here over building new. The cost of this remodel plus the original would have build a new house when we bought the place. So I am going to have new house cost in an old house. FUN!!!!

i used chicken wire. 2 inch i think bigger the better

(quoted from post at 20:22:05 03/07/16) i used chicken wire. 2 inch i think bigger the better

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Actually, smaller is best. When I had $$$, I used 1/4" mesh. It not only kept the bats of insulation between the joists, it kept the mice out!

Another time, when I had NO $$$, I used a stapler and fishing line. A heavy test line works great.

Gunny, in Iowa