Victorian Home

[Sonny]

Hi All,

I'm new to this group...hope you can help.

I have a friend in Toronto with an old Victorian home with double brick outer walls, at least near ground level... double line of brick with space in between. I think this is called stack or stacking.

The space between the brick layers allows an air draft to flow under the house, somewhere, and eventually into her kitchen, via space between the kitchen flooring boards (pine planks). There is a basement below the kitchen that is a bedroom, so the ceiling in that bedroom is sealed. The air draft has to be moving along the kitchen floor joists/bedroom ceiling rafters. There is no reasonable access to these joists/rafters, to stop the air draft coming into the kitchen.

Question: Can the space between the outer bricks be filled, or partially filled, with blown-in soft insulation, to stop the air draft? Or is this not a good idea...for your northern applications. I don't know other details of the home's construction. Is anyone familiar with this type of older home construction (stack) and the prospect of insulating them or stopping these types of air drafts successfully. I would think blow-in expanding foam is not appropriate for this double brick exterior kind of construction.... Or do you think a limited amount of expanding foam could be blown in, only at the bottom of the space between the bricks, where air is entering the joist area? Any free space above the joist area would allow the foam to expand freely upwards, and not laterally - cracking the bricks. I would think drilling a hole at or near the base of the outer brick would allow for insertion of either type of insulation... or is this a bad idea because of possible runoff water entering the remaining hole site, albeit plugged after insulating.

Any suggestions, comments? You can email me if you like at: [e-mail]

Thanks. Sonny

[dpb]

...

If there is an air movement from the cavity, there has to be an opening somewhere. Both interior and exterior wall have to be supported, so whatever it is must be something like an access for plumbing, hvac, electrical or perhaps an old coal or ash chute. Need to find that opening and seal it.

Foam or other material in the cavity probably not a good idea--in those buildings there is almost certainly moisture there that you'll create a lot of issues with if don't deal with properly.

You most likely will have to get into the ceiling areas in some places between the joists under the area where the draft is apparent to find where the source/direction of air flow is from to find the opening.

Possible simply some blocking in that area between the joists could at least mitigate the symptoms.