Ice Dams and Insulation

The Importance of Insulation
Turns out the demo work we did in this part of the house caused some unforeseen problems in other parts of the house. So much warm air was leaking into the attic from the demo area that we ended up with ice dams along the roof edge and consequently water was coming inside. Not in the room we are working on but in the first floor kitchen and enclosed front porch. What a mess! A whole section of porch ceiling collapsed, icicles are hanging from the ceiling fan, furniture and rugs are covered in ice. [It hasn’t gotten above freezing in 10 days!] We finally figured out what was going on by talking to roofers and researching online. The snow melt patterns on the roof were the telltale signs of where more insulation was needed.

First we bought a roof rake and cleared as much of the snow off the first floor roof (front porch and kitchen). Then we sprinkled environmentally-friendly ice melt on the roof by tossing it out the second floor windows onto the roof. Then we headed back to Home Depot and rented the equipment to blow more insulation into the attic where it was needed – and we found lots of cubbies that were not insulated. My husband Chris was up in the attic with the hose and I was downstairs feeding bales of insulation into the hopper. The dust flying around was heavy so I got to use my new super-duper face mask that I got for a recent birthday gift. What a noisy contraption! I had to turn it off after each bale to see if he needed more. It took most of an afternoon to finish.

Back to the gutted room
We stapled insulation between all the studs and cut Styrofoam insulation to fit in the obvious places where air was still getting in to the attic. Then we stapled plastic over all the insulation as another air barrier. (It also acts as a moisture barrier for the drywall.)
When we returned the rented equipment, we picked up the replacement windows. They went in so easy it was amazing! We installed them in an hour and a half, working from the inside, since the room is on the second floor. We only installed two since the third one was not leaky and had a storm window.

How to Install a Double Hung Replacement Window

Remove the old window as follows:

• Remove trim boards. (Ours were off already since we removed them during the demo.)
• Remove parting stop and pull the lower sash out.
• Remove the next stop and pull out the upper sash.
• Remove the weights and insulate that cavity.

1. Position new window in the opening. If you measured correctly it should fit. In our case there wasn’t a stock size to match our opening so we got one that was the correct width and a bit shorter. We measured the gap and nailed a length of 1X3 to the top of the rough opening – perfect fit now!
   
2. Remove the top sash stops from the new window.
3. Place the window on the sill and lever it into the opening. Make sure it fits well and shim it if necessary to get it level.
   
4. Screw the enclosed screws into the window jab through the pre-drilled holes.
5. Remove the bottom sash stops and screw the two bottom screws in to the jamb.
6. Replace all four sash stops, which cover up the screw heads.
7. Insulate all around the window.

The room is now ready for the drywall, and the attic is much colder! Rule of Thumb: your attic should be no more than 15 degrees warmer than the outside air.