home improvement

Insulating floors via a crawl space

We noticed shortly after moving in that the house was very drafty. We had the windows replaced, and I did my best to seal a crooked front door. We even replaced the skylights, but nothing we did alleviated these sometimes very cold drafts.

The home inspector noted that the insulation had dropped from the floor onto the floor of the crawlspace. This was due to the use of metal rods, or "tiger's teeth," which are no longer acceptable according to Washington State building code.

dropped insulation in crawl space

Fixing a squeaky floor

Our floor used to squeak very badly in several spots. Fixing a squeaky floor can be a challenge.

Floors squeak for a variety of reasons. The most common is the nails that hold the sub-floor down coming loose from the joist and squeaking.

Fixing them means getting under the house, unless we're talking about a floor that isn't a ground floor, or getting under the house isn't an option. If that's the case, good luck.

The kit that's sold in stores that uses break away screws through the carpet did not work for me. It made the problem worse in our situation.