Retro-insulating a manufactured log home
Hey all,
I own a kit log home. This thing was built in 1964, is 512 sq ft, and located in the mountains where winter temps drop to around 0-10 F at the coldest. All walls (interior and exterior) are made of 3 in thick and 5 in tall milled logs. The logs are T&G and fit together nice and tight, but of course the house breathes like mad. I had the roof nicely insulated (even if not absolutely tight) when I replaced the old cedar roof with metal. There is no attic. When you look at the celing from inside, you see the decking for the roof (2×4 T&G).
The big problem is that the walls are only 3 in thick. All I can picture is framing in on the inside or out on the outside to create space for insulation. I don’t fancy losing the volume on the inside, but I can see problems with framing on the outside and having a solid framework to hold the weight of the added framing, insulation, and exterior covering. One side or the other is going to have to give. By the way, I spent many weekends stripping paint and refinishing the exterior and it looks darn good now. Why didn’t I think of that ahead of time? Just green, I guess. Any advice?
Thanks,
Rob
Replies
Well, if we see energy prices escalate the way Frenchy is expecting, I might be considering something like this too.
Your interior is darned small so you pretty much have to do it on the exterior, but not to worry about the weight. You will simply get some 2" polyisoanurate panels. One brand name is Thermax. It is foil faced and the R-value is 7per inch. With the walls there now, you would have R-17 or thereabouts.
Oviously you domn't want to stop there and look at a foil faced house the rest of your life when you drive in so you will have to do new siding. Put furring strips over the faom and use screws or nails long enough to hold in to the 'log' wall. whether you go horizontal or verticle with the furring will depend on whether you use board and batten or some other siding. all options are open, from cedaar shingles, to vinyl, to faux log pine siding...
The tricky part will be detailing the openings like doors and windows.
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Again, Piffin (great name for a soothsayer) has great advice.
I suppose on windows I would just rough in the opening on all four sides, recenter the window in the wall, and then finish the opening in some aesthetic manner. But what gives you the necessary strength, especially for a door, when you try to attach the door frame to a mix between the existing and relatively strong wall and mushy iso board? Maybe some kind of connection of the frame to the outside of the former exterior wall/surface?
Maybe I should just move, but the location is just too good. And my wives like it here too.
Thanks,
Rob
"Wive"S"'''as in more than one? Hmmm..interesting
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PFN is just my initials, nothing soothsome intended...It would all depend on what is there now. Doors open in so there would need ot be an extension jamb added to the exterior of the existing jamb. Possibly tear off casing on windows and do the same with them.The hard part of both is the sills. A piece of leaded copper flashing designed to slip under and out or some other method.
But a window set the the exterior in a deep wall leaves a nice nook on the interior, one that could be further shielded from extreme temps with an insulated curtain.
Some log homes have a buck lining up the log ends where they meet the window openning. if you removed the window unit, the buck could be remilled wider to extend the extra 2-3/4" to be flush with the furring and the window rest to that.Or. one could run the furring around rthe window openning at the RO locations and reset the window typically.You can adjust for the supposed squishyness by hand nailing or by carefully adjusting the clutch on your screwgun.
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