Ask the expert
I have bought a historic house in an older neighborhood and it needs remodeling and updating. I want to make it energy efficient and upgrade it so I can enjoy the modern conveniences of the 21st century but I don’t want to mess up its historic appearance. Do you have suggestions for me?
“Historic homes have a number of positives as well as negatives when it comes to energy efficiency, some of which are inherent,” says Jim King, formerly of Little Rock, now with Early New England Restorations in Pawcatuck, Conn. “While modern home designs seldom take natural ventilation into account, older homes were built before air conditioning and are therefore better suited to utilize outside air by opening windows.”
Historic houses often have large trees shading them, and keeping the trees on a home’s south and west side healthy is a good way to alleviate cooling costs, he adds. Older houses also have higher ceilings, making cooling easier but heating more problematic.
Most of the air loss from any dwelling is through the windows and doors, and many people with older houses have chosen to remove original windows, replacing them with newer insulated ones.
“But historic houses are a special case, and original fabric should be saved as often as possible,” King advises. “Installing new storm windows over the original ones can achieve similar results to replacement windows, and doing so is both historically beneficial as well as more environmentally friendly.”
And there could be financial benefits to retaining an older house’s original details.
“Some historic homes are eligible for many thousands of dollars in historic tax credits that might be lost if the windows are replaced with modern materials or if they do not reproduce the historic design of the original windows,” King explains, advising, “Stick with storm windows with a low-e glass, which are quite a bit more efficient and the glass is not dark but instead nearly identical to clear glass.”
Insulating between attic floor joists is also a good idea, but sleeves should be placed around
any electrical boxes (feeding the ceiling lights below) to prevent them from being buried. Exterior walls can have cellulose insulation blown in by removing one or two clapboards, drilling through the wood sheathing below, and then replacing the clapboards that have been removed, King explains. In brick houses, to insulate walls, holes may be drilled through the interior plaster, although interior opening repairs are more difficult than exterior ones.
“Never insulate the roof by filling the space between the rafters, as this traps summer heat in the roofing material and will cause premature shingle failure,” King warns.
Attic ventilation fans are useful in summer, especially when placed against a gable vent in the attic (the triangular vent located near a roof’s peak) and even more so when there is another gable vent present, he suggests. For those who have only one attic vent, a ridge vent, which is nearly invisible, can be installed.
“Some may disagree, but I think whirlybird vents are pretty much useless and detract from the look of a historic house,” King says, adding that if roof-mounted attic fans are installed, they should be installed on the portion of the roof that does not face the street.
And, he concludes, oldhouse owners who have a whole-house ceiling fan that is still operational should use it.
“Turn it on at night with the windows open and off in the day when the windows are closed.” Do you have a decorating or remodeling question? We’ll get you an answer from an authority. Send your question to Linda S. Haymes, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203; or email:
lhaymes@arkansasonline.com