How can we fix a cold kitchen?

Question

We have a cold kitchen and have replaced the outside doors with steel insulated doors; one leads to an unheated garage and one to an unheated patio. I notice that the recesssed flourescent light fitxture above the kitchen sink has cold air coming down from it and our kitchen cabinets and dishes in the cabinets are cold too. We had a contractor add pink fiberglass insulation to the attic and partial crawl space below the kitchen, but that hasn't helped much. The patio roof is connected to the back of the house near the kitchen and I am wondering if an air leak could be coming as a result of that. I had one insullation contractor come in and suggest we add blown-in insullation to our attic and the dirt floor of the partial crawl space under the kitchen -- and wanted to charge us $5500 for that, but as I said, we already added some insullation a month ago, but that and the new doors hasn't fixed the problem.

Answer 1

sounds more like you don't have a good heating system rather than insulation. I'd look for any air leaks in the walls and around the windows. the crawlspae would be stupid to insulate as heat rises. 5500 for blown in insulation is a rip off. home depot will let you use the blower free if you buy the insulation, and it's like $15 a bag. I blew in my whole attic with about 20 bags for 1700 sqft 20" deep. total cost was like $350-400 bucks.

It's possible your air leak could be because of the patio. you can get some incense sticks and wait for a windy day and then walk around the walls up and down with an incense burning and watch the smoke blow. Alternatively if you have a cooler or AC from outside, you can turn that on with the windows and doors closed and watch the smoke get sucked out the cracks. then it's just sealing w/ Silicone, or that expanding foam.

good luck

Answer 2

A wild guess, but was your house built before 1972? If so, it may not have any insulation in the walls...especially in Detroit or Chicago. You can use Great Stuff to insulate around your outlets, windows and your light fixture. It will cut down on a lot of the easy drafts. If your cabinets are even cold, it's really screaming "no insulation". You could do something simple, like cut styrofoam insulation for the back of the cabinets and cover it with ConTact paper...no one would ever see it and you'd get close to R-6 from that inside the cabinets.

I do agree that you would want something in your basement, and if you're not adverse to getting a little dirty, you could blow that yourself. For every 20 bags of cellulose that you buy at Home Depot, you get the machine free for 4 hours. That would cost you less than $600-1200 as opposed to $5500. Same for blowing it into your addition.

The other thing is to check the seals on your windows. It may be as easy as some plastic over them for now and replacing the seals (about $30 each) come spring.

Answer 3

Look at the garage. Get a insulated garage door put on and see about insulating the wall that's against the kitchen.

Answer 4

maybe adding another heat run will do the trick. it ll have to be 8" insulated flex duct that comes in 25' lengths. at the duct closest to your kitchen, cut a hole to fit a K-collar, cut a 2"x12"hole in your floor, put an elbow boot in, conect the the flex and viola! you got some more heat. your local hardware store will have these items for sure and its pretty easy to do

Answer 5

the main possibly clarification for low water tension to easily one sink on your place is as a results of the valve in the faucet being partly closed. it ought to be the close off valve below the sink. confirm that one is opened ll the way. If that doesnt artwork then close a similar valve thoroughly off. Unscrew the lever used to coach on the chilly water and use a phillips screw driving force to open the valve in the faucet. If this doesnt artwork think approximately cloged water traces and can desire to have a plumber pop out and look at on it.

Answer 6

insulating the walls would be the only other recourse