How to Deal with cold Walls in an Old House
This winter just as I predicted is being tough on us. Negative temperatures are dominating and we are discovering that 100-year-old homes just don’t have the insulation to fight off hard-hitting negative temperature winds.
The walls facing the street and the back of the house are cold enough to radiate those freezing cold temperatures into the room. Trial and error we did find a few tricks to handle cold walls.
What to do when you have cold walls.
Cold walls can quickly turn a room cold no matter what you have the heat set on. As the outside temperatures drop low and the wind picks up trying to heat the house can feel like a lost cause. Winterizing your home is your first defense against cold walls. Seel off every crack and open space you can find.
Build a layer of insulation between your walls and your room. If you have an Amazon shopper in your home you are in luck. Cardboard boxes make a great barrier to insulate the walls.
Grab bulk mylar emergency blankets to reflect heat back in. Topping the cardboard with mylar blankets is a great way to reflect the heat back into your home instead of it escaping along that wall as well and reflecting the cold back out.
Top it all with cheap fleece or moving blankets to keep the cold from radiating off the mylar blasts and into your home. This works much like old tapestries for keeping the cold along exterior walls traped away from the rest of the room helping keep you a bit warmer.
Turn ceiling fans on clockwise to push warm air back down and keep the cold air from the walls circulating so it never becomes too cold to handle in one side of the room.
Keep your home safe and warm with simple methods like keeping blankets nearby and dressing your family in warm layers so they are less affected by the cold seeping in from the walls.
More Tips for Dealing with cold walls
Use space heaters: If you have particularly cold walls in one room, you may want to consider using a space heater to provide additional warmth. Be sure to follow safety guidelines and never leave a space heater unattended.
Work with the energy of the home: As a last resort, you can try working with the energy of your home to make it feel warmer. This can include using warming colors in your decor, adding soft lighting, and using cozy blankets and pillows. You can also try energy-clearing techniques like smudging or reiki to help balance the energy in your home.
Use rugs and carpets: Hardwood and tile floors can be very cold, so adding rugs and carpets can help to insulate your floors and keep your home warmer. This won’t help with the walls but it will help keep your home feeling warmer.
Remember that you will also want to take a look at sealing off leaky windows that could be the root cause of your cold walls and even if they are not can be a major source of heat loss in your home.
