3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Weatherproofing & Insulation dont waste your money, January 4, 2009
When looking up the book on Amazom, the image on the screen shows insulation in the largest type face and would make you believe that a large part of this book is about insulation.
Insulation makes up a probable little more than 10% of the book and that that is there, provides very little more than limited basic information. There is little detail on instaling insulation for yourself and the elements of building a insulation strategy. It is more a book for those who want DIY basic basics on the construction elements of the house and sketch pictures of what tools and US construction methods of several years back are/were. Being a US book it naturaly follows US bulding types and standards which European readers will find irrelevant.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not very good, February 2, 2009
I bought this book at the same time as Insulating and Ventilating your house by William Spence (which I also reviewed). Neither was quite what I wanted, but this was the less useful of the two.
To start with, the book covers a whole range of topics, from replacing roof shingles to painting masonry and roof construction. Not quite sure what the authors purpose was, since each of these topics is given a page or two...not really enough to be useful for anything.
The book is also a little unreasonable on projects such as replacing windows. There is not sufficient detail in the book to do anything else but send you to the library once you have a big hole in your wall. As an example, there are probably more column inches dedicated to ladder safety than replacing a window.
When I reviewed Spence's book, I reported the results of using the book for a couple of specific questions. Perhaps it was just luck of the draw, but this book did pretty well. The four topics:
1. Weatherstripping: There was a page showing each different type of weatherstripping for windows and sweeps for doors. Not much detail on using them, but at least you can see what is available and for what uses.
2. Duct sealing: The book doesn't mention using rigid foam to seal duct work, which was my strategy, but it does mention using fiberglass rolls and duct-tape.
3. Drafts from electric outlets: No mention
4. Drafts from improperly installed windows: It briefly mentions using foam between the window and framing to seal holes, but no details (like being sure to use low-expansion foam). It does not suggest adding foam as a separate project to fix leaky windows. It does, however show weatherstripping used inside windows that can be replaced.
Summary:
Even though it did OK on my test questions, I found the book lacking in useful information. It was more like a collection of those 200 word articles you find in the Saturday Paper on fixing up your house.
There was no mention of prioritizing projects to maximize your return for individual weatherization projects.
In summary, I'd skip this volume.
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