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Thread: January 2025 Frugals

  1. #21
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    1,791
    We use a straw bale over the front-room crawl-space vent, otherwise the floors in there are COLD! We have it blocked with an insulation panel also. Lots of people around here put hay or straw bales on at least the windward side of the foundation. It helps a lot. We don't have room for bales on that side and we have windbreaks, but DH has been putting a sheet of foam insulation board against the area where the pipes run from the basement up thru the exterior wall to the kitchen sink, and we've not had frozen pipes since. But when it's sub-zero, I still drip the faucet into a bucket! All other waterlines are interior except the downstairs bath, and it's much better insulated to start with. It was added in the 60s, and we added more insulation when we had some other work done.

    Personally I like straw better than hay because it doesn't mess with my allergies as much in the spring, when I'm trying to move it back to the compost. It doesn't seem to get moldy so quickly.

  2. #22
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    7,917
    Quote Originally Posted by early morning View Post
    We use a straw bale over the front-room crawl-space vent, otherwise the floors in there are COLD! We have it blocked with an insulation panel also. Lots of people around here put hay or straw bales on at least the windward side of the foundation. It helps a lot. We don't have room for bales on that side and we have windbreaks, but DH has been putting a sheet of foam insulation board against the area where the pipes run from the basement up thru the exterior wall to the kitchen sink, and we've not had frozen pipes since. But when it's sub-zero, I still drip the faucet into a bucket! All other waterlines are interior except the downstairs bath, and it's much better insulated to start with. It was added in the 60s, and we added more insulation when we had some other work done.

    Personally I like straw better than hay because it doesn't mess with my allergies as much in the spring, when I'm trying to move it back to the compost. It doesn't seem to get moldy so quickly.
    Straw is preferable, for sure. We used to buy it in Michigan from the farmer down the road. It was also much cheaper. But we can't source it here, at least not yet.

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