Saturday, December 24, 2005
Yay For Lowe’s
I started a King Kong review late last night. If I get a chance to complete it by then, I’ll post it before we leave, but in short it was fantastic. But I digress…
Yesterday I broke out the sealing materials I’d bought at Lowe’s. In the kitchen, I used canned insulating foam in three places under the counter, two of which I backed first with steel wool. The way the foam expands, that wasn’t strictly necessary. We haven’t gotten to see how that does at keeping smoke down, as smoking dude hasn’t been back. It appears as if he almost but not completely lives with a girlfriend, or something.
The bad thing is there are a lot of small cracks I might be inclined to suspect and seal, but the foam is way too much for them.
Then, completely unplanned except as an eventuality, I went in the huge bedroom closet that stays closer to outdoor than indoor temperatures, and used the clear tape designed for the purpose to cover all the cracks and man-made cuts in the ceiling and walls above the suspended ceiling. I also used foam around the window. Did that first and you could already feel a difference. Finally I squirted tiny bits of foam into some round holes in the wall, basically giant screw holes left over the years. Some of them you could feel a tiny little draft exiting. Unfortunately, the foam is overzealous, and stains the wallpaper. Oh well.
Last night we left the closet door open.
It is only the slightest bit cooler than the room.
Yay!!
I am so glad Lowe’s had that tape out where I could find it. The stuff was perfect for the job. It’s not going to be obtrusive if the landlord wants to do a major repair of the ceiling, but it puts off the need by making the closet usable and saving our heating bill.
The tough part will be figuring out where to seal in the office. The leak of smoke has to be up above the suspended ceiling somewhere, or completely unobvious. I’ll attack the ceiling area first.
Okay, coffee empty, time to shower and get moving toward getting out of here for dinner at my sister’s.