Insulation for Hurricane Sandy Victims

I know this is an unorthodox idea. However, I did something like this when wind was blowing through the slats of my 1925 rented house in the winter of 1990 in November. What I did when it started to go below zero Fahrenheit where I was was to wrap my home in Greenhouse bendable plastic. You can inexpensively buy sheets of it. It could be as thin as 4 ml for inside and stapled to open studs or if it isn't too windy where you live it could be 6 or 8 ml outside and stapled into place if you feel safe to do that. It could be very thin if you were flooded out on the first floor of your homes. So, this is something you might do to temporarily create a dead air space while waiting for the wood to dry out. You could also use a thicker gauge of plastic and wrap the outside of your homes as well. This would lessen your heating bill because you are going to have a dead air space which would act like thermopane windows sort of by creating an extra dead air space inside or outside of your home. It could save you a lot of money in heating bills and allow you to stay warm even on the first floor that was flooded even during the winter while all the insulation has been ruined by the floods and removed. So, whether you wrap the outside or the inside is your choice depending upon how wet the inside is and how much it needs to be dried out. Doing both outside and inside likely would  be counterproductive for most people. And remember this is only a temporary way to stay warmer during the winter. You aren't creating a permanent thing that would have to be reported you are just trying not to freeze to death in your own homes for a couple of months during the winter. On the outside it could be stapled from where your eves are to the cement at the base of the sides of your house. Or if you don't need to dry out the inside wood staple the plastic from floor to ceiling in all your downstairs rooms to the open studs and just cut spaces out for windows, plugs, and switches etc and either staple around or tape around these places into the wood. You will be surprised how much this can raise your temperatures on the first floor of you homes by doing this.

How I learned about doing this:

In October 1990 we moved into a beautiful 1 acre plot with about 20 fruit trees that were bearing including huge Black Walnut trees and huge Black Cherry trees all bearing fruit and nuts and apple trees and pear trees and also blackberries to the back of the yard. So, it was really beautiful there with a lot of privacy on 1 acre of land covered with grass and fruit trees. However, the house was old and built in 1925. When I looked up into the attic it only had sawdust as insulation from the old days and in the walls there was no insulation at all. So, when Thanksgiving came around I stayed up all night stoking our wood stove just so we didn't freeze to death in the house as it went below zero Fahrenheit. At that time my wife, my son then 15 and my daughter then 3 all lived there. My hot water pipes to the washing machine froze and exploded so I had to turn all the water to the washing machine off. The next morning I went under the house with new parts from the hardware store and fixed the broken pipes. I had a friend tie a rope to me so he could drag me out if I passed out from the cold as I couldn't wear many clothes and make it under the house. I fixed it and was able to crawl out on my own. Then I bought greenhouse plastic and completely wrapped my rented home in plastic from  the eves near the roof to the ground and stapled everything in place using thin wood strips I of about 1 by 2 inch by 6 to 8 foot strips and shot long staples through the wooden strips to hold everything in place tightly. Later I made an agreement with my landlord to insulate the home for free in lieu of rent one month. So, I bought 8 inch fiberglass insulation and insulated my whole attic of the rented house with my 15 year old son. However, it is important to have plastic goggles and gloves and coveralls to avoid itching bodies, hands or damage to your eyes installing 8 inch fiberglass insulation in an attic. We also used breathing masks so we wouldn't get spun glass particles into our lungs which can be problematic as well. Because I kept the plastic taught outside as I fastened it in place with wooden strips and staples (or you could use small nails with wide heads if you wish) to hold the strips and plastic in place through the winter winds. However if your plasterboard inside if off as well as your inner wall insulation you could take advantage of this by just putting the plastic inside if it isn't too wet still. Also, this is temporary so you don't need a permit for temporary things only permanent ones. It is sort of like putting up a tent for your kids in your back yard or something like this during the summer. You don't need a permit for that either.

One Caveat: Where I did this the climate tends to be dry because snow storms come through pretty fast and it wasn't near the ocean. In more humid places you might want to check if you do this so mold doesn't start to form in wood behind the plastic. But if you are checking regularly it should be okay and still save you a lot of money heating homes so you and your family can stay well without fiberglass insulation on the first floor while recovering from flooding at least during the winter months until about March or April.

Another Idea I just had was to (if you don't need to look out of 1st floor windows to cover over windows at the stud wall level also with plastic. So, even if you have thermopane windows it gives you another layer of dead air space and will incredibly help to heat up a room. Most heat (on walls) that are insulated is lost through ones windows that aren't covered with blinds or curtains of some sort. So anyway you can increase the dead air space to help with insulation it is going to save you money in heating your home through the winter.