Expert Q
Question:
I have a 37 year old home in Ottawa, Ontario. Long ago the then owner poured a 5 inch thick concrete raised "pad" on sono tube supports in order to make a 10'x12' deck and then they built room on this raised deck. What we have now is a crawl space and the room is cold. There has a forced air duct into it but very little warm air reaches the room. I plan to excavate and add a stud wall and insulate/vapor barrier it. Electric heater in the crawl space, heat the room. Should the crawl space have a vent to the outside or should it be vented into the house basement through a hole in the foundation?
Answer:
What will make the room warmer is not the electrical you planned to install but a booster fan in the warm air plenum that supplies heat to it. The fan cycles on and off with the furnace. Insulation and vapour barrier on the perimeter walls is going to be a necessity and the VB should also be applied to the dirt floor whether you dig it down or not. Ventilation is going to be a summer time thing only and it can be ventilated back into the main basement provided you VB the dirt floor.
Answered By: Ren Molnar
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