The diningroom in our home is an add-on. The crawlspace is insulated and we had the house assessed for drafts etc because we were unable to use this room last winter (too cold). We opened an old basement window to allow heat into the crawl space and with caulking and insulating, we have been able to get the room to a comfortable temperature this winter.When the add-on was built, the exterior brick was not removed and is now 1 wall of the diningroom. We were told to caulk around the windows in the brick wall to prevent the draft from between the brick and original interior wall from coming through. We would like to drywall over the brick, but I am worried that because it was an exterior wall we will run into problems in the future with moisture or other problems.
Answer:
I'd go ahead and drywall over the brick but rather than randomly attaching the sheets, I would strap the wall with 1X2 spruce screwed to the mortar lines between the bricks. Some day someone may decide they like a brick wall in the dining room and this would make it much easier to retrieve. The retrieval would entail tuck pointing all the brick on that wall to cover the fastener holes. Take photos before applying the drywall because that's the sort of thing that can make this kind of a modification a selling feature. Here is a paragraph I include with all my home inspections where they have a crawl space: Crawl space is a major source of mildew but that can be corrected. First, all insulation has to be removed from the crawl space ceiling - house floor. The whole dirt floor, with all its irregularities, has then to be covered with an impermeable material (6mm polyethylene, an old swimming pool liner, etc.). This has to be firmly and permanently sealed to the existing, well applied perimeter wall vapour barrier – which should be covering insulation rated at least R-20. It also has to be taped to all perforating structural components (plumbing, support posts, etc.). That looks after the crawl space for most of the year. The vents on the walls have then to be adjusted so they can be opened and closed from the outside. This will negate the need for anyone to crawl around down there for seasonal adjustment of ventilation.
