Appreciation post: the old guy at the hardware store in Leadville who told me to quit insulating my outhouse

Jana Allen · 2026-10-08T09:25:03.918059+00:00

I was standing in line at a hardware store in Leadville, Colorado, when I heard the guy in front of me say that foam board in an outhouse does nothing but trap wet air and rot the wood. I had just bought $140 of rigid foam to wrap mine, so I asked him about it. He explained that a cabin outhouse needs to breathe, and a plain vent stack plus a dry sawdust pile works better than sealing it up tight. I followed his advice and checked my privy after one full winter at 10,200 feet, and the floor was solid with zero frost heave. My neighbor wrapped his in foam the same fall and had to rip out soggy plywood by April. Has anyone else skipped the modern fix and just gone with the old vent and sawdust setup?

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Appreciation post: the old guy at the hardware store in Leadville who told me to quit insulating my outhouse | Cabin Life - Talk Freely