Hole Sleeves

[Dykhuizen45]

I have been trying to come up with a way to seal up my hole sleeves on my wheeled house. I have the catch covers and use 5 gallon buckets with the bottoms cut out as my sleeves. Works great but I have about a 1/2 inch gap all the way around the bucket. Does anybody have a way creative way to put something around the bucket to seal it up? I have tried many things that seem to work then just become a problem. Thanks for the help.

[Wolffy]

Is the gap on the bottom along the ice? Or in the catch cover around the pail. Could you get a picture?

[jsr426hemi]

If the gap is between the catch cover and your bucket you could maybe try door gasket with the sticky backing. Not sure if u can get that stuff 3/4" or thicker but u could go around the bucket with it. First thing that came to mind.

[Hardwater_Fan]

Have you looked into the Catch Cover brand sleeves? I'm assuming that they are designed to fit perfectly with the actual hole covers.

[cableguy2]

I am guessing he wants to save money. Probably creating more hassle though trying to rig the buckets up.

[Schubie]

How about pipe insulating foam? They are already slit to the middle, slide it over the lip of the bucket cut to size for circumference. Cheap too.

[JumpStart73]

Hard to explain but here it goes. I took a rubber backed floor mat and cut a circle about 1/2" smaller than the sleeve. Since it is smaller than the sleeve it doesn't slide on all the way. So then I cut slits around the circle about a 1/4" apart. Now when I slide the mat around the sleeve, fold the flaps so they curl up on the sleeve, and the mat should lay flat. It kept the cold draft from coming up from the ice. I had regular hole sleeves and I had cut them down but not all the way because sometimes the snow depth would vary. So I left them plenty long, the lip was about 4" above the floor. It was nice to leave them long so at night you would stub your toe instead of putting your foot down the hole among other things.

[3pronghook]

hijacking this thread to ask when/why are hole sleeves needed? sounds like one more thing to deal with? unless your house site a foot or two off ice maybe?

[Poutmaster]

Hole sleeves help keep drafts and cold away from your holes. It also keeps warm air in.

[Sea Hage]

like Pout says, keeps drafts out and keeps the holes ice free. A guy doesn't want to get chilled when your watching the Packers v Vikings in the play offs and your in your jammas and slippers and catchin fish. Hole sleeves are worth every $ you spend on them.

[BigDogRob]

I used plywood and made rings for the buckets to slide down in. they are fit pretty snuggly so if the snow is nil or deeper they still work. I just slide the rings to the floor after pressing the buckets down to the ice. They seem to work pretty good for me. and cost me nothing since I had plywood laying around. the sleeves would be $140 which I didn't want to spend at the time...now this will be the 3rd yr with the buckets and I haven't seen the need to buy sleeves yet. I did notice that using them and taking the ice from drilling and packing around the floor before putting the buckets down kept the holes from freezing up over night. the sleeves do a slightly better job because the air movement from a furnace is less restricted than with the buckets.