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I bought a house last winter. It was built in 1959 and is two story. I know 2nd floors are always warmer than the 1st but because of the way the attic (s) are in this house the 2nd floor is even hotter.
I posted a lot of pictures. Please don't forget to read the description/caption for each to know what/where the picture is.
My master bed room has a way into the "side" attic. See picture below. I know one thing I can do is try and insulate that door better as you can see it's thin wood. Any ideas?
When you look in that attic entrance you'll see this.
Then when you're inside and looking to the right (towards the back of the house where the sun hits. You see this. I know I can probably put more insulation on the floor there
When you look into my room from the attic you can see a black wall. There is insulation inside that wall even though you can't tell from the pic (I noticed from the hole). But I'm wondering if I can improve that.
Now when you were looking at the 1st picture. The room as an attic behind that wall too. If you look closely all the way back you might be able to notice that the attic goes a bit a ways down. That ends up at the the back of my 2nd room upstairs (only 2 upstairs + 1 bathroom). Now, the attic that has insulation on the walls is actually on the front side of the house. So the roof is generates a lot of heat I'm sure.
Now, I also have an attic above the ceilings on the 2nd floor. There is only 1 entrance there and it's rather small square hole but once you get up there you see this.
So if you were in my shoes what would you do? Btw, I'm assuming all the insulation is 1959 when the house was built.
Oh yeah!
Insulation, insulation, and more insulation!
The attic "floor" should have approx. 14" worth of blown f/glass insulation (approx. a R-38 rating) if there is conditioned space below. And to be done correctly- remove all the boards that are lying on the joists. Be sure the soffit vents are not covered (if there are any) and baffles are in place to keep insulation from covering vents.
As for the knee walls (the vertical walls that are conditioned space on one side, attic on the other), they should have a minimum of R-19 insulation. The batt insulation that is there now is probably only R-11. The access door you have now does next to nothing. There are a few manufacturers that build insulated access doors specifically designed for that type of setup. Some even have raised panels to match interior 6-panel doors. They are foam cored, prehung in an exterior type frame/jamb that uses the same type compression weatherstripping found on typical entry doors, and bored to accept a typical door lockset. According to current code there is a minimal size(s) requirement for access doors depending on if there are mechanicals located within the space. And still other spaces (depending on "floor" depth) require no access door at all.
As far as the door goes you can buy a piece of foam insulation and glue it to the back of the panel and/or cur out a piece that fits the opening. For example fit a piece tight from the attic side, put two holes in it and a rope through the holes so you have a handle on it so you can pull the piece from the bedroom side into place.
Oh yeah!
Insulation, insulation, and more insulation!
The attic "floor" should have approx. 14" worth of blown f/glass insulation (approx. a R-38 rating) if there is conditioned space below. And to be done correctly- remove all the boards that are lying on the joists. Be sure the soffit vents are not covered (if there are any) and baffles are in place to keep insulation from covering vents.
As for the knee walls (the vertical walls that are conditioned space on one side, attic on the other), they should have a minimum of R-19 insulation. The batt insulation that is there now is probably only R-11. The access door you have now does next to nothing. There are a few manufacturers that build insulated access doors specifically designed for that type of setup. Some even have raised panels to match interior 6-panel doors. They are foam cored, prehung in an exterior type frame/jamb that uses the same type compression weatherstripping found on typical entry doors, and bored to accept a typical door lockset. According to current code there is a minimal size(s) requirement for access doors depending on if there are mechanicals located within the space. And still other spaces (depending on "floor" depth) require no access door at all.
The insulation you see on the vertical walls. Do you think if I upgraded i'd see a considerable difference?
I'm guessing my first project should be the door correct? Since that's really not keeping much heat out.
Problem with the door is I can only take it out into my room. I don't think I can shut it with it being in the attic. If that makes sense.
The insulation you see on the vertical walls. Do you think if...
1) You need to abandon the idea that you have a storage attic at all... go for R30 up there at least.
2) Improve/balance the attic ventilation (eaves in opening at Xsf vs ridge out opening at Ysf)
3) Improve/balance the HVAC air changes (few older homes have adequate number or size of returns)
4) You need insulation IN the bedroom walls <-- the toughest job
I'm not going to go into a long dissertation about the "building envelope", especially since you posted a link to something you don't need (yes, it's R-19 but it's denim, way over-priced for your ROI, and it's the wrong size for the application).
Find out if your utility company offers energy audits. There are many other things that could be done, should be done, or be done incorrectly ( for instance; coalman's suggestion about the foam board. Although it may offered "some" insulating value, air infiltration has more effect on your overall heating/cooling than insulation itself). Hence my suggestion of the access door. Just like scuttle holes and pull-down stairs, sealing them for air can do more for your energy bill than just insulation.
Our southern plains house is built similarly. Upstairs was incredibly hot in the midday and summer eves and chilly and drafty in the winter. You may not want to go the distance that we did but we ended up gutting the upstairs to the studs. We improved the quality and quantity (R-value) of the insulation, the attic airflow, sealed holes that allowed uncontrolled and unwanted air intrusion (our floors pressurized and breeze came out of outlets and switches when the wind blew. In our gutting we found open holes in the envelope to the outside contributing to our "pest" problems and unknown (and structural) termite damage and other building issues that we repaired in the process.
We had the attic insulation sucked out and we caulked and foamed holes into wall voids, along the chimney chase and wiring bores shut. We re-insulated the walls, knee walls and ceiling slants with the maximum insulation making sure to control and channel airflow from soffit to attic. We installed a thermostatically controlled gable end attic fan and will be blowing in R-40 insect repellent cellulose insulation. We've built 18" tall access catwalks for attic inspection and installed a gasket sealed insulated attic stair.
With thoughtful rebuilding, our upstairs is now comfortable and thermally stable. We will eventually replace the leaky windows (weatherstripped now) with architecturally accurate modern windows and have yet to blow in the attic insulation (we just replaced HVAC ducting) but the improvement is noticeable already. We may cover the attic insulation with a reflective foil like blanket to reflect back heat but we have not made that decision yet. With the situation unaddressed upstairs, we had planned to sleep in the basement in the summer but we don't have to now.
With the exception of replacing the HVAC ducts (and aged system) the cost of doing this work was not really that high considering that we reclaimed roughly a third of our house square footage to livability. We rented a dumpster, gutted it ourselves, had the attic insulation sucked out, did the cleaning, sealing and repair work ourselves, installed air baffles, insulation, foam, drywall and fire taped. This has taken us two and a half months. We are camped out on the main floor for the time being. The rest is finishing work and we can move back up there full time.
Best of luck to you. I really understand what you are dealing with. We are "system" geeks that tend to go big or not at all but know that any improvement in your insulation and air penetration situation will increase the comfort of your upper story rooms.
Did this house pass any kind of inspection? It looks like there are tons of code violations.
Like what?
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