Venting and Insulating Cape Cod with Essentially Neither

We just purchased an older cape cod which has neither insulation in its attic space and absolutely no venting. I'm going to hire someone to take care of the venting issue, which surprisingly has caused no visible issues in the attic. Of course, it didn't have central A/C until recently. The roof shingles are curling slightly on one side, which I'm assuming is related to winter ice issues, and which I'm further assuming is due to the lack of insulation plus no venting.

I do want to insulate the side attics and feel somewhat comfortable doing it myself. The knee walls are 5 feet high using 2x4's. My plan was to use Kraft-faced 3 1/2" fiberglass, with faced side toward the interior (since we're in a colder climate). Then I was thinking about putting in horizontally 9" unfaced, and, though not ideal, I'll just staple it to the external side of the 2x4's (possibly with a piece of thin wood or plastic to give it better support) or in some other manner if anyone has any ideas. I know the latter part of the plan isn't conventional, but I thought it a decent way of adding something more than the R-13 the 2x4's only allow. Is this plan totally screwball or asking for trouble?

There is some insulation above the attic room ceilings that I believe needs to be replaced, but I'm saving that for when the venting issue is being solved. There's an attic fan that was put in to satisfy code when the roof was replaced, but apparently air vents to feed the fan were never contemplated when writing the code. Once I'm done with the knee walls, I then deal with the floors/1st floor ceilings.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

Any soffit vents? Gable vents? Ridge vent?

Before you finish the knee walls you may want to insulate and vent properly. The best way to do this is with a gutted attic.

There is really one way to properly vent the capes.

The pros will chime in. I am posting this because I have a cape and wish I could have gutted mine.

Let us know whats there. You probably want to get rid of that fan. But we will wait and see what you have to say about what you have.

Mike NJ

 

There really is no venting: no soffit vents, no gable vents, no ridge vent, nada. I questioned my own observation, but my engineer neighbor confirmed I was not nuts. We were talking about putting in gable vents, and intakes in some place to be determined. Unrelated, but possibly a whole house fan to the attic as well. The side attics have floor boards for storage, but almost no insulation. You look between the 4x6 floors joists (with 12" spacing) and 90% of the time you see the ceiling. I was going to get to that once I was finished with the knee walls, not because it's less important, but the walls would be easier to do first, assuming I don't elevate and reinstall the storage areas.

Besides the floorboards, much of which is deteriorating particle board that will be trashed, there's not much to remove. Agreed about the fan, but we do have an easily accessed on/off switch for it that we sometimes use when we come home just to blow out the heat from the second floor. We open a window and the attic access doors and it works great for an unintended purpose.

When insulating the knee walls I'll make sure to cut it off before it gets near the rafters.

 

Hmm.

My opinion,

I would not insulate the floor at all.

I would cut the appropriate soffit vents in, which is a fairly simple process.

You want every bay vented. Strip it like this can be done with a skill saw.



Then on the inside of the home you want to install these baffles ( air chutes). They allow the air to have a clear path to the top ridge.

These baffles are because you need to insulate the roof. Then sheet rock. Sheet rock the roof joists all the way from floor to peak. ( Thats why I said its better to have a gutted space.



Then install a ridge vent.




And what you get is this.





After the above is done then build you knee walls/ceiling..etc

Hope this helps.

The pros will have a lot more to offer in variables of venting roofs.

Mike NJ