attic pics, insulation suggestions needed


  #1  
Old 09-12-10, 04:14 PM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
attic pics, insulation suggestions needed

first off let me summarize and excerpt what an energy auditor wrote 2 years ago (didnt have the money at the time and i dont know if it was even a good deal or not):

$1280 add blown insulation approx 800 sf attic currently containing only 2.5 inches of insulation. To depth of framing members in floor portion; to total of R38 in unfloored portion

attic varies, 2 floored areas sit on 8 inch joists and have 2.5 inches of loose fill, R8 value. Another unfloored area 2.5 of loose fiberglass. All other open areas have 6 inches of fiberglass over 2.5 of loose giving cumulative R 27

attic: 41pa showing good separation from living space

--------------------------

i looked at lowes this weekend and they had bags of green fiber for 11 bucks and with 20 bags free machine rental. however while i do believe the only option for under my floor is the blown in stuff, i dont know what the best option is for the other open areas and need your advice. I have multiple pics below. I just dont know if on all the open joists i can just 'go to town' and add a ton of blown in stuff and just have one big 'pool'. If i can do that, then i guess i need to put down a few more boards along the one edge of the attic to walk along as the narrow walkway only goes 1/2 the length of the house.I've never had to do any work up there in 16 years so doubt i would in the future but i guess you just push the stuff aside if you need to find something?

also i think this is about 2600 sq ft and i dont know how to compute how many bags i need, obviously i need much less under my floor vs all the exposed places.

appraisers drawing of my house, just for your reference in case it matters, and to give you an idea of what's below

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...tforonline.jpg

my (poor) drawing of my attic...no tossing things at the artist!




exposed joists above living room



exposed above living room, standing in the 'doorway' access



zoom in to the very front of the house



spot above the living room where the open joists meet the start of the floor. he said i could probably only remove every Xth board and pump the stuff in but im not sure how many that means, i dont mind if it's all of them but i have a lot of junk there to move around lol

also it appears there's not a lot of room to pump anything more in but some would be appropriate of course. every bit helps! The old stuff looks 'old' but i guess it still works? or should i take it all out (something i dont look forward to)

 
  #2  
Old 09-12-10, 04:21 PM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
entire front of house...this is where i dont know just to blowit in and pile it on or buy more unfaced pink stuff?




the floor i have




above kitchen, it's a small hole to get into this area but i think i can manage



more above the kitchen shot



first board at rear of attic



first board at rear of attic. ive never worked with this kind of floor, will it be EZ to take out and put back in? i'm assuming it's just floating and not connected anywhere but with all crap i have to move around, wont be fun logistically

 
  #3  
Old 09-12-10, 04:24 PM
D
Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: USA
Posts: 4,344
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
You can definitley blow a big pile ontop of everything else. You do have to make sure it doesn't block the air flow from your soffit vents into your attic. You will have to put something there to stop it from going in and to maintain a space for airflow against the under side of the roof.
 
  #4  
Old 09-12-10, 04:37 PM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
oh i didnt consider that. it appears not to be a very fun job in tight quarters. and i hate doing any job half azz but how bad would it be to make a 'wall' of some sort thats not quite to the vent. though i really do want to try to make it to the full edge

what material do you use to make the 'wall'

could it be something as simple as screening? No idea what that cost but seems cheap but effective,..just tack it to each beam and let hang down? dont really see a need to tack on the bottom

or maybe have it come down and come towards me a bit and load up the insulation on top of it? like an L

also im guessing i should just get a 2x4 piece of ply wood and shimmy it along as something for me to stand or kneel on during all this. or is there some other trick? my balance will be tested.
 
  #5  
Old 09-13-10, 04:59 AM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
one question i neglected to ask...is it even worth me doing this? my belief is hot air rises so yes this will make a noticeable difference but i dont know that for sure. I dont want to spend hundreds of dollars and hours of time just to save a few cents
 
  #6  
Old 09-13-10, 03:09 PM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
i went to take more pics of the soffit area and now i'm wondering, am i even getting any ventilation at all? these are the best pics i can get without major contortion to get down there. I initially thought the soffit was on this side of that vertical 'end cap' but if you scroll thru the pics, it's obvious that's not true. so the opening only appears to be on the other side of the wood. if so then it appears the air just gets thru that tiny crack between the roof and the end cap.

is this the way it's supposed to be? in a way it's good news if so because i was beginning to wonder how i was going to use any kind of soffit baffle.







 
  #7  
Old 09-13-10, 05:24 PM
D
Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: USA
Posts: 4,344
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
They sell those foam baffles that are shaped like a U that go against the roof deck to maintain the air space. You can use cardboard or foam board that is cut to fit the space between the baffle and the top of your wall below. You do want to get that insulation as far over as possible.
 
  #8  
Old 09-13-10, 05:27 PM
D
Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: USA
Posts: 4,344
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
I just look at your pics more closely and read what you said in that post. Does your roof overhang the wall of the house or is it flush? It kind of looks like it is flush to me because of the way the roof framing appears in your pictures. Do you have any other visible venting in your attic like gable vents or a ridge vent?
 
  #9  
Old 09-13-10, 05:31 PM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
yes i have ridge vent and attic exhaust fan

i just went outside and the roof is about 1 foot or so out from the house in the front

here's a pic of the rear though, comes out much farther..strange. This would be the outside of the kitchen if you saw my notes in the above pics and diagrams

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...d/spouttop.jpg
 
  #10  
Old 09-14-10, 05:04 AM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
CORRECTION: since i was out at night i only could see the roof above my big bow window...it comes out about 1ft further than the window. So in reality the soffit is out about the same all around the house, as you see in the pic in post 9 with the gutter. I just didnt consider that when i saw the roofline over the big window last night .

i'm assuming your quesiton about a ridge vent was in case my soffits were 'decorative' and not there for any real type of venting. I'm glad you pointed this out, i never knew. I guess they are.

so if they are just for 'show' i guess it wouldnt matter what i did do as far as baffle, but i'm still gonna go to lowes and home depot and get one each of the duravent and the accu..whatever the home depot one was. Then ill see what trouble i either have or dont have and we can go from there

i wish i was a little person and could stick my head in the end there to really see what the end was, i really was looking for ways to fish lines down throughout the years and the one time i tried in another part of the attic, i ran into what i believe was horizontal pieces of wood used to hold up the plaster and instead i had to come up thru the crawlspace.
 
  #11  
Old 09-19-10, 06:35 AM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
Originally Posted by drooplug
I just look at your pics more closely and read what you said in that post. Does your roof overhang the wall of the house or is it flush? It kind of looks like it is flush to me because of the way the roof framing appears in your pictures. Do you have any other visible venting in your attic like gable vents or a ridge vent?

new info: i put some wood down and got closer to the edge of the roof. i can say with certainty that i dont understand what's going on. The outer vertical framing member, presumably the end of the roof, does not have soffits visible from the inside of the attic (no daylight) and it appears to be just a flat surface thats mostly uncovered with insulation. However, i do not believe that anyone is so unintentionally lazy or cheap as to have universally 'forgotten' to insulate the last 1-2 feet of the floor all around. Therefore i'm just guessing but i think there must be some kind of filter or cover that doesnt let daylight in lol

there is no other real explanation. I really hesitate to cover up the potential soffits so i'm leaning towards just leaving the last 2 ft of floor uninsulated. But then i think that is a bad idea because i have no clue how i'd install the soffit baffle on that last horizontal member before the end of the roofline, and leave the last 2 ft open as they are today...sigh..

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...on/soffit4.jpg
 
  #12  
Old 09-19-10, 07:17 AM
D
Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: USA
Posts: 4,344
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
Based on that picture of your gutter, there are vent panels in your soffits. However, that doesn't mean the space behind it is open. Try looking through those vents with a flashlight to see if it open behind them. Do it on different areas of your house to see what is going on.

Also, could you take some more pictures in the attic? If you could pull back the insulation in that one bay and take a picture. Then stick your camera down by the soffit and take a picture of the area on the other side of the 2x4 laying down. I am not understanding how this house was built. You should be able to see the top plate of your walls from up there.
 
  #13  
Old 09-19-10, 10:17 AM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
no time today to get the ladder out and peek outside, but hopefully some of these pics help you out, it's a mystery to me too!










 
  #14  
Old 09-19-10, 10:20 AM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
  #15  
Old 09-20-10, 05:56 AM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
and the answer is..NO VENTING! i peeked on 2 separate areas outside the house. so i'm sure thats how it is everywhere.

this is good from the perspective that the soffit baffles can be placed way down into the hole and i dont have to worry about what i thought i may have to with spacing. And it solves the mystery.

OR do i even need baffles?

since i cant get down in there to staple the baffles down low, i'm going to go to the big box store and see what kind of rigid, yet thin, 8ft board they have so i can attach the baffle to the board then the the board to the roof, closer to me where i can reach without being a little person.Then by the nature of the insulation coming up a foot that should help hold it up too.

unless you have another idea?











http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...n/IMG_8803.jpg
 
  #16  
Old 09-20-10, 10:20 AM
L
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 2,221
Received 8 Upvotes on 8 Posts
it aint pretty but i figured out an easier way to get the baffle in the space. Though in theory i really i dont need them because the soffits are blocked, but i figure that tiny crack in the edge of the roof is providing some kind of ventilation so didnt want to risk blocking all of it.

i have about 40 joists the length of the house so was thinking about a baffle every 3rd one, but i guess i should just do them all and be done with it so i dont have to worry about coming back again. Lowes had 1x3x8ft of wood for 1.18 and that's the cheapest piece of anything i could find that's 8 ft long and sturdy. PVC 1 inch was the next cheapest at 1.30

so now this will be over 100 bucks just for baffle and support ...the costs keep rising. and i figured it doesnt have to be perfect in there. just in place enough to let 'some' air flow up.







 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description:
Your question will be posted in: