What’s in your attic?

• Posted on January 30, 2017
• by mikew
• in Fix It & Use It
• No Comments.

What is the most critical part of our body to cover when trying to stay warm? Our head! What is the most critical part of our house to cover when trying to say warm? Our attic!

There are a couple of things that I frequently see that causes heat to pump out of our houses through the attic and increases heating costs:

1. Missing or inadequate insulation on the scuttle hole access cover. At an inspection I came from (earlier today when I wrote this post), I could feel the warmth billowing from the hallway below when I prepared to climb down the ladder. A thin piece of sheetrock or plywood is going to do very little to insulate this cover. Oftentimes I see pieces of insulation that were never secured to the cover and lying next to it. The picture above shows a partly covered scuttle hole cover.
2. Uneven insulation on the attic floor. Foot traffic or attic work can result in compressed or piled insulation. This means that, like a goose down comforter with feathers at the foot of the duvet, the living areas below are particularly cool in the home. An added complication is when soffit vents are covered or lines of air flow are obstructed because of these piles. Inadequate ventilation can result in excess moisture and conditions that result in organic growths like mildew or molds in the attic area.

So what to do? The easiest option is hire an attic-insulation specialist to evaluate and repair things. But most novice do-it-yourselfers can climb up and take a quick look around. A lawn rake and an extra bag of loose fill insulation and cardboard baffles from the hardware store are pretty much all you need to repair uneven insulation. Securing insulation batting on the scuttle hole cover can be accomplished with some twine and a heavy duty stapler. 

CAUTION: If you ever enter your attic, please use extreme caution and step only on the joists. The sheetrock ceiling cannot hold your weight and will add repair costs to your project!

Feel free to let me know if you have questions on this topic or need the names of reputable contractors who can help you with this. I have a couple of companies who do A+ work on this sort of thing!