Previous owner said they always had huge icicles off the back of the house. This would be why.
.75 inches of fiberglass, where there should be at LEAST 8 inches, and code for our area more like 15 inches.
Combine that with the uninsulated, unblocked floor cavities in the upstairs floor joists, that lead directly to the uninsulated attic space…
And combine THAT with the 4(!!!) access points to the attic that were not only completely uninsulated, but also had no weather sealing, and ⅛-¼ inch gaps around all edges.
This house was literally leaking warm air like a sieve, all winter long.
I’m only putting in 8 inches of fiberglass batting. And sealing every crack and joint I can find, as well as the gaping holes 🤦♂️
It’ll still be under code, but, insulating it properly with spray foam would cost literally SIXTEEN TIMES MORE than just using the batting. And considering that our long term goal is to condition the attic space by insulating the roof deck, obsoleting the insulation I’m putting in now, I’m not eager to overspend.
I’ll settle for only blocking 95% of heat flow, instead of 99.
Edit, update: I took a few days off, the temp outside went up, and it was sunny, so the attic got real hot real fast. No thanks, I’m not in that kind of rush.
But I got all of one side done yesterday, still need to put the boards back down, and insulate the gappy door, but it’s sealed.
Am electrician, if youre considering adding any lights or power to that floor you should do so NOW vs after you insulate.
Or Ethernet, for example AP drops or cameras in the soffits.
Already in the works, adding a ceiling fan to the living room, and a couple extra lights in places.
Had almost this identical insulation situation when I bought my house. The ceiling just had some thin rock wool. First I went to Lowes and got a few cans of fire-rated spray foam and used it to seal around all ceiling fixtures, canister lights, wire penetrations, anything air can leak from. Next I built a little dam with scrap wood around the access hatch. Then spent one Saturday with a friend blowing insulation in. 8 hours of blower rental was free for every 3 bags of insulation you bought, but it didn’t take nearly that much time. Had it up to R-48 depth in only about 4 hours of blowing. I submit the receipts to my state’s energy rebate program and was 100% reimbursed. I think the blow-in did a much better job and was easier to get into odd shaped framing than bat would have been.
My winter gas bill halved, much better than I hoped. I also wasn’t expecting for my summer AC to bill drop by almost 75%. My house was MUCH more comfortable too. Almost all the draftiness disappeared after that.
I paid $0 after rebates, spent probably 12 hours labor total, and save easily $100-$200 a month.
That’s amazing!
I did look into my states rebate programs, and they only allow them if you pay a contractor to do the work, and even then, they have to be an approved contractor, and they get the rebate, not you, so hopefully you trust them 🤦♂️
Someone else mentioned blow in insulation, and I did consider it, but it’s a bit messy and fussy for what I want to do with the space in the future. So batting it is 🤷♂️
submit the receipts to my state’s energy rebate program and was 100% reimbursed
So many people don’t know to look for these reimbursements, many countries have them
wasn’t expecting for my summer AC to bill drop by almost 75%
Southern Anerican states dont understand how insulated attics work. They do stupid shit instead like white paint on roofs.
when i hear shit like this it suddenly makes more sense why so many americans have insane ideas about electricity not being able to heat houses or whatever
Can you recommend the brand of spray foam you used?
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v000181200/
Canister lights can get VERY hot, so I wanted to be extra safe with fire rated foam. It was only like $1 more per can.
“it compacts, it was 8inches when we installed it” <- words I’ve heard way too much
I was in the pool!
The water foreshortened it!
As a Brit, I find it wild to see a measuring device with imperial but no metric on it. Like, do Americans seriously not need to interface with any measurements beyond the 18th century?
Upvoted, obviously, for getting your insulation functional.
You know your measurement system is fucked up when the British are calling you out on it! 😅
Says a country that drives on left. (Against rest of world), stills uses pounds (currency), and uses"stones"
Pounds have been metric for half a century.
“metric” isn’t a currency did you have mental break down? They did refuse to use EUs standard currency making everyone life meseriable. Don’t even get started on the who leaving thng…
Sorry, I was thinking of decimalisation, not metrification. I thought you were whinging about imperial units, not the currency itself, which is much weirder - why didn’t you lot adopt dollars or yuan instead of making another new currency?
American (weight) pounds have been metric for that long. British pounds are a fiat currency used to measure the changing value of a commodity as perceived by the market. So no not metric.
They meant when UK went to 100 pennies in a pound, instead of 240 pennies.
Canadian, same. Dual measures are pretty universal. It’s honestly nearly impossible to find a stupid metric only tape. Super weird to see imperial only. Could be an old tool?
It’s crazy I know.
If I’m doing 3d design by myself? It’s metric all the way. Imperial fractions are the dumbest form of measurement, just beating out biblical “hand breadths” and cubits.
But alas, I grew up imperial measurements. So in my brain, for big measurements, feet and inches are easier for me to Intuit, so that’s what I use. And fractions get you close enough in most cases without having to go smaller than an 8th or maybe a 16th, so that’s what I use. Doubly so if you’re working with someone else.
I have had many tape measures in my time, most of them have had metric on the other side. I’ve literally never used it, because when I’m doing metric it’s small stuff and I’m using calipers. Frankly the metric on a tape measure just gets in the way, since that’s just not how I use it.
I sought out this tape measure because it was cheap, and it has the fractions written on it. Most tapes don’t, you just have to remember the length of the lines and the meanings of the general positions. I hate it, because I don’t do construction often enough to remember 🤷♂️
I got it at Menards, it’s proforce or something like that. Lime green.
All in all, I wish we were metric. But we are not. And it makes my life more difficult to try learning and then forcing others to use it. So imperial it is 🤷♂️
You can only travel from where you are, not from where you wish you could be.
Sounds like it fits your needs well!
I wish I could find a metric-only tape measure tho.
You can buy imperial only tape measures at any hardware store in Canada.
Maybe if you’re specifically looking for 'em. Never really checked.
Still weird to me.
Most things are measured in imperial. Only like small precision things are measured in metric, but mils is still common enough where measureing tools must do both.
Air is a great insulator in the absence of gravity. Have you considered relocating the house?
Yes, to an area with more air if at all possible.
More air, per air
If OP can’t afford the commute to space, then I recommend a good zero-G machine.
You should count yourself lucky you’ve got insulation up there. So many old houses around here have it all stolen by mice.
Peanut butter is the best bait for mouse traps I’ve ever used.
Mice haven’t responded to any traps I’ve set, regardless of bait.
Leaving a plastic bag on the floor, however, seems to attract them every time. I caught one when it went into a Costco-sized bag of paper towels. No food in it, no trash in it, just individually-wrapped paper towel rolls. I guess mice are so used to plastic bags being full of food, they gotta explore them whenever they find them.
Works on both mice and cats
That’s fair! So far no mice. Lots of neighborhood cats, much to the chagrin of my lawn… cat dooky everywhere.
if you’re cold, they’re cold. Give them insulation.
What kinda wack fuck inaulation is that? Our garden shed is better insulated than that.
It’s super old, and I doubt it was 8 inches when installed, probably 3 or 4. Crazy. Old houses 🤷♂️
Yeah it seems so. At least it’s not that shredded blown in insulation some US houses use
ugh im in a condo and can’t convince people on the need for much more attic insulation. its so cheap and we can recover the cost so quickly. face palm.
True story! Especially batting or blown in.
I’m only at like $500 for materials so far. Although spray foam would be like $8000 👀
I have the reverse situation. There’s only like 3ft of clearance and 2.5ft of blown in fiberglass insulation.
Doing anything in the attic is a fucking nightmare.
The times I’ve gone up into my attic to do anything and have to crawl on my belly in blown in fiberglass are too many. I feel you.
I don’t even know how to get in mine. The opening is at the top of a tiny closet, and the hole is built for someone the size of like a 4 year old Ethiopian child. I could fit my toddler up there… But I am not really sure what that would actually accomplish.
This is my issue as well. I don’t know any professional small people that can do roof repairs.
Once it gets cold enough one of the roof whirlygigs freezes until spring so I had to seal the attic hole up so the insulation pellets (asbestos free) don’t get blown down everytime a outside door opens.
Lol what’s a whirlygig?
They likely mean a spinning turbine vent.
Exactly, a whirlygig.
Those were never good. Ridge vents work much better.
I have no opinion one way or the other, but most home owners aren’t really involved in the choosing of the vents unless they’re getting their roof redone.
Just leave them up there and let them figure it out, not your problem
My house originally had only this little sliding panel between two joists, so the opening was like 24" x 15". Just the most insanely claustrophobic experience I’ve ever had in a house. One of the first things I did on the house was to install a dropdown folding ladder access hatch – still blows my mind that the thing cost only $109. Found a hat up there that one of the builders must have lost when the house was intially constructed in 1942.
Those passages are for hiding illegitimate children.
Overdone. There is no benefit above 16 inches.
But it’s warm!
It is that. During snowpocolypse a few years back our house didn’t drop below 55F despite it being single digits outside with no power.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold on to cold air as well.
Overdone. There is no benefit above 16 inches.
To be fair, that was code in 1962.
Over half a century ago. 64 years.
Lol fair enough
Ain’t no “re” involved here
Right?!
RE in the sense that ¾ inch of insulation is technically still insulation 🙄
Have you considered blown insulation since it’s in the attic? Should be cheaper than foam and higher r value than bats
From what I’ve read, the difference is pretty minimal.
Plus I’d need the blower, and all the hassle. Probably want to do it in one day, whereas with the batts I’m able to do it a little bit every day after work.
The key is that there are boards on top of the joists, for storage and stuff. I’d like to keep them, even though it reduces my max potential r value. Again, this is a short term solution, a year or two at most.
All very good reasons to do bats. Sounds like you’ve thorough considered it
Those batts also look super compressed. I bet the house gets cold as hell too
Yeah the upstairs especially is uh, following the weather outside pretty closely
Looks like you’ll have a much better winter this time around.
This will be my first winter in this house, so unfortunately(fortunately?) I won’t have any first hand comparison to how bad it was before.
But yes, I think it’ll be much improved. I’ll know it’s better if I don’t have monster sized icicles.
My house had no insulation anywhere, just walls made of cinderblock filled with concrete and a basement. Ceiling was just plaster tiles (a weird old 1940s system that was intermediate between lath-and-plaster and sheetrock) with no insulation in the attic floor at all except for faint traces of what I assume was asbestos. I’ve spent the last two weeks putting in R19 fiberglass batts and decking the attic, absolute murder on my knees since the peak of the roof is only 5’ tall. My heating bills have actually not been too terrible up to this point since the house is so small (650 sq. ft.), but I’m assuming that having at least the ceiling decently insulated will make a significant difference this winter.
Wow that’s crazy! I hope you have a good winter too!
I wish you the best of luck then
“Looks like 8” to me” TWHS
