Insulating And Venting A Finished Attic

The attic floor which is the ceiling of the living space below often already is insulated.

Insulating and venting a finished attic.

Good roof ventilation can do this but shingle color sun exposure and insulation are exponentially more important to overall energy efficiency than ventilation. Without properly ventilating the roof your finished space can be just as unpleasant as an unfinished attic. For the same reason insulation shouldn t touch the roof s underside. It can be effectively blown over existing insulation and.

Most codes require a specified minimum amount of headroom and it s tough to meet this requirement when insulating a finished attic especially since most. Whole house fans powered attic fans. So much information has been devoted to the subject of roof venting that it s easy to become confused and to lose focus. If it is and you plan to provide heating and cooling to the finished attic space you need to remove.

A finished attic should be insulated much like the rest of the house with insulation in the walls and ceiling. Fans and vents may be installed on the roof system that will draw the air out of the. Without properly insulating your finished attic room will also be cold in the winter. With square foot living space at a premium many homeowners turn to their attics for a little extra room when the attic becomes part of the home to be heated and.

Covering up the soffit vents with loose fill or batts which can happen if you stuff insulation along the eaves is a huge no no. A vented attic where insulation is placed on an air sealed attic floor is one of the most underappreciated building assemblies that we have in the history of building science. The airflow from the soffits to the ridge vent keeps the roof cool and prevents ice dams and the material will block that flow. Loose fill insulation is great for installing in attics with very little headroom and multiple obstructions such as vents and cross beams.

That means insulating the attic floor only not the walls and having vents in the roof. To meet all three goals insulating your finished attic ventilating the roof and maximizing headroom use a combination of dense batt insulation rigid foam sheeting and air chutes. In addition insulation baffles must be installed at the point where the attic floor meets the roofline to prevent the attic insulation from migrating into the cavities and restricting the airflow from the soffit vents. How to insulate a finished attic.

So i ll start by saying something that might sound controversial but really isn t.