How Do You Insulate A Finished Attic

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.

How do you insulate a finished attic.

If you re finishing your attic insulating it to the proper r value can cause a dramatic loss of headroom if you limit yourself to fiberglass batts. Without properly ventilating the roof your finished space can be just as unpleasant as an unfinished attic. The basic space requirements for a finished attic boil down to the sizes of the finished rooms. You can learn the proper code specifications and plan to insulate and wire your attic for better purposes than storage.

Since parts of a finished attic are usually very close to the roof insulation often blocks proper ventilation that is needed under a roof structure. In particularly cold climates you might go up to r 60. Department of energy estimates that attic insulation can substantially decrease by anywhere from 10 to 15 percent the amount of money you devote each month to keeping your house at a. If your home is smaller than other homes in your area or simply lacks the necessary amount of storage or living space for your family finishing your attic is a relatively inexpensive way to increase your usable space.

If the finished attic is simply a storage area without the need for climate control you can leave the attic floor insulation in place but must forgo adding anything between the rafters. Without properly insulating your finished attic room will also be cold in the winter. Plan to pull up the flooring and layer new insulation on top of the old. Because the simplest and cheapest way to insulate an attic is to add material to the floor.

Flooring ceiling and wall materials and other elements will reduce headroom and floor space and it s the finished area that matters. 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. Your home s r value score will guide you toward the type of insulation you need.

In general an attic s r value should be between r 30 and r 49. A finished attic should be insulated much like the rest of the house with insulation in the walls and ceiling. But if the floor is covered in plywood you can t stuff enough insulation beneath it to do the job sufficiently not even in warm climates. Stop using your attic for storage.