Adding Extra Insulation To Attic Walls

Add weatherstripping around the perimeter and a sweep to the door of a walk up attic.

Adding extra insulation to attic walls.

Pull down stair or ladder. You should be able to see if there is insulation in the wall. Blowing in attic cellulose is conceivably a do it yourself job. Block all vents in the attic floor with baffles making sure to extend the baffles at least four inches above the planned thickness of your insulation.

Affix rigid foam insulation to the attic side of the hatch or door. Inspect the exterior walls by using an electrical outlet. Most attics are insulated with blown in loose cellulose r 3 5 per inch blown in loose fiberglass r 2 5 per inch or fiberglass batts r 3 2 per inch. Insulation should be rolled out perpendicular to the joists and unfaced rolls should be used.

3 have a friend add material to the hopper. When adding additional insulation you do not have to use the same type of insulation that currently exists in your attic. It needs to be unfaced. With boric acid added for fire resistance shredded recycled telephone books tax forms and newspapers all contribute to making safe cellulose insulation blown in cellulose is injected into the wall cavities by a series of holes drilled into either the inside or outside of the walls.

If you need to add insulation in your attic save big by blowing in cellulose insulation yourself. You can add loose fill on top of fiberglass batts or blankets and vice versa. How much does attic insulation cost. You can do it yourself for about 500.

If you use fiberglass over loose fill make sure the fiberglass batt has no paper or foil backing. Batt or rolled insulation or blown loose fill insulation fiberglass or cellulose can be installed on top of old insulation. Turn off the power to the outlet. The pros charge 1 500 to 2 000 to do a 1 200 sq ft.

The r value of the batt measures the thermal resistance so the higher the r value the more effectively. As you keep adding more and more insulation you keep reducing the heat flow through the wall more and more. Cellulose is recycled newsprint treated with a fire retardant. The grade of batting will vary depending on the wall that you re insulating.

Blown in insulation overview. The blue line in all the graphs below shows the heat flow through the wall and the red columns show either the stepwise or cumulative reduction in heat flow compared to what it was with an r 2 r 11 or r 16 wall. Blowing attic insulation isn t hard but it s dusty sweaty work. Remove the outlet cover and shine a flashlight into the crack around the outlet box.

There are various grades of insulating batting for different locations in the house so you ll need a different insulation for interior exterior attic or basement walls. Use a zippered insulated tent to keep the enclosure draft free attic tent at 7 attic cover insulator 120. Attic hatch or door. Fiberglass is just that thin fibers of glass that trap air.