Air Sealing Attic Floor

A home energy company has proposed a solution that involves sealing air leaks in the bedroom ceilings attic floor sealing around the chimney weatherizing the attic hatch insulating a few roof areas that the builders missed and adding cellulose to the rest of the attic to bring it up to r 60.

Air sealing attic floor.

If your attic floor is insulated with vermiculite a type of insulation that may contain asbestos don t touch the insulation. Then finish up by sealing the access hatch with self sticking foam weatherstrip photos 10 and 11. Without air sealing your attic you are allowing warm air to escape from your home carrying with it your hard earned winter heating money. Air seal your attic for energy savings.

What is air sealing. By air sealing in your attic you can stop many major air leaks and help to maintain the desired temperature throughout your home. Home comfort problems often start in the attic where poor insulation and numerous air leaks create problems for your heating and cooling system and make your home uncomfortable. When you re done sealing your attic bypasses push the insulation back into place with an old broom handle or stick as you back out of the attic.

It s very unsexy work usually in the not so nice parts of your home like attics and crawlspaces. For that space if all the insulation in there now is coming out and being totally replaced as part of the insulation job so the attic floor will be completely exposed anyway for roughly 3000sf of attic normal air sealing cost would probably be in the 250 400 range depending on whether your attic was used for ducting and wiring runs or not. Attics are often under insulated and under sealed leading to wasted energy and wasted spend by the homeowners. Air sealing is the systematic finding and sealing of air leakage points throughout your home from the attic to the walls to the basement and or crawlspace.

If your hatch rests directly on the moldings like ours did add 2 1 2 in wide stops around the. The attic is usually where you can find some of the largest opportunities to save energy in your home. Most people just add insulation to their attic this will not stop the escaping warm air. Seal attic floor holes.

It s easy to overlook electrical wires ducts pipes and vents in the attic but the openings around these. While this is generally true all too often the items need to be done are either simply overlooked or buried. Attic air sealing is the priority. Attic floor insulation adding more insulation in your attic is often seen as one of the easiest ways to help save money and increase comfort in your home.

Your focus should be on the attic when you begin air sealing. Combined with attic insulation air sealing can help to alleviate the formation of dangerous ice dams in the winter. Removal of vermiculite insulation should only be performed by.