Insulating And Venting A Finished Attic

Without properly ventilating the roof your finished space can be just as unpleasant as an unfinished attic.

Insulating and venting a finished attic.

With a finished attic insulation must help keep the attic areas comfortable. If it is and you plan to provide heating and cooling to the finished attic space you need to remove. 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. So much information has been devoted to the subject of roof venting that it s easy to become confused and to lose focus.

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. Sure installing roof vents for older homes can reduce your hot air during the summer but there are probably more low risk cost effective ways to increase your home s energy. Whole house fans powered attic fans. 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.

A finished attic should be insulated much like the rest of the house with insulation in the walls and ceiling. 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. Fans and vents may be installed on the roof system that will draw the air out of the. Loose fill insulation is great for installing in attics with very little headroom and multiple obstructions such as vents and cross beams.

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

So i ll start by saying something that might sound controversial but really isn t. Without properly insulating your finished attic room will also be cold in the winter. 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. For the same reason insulation shouldn t touch the roof s underside.

Good roof ventilation can do this but shingle color sun exposure and insulation are exponentially more important to overall energy efficiency than ventilation.