A couple of weeks ago I
popped my head into the attic over the garage attached to the house
and saw this at the far wall. In the year that we've been here, I
never really explored the attic, so this was kind of a surprise. The
first thing I noticed was obviously the exposed insulation, but
because of its exposure it's all black from the dust and
air. Second thing I notice is the foil/foam insulation panels next
to it that appear to have been put up there with the intention of
sealing the insulation. Good idea. I'll get around to it when I can
I thought to myelf.
Our bedroom is opposite this wall.
Over the next couple of cold morning when I got up, I noticed
the frost on
the garage roof making
a funny pattern. At the end of the garage roof, the frost was
thick and white. The closer you got the house, there was less
and less frost until there was none. That's bad.
That means enough heat is escaping the house to heat that much of the garage attic and
keep frost from forming. It was so bad at least half the garage
roof was frost free. Suddenly the insulation sealing job
moved to the top of the
list
.
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After seeing the frost behavior, I had a sneaky
suspicion the insulation I saw in the garage attic was the same
insulation behind the wall in our bedroom .
When I got up in there to do the job this confirmed it. Indeed
behind the exposed insulation was the drywall in our bedroom. This
explained why the receptacles and holes we found in the wall when we
first tore things all apart were so drafty
.
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I
bought a bunch of plastic head roofing nails and went to town.
Unfortunately the foil/foam panels were not of uniform size and
shape. I don't think a single one was square, but there
was enough to do two layers. Any gaps or bad fittings of the first
layer were sealed over with the second layer, which I got
better at sizing and cutting anyway. After two or so hours in
the filth and dust I got tired and quit for the night. I got most of
our bedroom side done. I think tonight I'll finish the other
and seal off any remaining gaps with spray foam
insulation.
See the insulation facing under the foil/foam
stuff with the wire going into it? That's the back of the attic gap
project I did last october. It was similar to this project, but
there was no drywall on the other side. The cold air was flowing
freely through the rotton insulation and into our first
floor. At least now the gap is to the point the where the
bedroom was before the foil/foam sealing. Of course I'll have
to come back and properly seal it off as well, but that's another
time and not as much of a concern right now.
I can't wait
for another cold frosty night to see how
much difference this makes.
If you're wondering (like I
do a lot) how the hell the previous owners lived like this for so
many years, the explanation is easy. They lived with a coal stove
heating their house for many years. Like most coal stoves, it
would get so hot in the house, they'd have the windows open in the
winter, Drafts and leaks like this were ok, or at least not
noticable, for them. When the coal stove got to be too much
work for them they put in a propane forced air furnace. By that
time most everything was too much work for them. The foil/foam
pieces in the attic are evidence of that. The previous
owner knew about the situation, got the stuff to fix it,
but was simply unable to. Oh well. Now it's
my job, and I'm trying my hardest to
make it warm and cozy or at least cheaper to heat so I
can buy more bike
stuff.
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December 2, 2007. Almost a year later I finally
get back to this. It's not like there was stuff I had to buy or a I
need a big chunk of time. I just didn't want to or didn't have
the kind of day where I could spend a couple hours here and
there doing odd dirty things. Today was that day. All I had left was
the second layer on the left side, the blue footer piece and the
spray foam. The blue footer was leftover from the stove job
. I'll need more when I
do the rest of the insulation downstairs, but for now it was
fine to use it up
here.
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Hell if I know if it will actually save energy, but
at least I feel better knowing it's done and I
can mark this one
complete.
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