Pretty sure I know the answer to this question, however I inspected a house that was very well maintained with no major issues. However in the attic when looking at the insulation I came across the following. In the first picture it shows how the majority of the attic is insulated. The attic basically had TWO levels. The access was through the upper level. The second and third pictures looks down into a “lower attic” which is above some of the rooms on the first floor. The distance from the upper to the lower is approximatly 20’. As you can see from the second picture, the lower level over the first floor rooms has NO insulation. I thought at first that this was by design, for some strange reason unknown to me. However after thinking about it, it just seems like this is a huge energy wasting uninsulated area. Am I missing something or should the lower level attic be as well insulated as the upper level attic?
Is the uninsulated area over a garage?
…or OTHER non-habitable space?
Patio or porch?
No. Dining room and front parlor area
| Scott Bridges sbridges2 InterNACHI®️ CPI
August 22 |
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Is the uninsulated area over a garage?
No. Dining room and front parlor
| Jeffrey Jonas jjonas InterNACHI®️ CPI
August 22 |
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Scott Bridges:
Is the uninsulated area over a garage
…or OTHER non-habitable space?
No, dining room and front parlor
| David Wigger, CMI dwigger InterNACHI®️ CMI
August 22 |
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Patio or porch?
I see that the walls are insulated, they either just missed it or it could have been enclosed after the original build.
I’ve seen the same thing. On an older home, I was walking through the upper attic and the insulation was fine. But I was barely able to see down at the lower area above the master bedroom on the 1st floor, where all I saw was drywall. Guess the contractor forgot to install the insulation or pulled a fast one.
The question is should it be insulated or was it left like this for a reason?
| Yu Zhang yzhang
August 22 |
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I’ve seen the same thing. On an older home, I was walking through the upper attic and the insulation was fine. But I was barely able to see down at the lower area above the master bedroom on the 1st floor, where all I saw was drywall. Guess the contractor forgot to install the insulation or pulled a fast one.
Absolutely should have insulation installed. I just thought of another older home with a similar kind of design, where the area above the master bedroom/bathroom was a roof area. I went up through the scuttle hole in the master bathroom closet and lo and behold insulation missing at some areas but present in others. Also, the wiring for the bathroom exhaust fan arc’d to the housing and was burnt. Double whammy.
In my opinion, these areas are just easily forgotten areas and easy areas for homeowners to never go into for years and nobody knows what’s going on.
Also, same thing can happen on new construction. This time I stuck my hand and smart phone through the hole for the speakers to take pictures. Hole was too small for my head lol. Also, there was no other access panel to this attic area. Probably why they forgot the insulation.
See below
Ah, I just found it. Here is the one with the no insulation above the master bed/bathroom with the burn marks on the exhaust fan. The blown insulation contractor probably didn’t see the scuttle hole in the closet and you cannot see this area very well from the upper attic above the 2nd floor bedrooms. I’ll give him a pass on that one as obviously the blown insulation can only be installed after the drywall is up. House has been like this for 14 years at the time of inspection. The few pieces of blown insulation fell from the upper attic.
I find missing insulation or voids often. I just run thru my mind what are the conditioned areas inside the building thermal envelope and evaluate insulation accordingly.
As a former insulation contractor I have I have sixth sense about spotting these issues.(Even if I can’t physically see them) Yesterday was a classic example. I had a really good (bad) feeling that a front room that was flat was not insulated. Inside and attic temperatures were almost identical so thermal imaging was of absolutely no use. The entire house except for a bedroom and the adjoining hall bathroom were all vaulted and no way to see anything firsthand. Actually really no real access past what I could see from the access at the other end of the house. I then proceeded to do what we Should Not Be doing… and removed a heating/cooling duct at the ceiling and fished my small Wi-Fi borescope camera between the boot of the duct and the drywall and low and behold, no insulation.
House built 1993 and was insulated by a company that was known to cheat, but they were always $200 less on their bids so the contractors used them. (My experience being in insulation back in those years also helped me because that company was the only one using a yellow blown fiberglass at that time and almost everyone of them I inspect now have similar problems if not re-insulated.). This from yesterday’s inspection.
