OK, the house is 53 years old, and I have been here 30 years and had only gone up the attic once to wire a fan and once to install a bathroom vent. I had never looked close at the insulation and always assumed that I only had an R-19, so I contracted to upgrade for zone 6 standard of R-49.
So I go up and look at it again before the contractor shows up and discover that I had a 6" batt on top of a 2-1/2 or 3" foil faced batt. I had already agreed to pay for 10-12" of blown in insulation so the contractor said to just install it anyways, the contract was already signed.
What I notice up there is that there were no proper vents and only gable vents. 10 years ago when I had vinyl siding installed, I had told the Contractor to rip a slot under the plywood soffit in-between the small vents I had and he never did it and installed the perforated vents over the plywood and called it good.
Well, so much for soffit venting.
I also noticed the condition of the plywood and lumber, which is amazing condition considering the little insulation and just gable vents. My shingles are pushing 30 years now and look great still.
So forget the proper vents and get her done. LOL!
That is the foil face under the 6"
You’re going to luv R-60 ceilings. My heat/air bills have gone up but because of inflation. They are still less than 1/4 of my neighbors’s houses…very happy!
Morning, Mr. Cyr. Hope this post finds yourself and Mrs. Cyr well.
Don’t know if this well help but, Green Building Advisor Community and Q&A; Considering gable vents only for attic ventilation.
Also a link to conditioned and unconditioned attic venting or not.
From my take, only gable vents work. How the gable is exposed to prevailing winds may require vouver adjustment to prevent snow from entering the attic and wind gusts disturbing blown in insulation blanket.
Marcel, what is really going to make a difference is that with the blown insulation you killed the 2 weak points that are inherent in most all fiberglass batt installs. The general voids that are hard to seal around pipes and wires and the area where there is no, or very little insulation directly above the ceiling joists.
I know Larry, that is why I finally did it. Should have done it a long time ago, but it cost quite a bit to do it. I should have done it when I was capable of crawling up there. With all my surgeries, I had to hire out.
I am hoping it will make a difference on heat season cost.
