Compressing Insulation In Attic

Find your zone on the map and then use the chart to determine the level of insulation you need to properly insulate your attic walls floors and crawlspaces.

Compressing insulation in attic.

There was no plywood up there plus it looks like the insulation is not uniformly compressed. If you know you aren t going to convert the attic in the future that leads you one direction compressing the insulation is fine maybe you don t care so much about head height and can add some more thickness to improve the insulation etc and if you know that an attic conversion is viable and that you are likely to want to pursue that in the future you can plan accordingly. To cut blanket style insulation place the product over a piece of plywood with its paper or foil side down. Always cover the tops of the ceiling joists to make sure the insulation is deep enough to reach your target r value and.

Subtract the cavity depth from the thickness of the batt in inches. We can compress insulation and increase the performance of it right up to the point where the main mode of energy transfer is through the material of the insulation itself. Move across the attic until you ve hit your desired height at every point. These thermal defects not only undermine the r value of your insulation but they also make rooms uncomfortable and increase your utility bill.

Then pivot in place and do the same thing to the other side. The chart below indicates the compressed r value of standard building insulation products. When installed in framing cavities with a depth that is less than the labeled thickness of the insulation. Lay a two by four on top temporarily compressing the insulation to a manageable.

For wool types of insulation fiberglass mineral wool steel real wool etc while it varies based on material this is typically much denser than we are able to get it via compression on the job site. There is a path down the center of the attic that has the top 6 inches of insulation above the joists that appears to have been compressed by either some one crawling across the attic or laying a piece of plywood across the joists. For the center areas hold the hose level and blow in insulation evenly until you ve reached your level lines photo 6. R value simply means resistance to heat flow.

Let s look at an r 19 batt in a 2x6 cavity step 1. Simple thermal analysis reveals that if you have 5 missing insulation in an attic bare sheetrock you ll have a slightly more than a 54 drop in r value. Yes the compressed r value can be estimated using the following method. Blow in insulation until the hopper is empty.

Achieving greater r values in attics the higher the r value the better the thermal performance of the insulation.