Posted: 10/25/2015 2:57:41 PM EDT
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I'm thinking about insulating my attic. I have a ranch style home with attached 2 car garage. There are fiberglass batts there now, but it honestly looks like they used the same 4" batts as they would've used in the 2x4 stud walls. I plan to use blown-in and seal as many gaps as I can find with fire resistant foam.
My question is whether or not I can leave the area over the attached garage uninsulated? The garage is not heated and does not have an insulated garage door. I'd like to be able to use that space for extra storage since my attic entrance is in the garage and would provide easy access. My thoughts are that insulating the rest of the attic would be sufficient since the goal is to keep the conditioned space in the house stable and not to affect the attic space really. What do you think? |
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There is no need to insulate an unheated space, don't waste the time/money. Do insulate between the garage and heated area's of the house.
Go easy on "sealing" the attic space, anything above the insulation needs to have air flow, don't block any soffit vents or gable vents. While you're up there, make sure any bathroom fans are vented all the way to the outside of the house, you don't want all that moisture in your unheated attic space. |
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Quoted:
There is no need to insulate an unheated space, don't waste the time/money. Do insulate between the garage and heated area's of the house. I'm sure the walls weren't insulated very well when the house was built in 1964, and what is there has probably settled, but I'm not removing drywall to insulate or having foam injected at this point. Go easy on "sealing" the attic space, anything above the insulation needs to have air flow, don't block any soffit vents or gable vents. I won't be dealing soffit vents. I have those and roof vents; no gable or ridge vents. I was referring to holes for wiring and electrical boxes. While you're up there, make sure any bathroom fans are vented all the way to the outside of the house, you don't want all that moisture in your unheated attic space.That's what I'm doing this week. The previous owner's installed a fan in the small bathroom, but didn't vent it. The master doesn't have a fan. |
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As others have said, you don't need to but I'd insulate a little bit past the partition wall between the home and garage, just for peace of mind. It's not going to cost more than $10 for that extra bit of insulation one foot over the garage.
I did blown in fiberglass in my parent's attic and here are a few tips that I got from here, which really helped me: Since this is a two person operation, get a pair of cheap walkie-talkies to communicate with the person feeding the machine. This is easier and faster than using a cell phone, and yelling doesn't really work. You can tack brightly painted sticks to the rafters for easy reference on the depth of the insulation. Wear a pair of goggles and a good N95 respirator with exhalation valve. I wore light pants and a short sleeve shirt, but long sleeves may be a good idea. Home Depot sells an aluminized bubble wrap material that I used to make cones out of to put over recessed light cans and electrical boxes. This prevents the insulation from sitting on them and helps in spotting them up there after it's insulated. This insulation material is rated for 180* so it was safe the for light cans especially with the LED bulbs. Also, you might want to install a bathroom fan in the master bathroom now because it'll be a pain in the ass once you have the blown in insulation. You will notice an immediate difference once you insulate. It took my dad and I less than four hours for the actual insulation part, and that includes buying the insulation and renting the machine and returning it. The "cones" placed onto the light cans and junction boxes and other minor prep work added about another two hours or so. This is job you can easily do in a day or even half a day and for $500 or less. |