Attic Insulation and Air Sealing in Wilmington, DE
Challenge
This Wilmington, DE home, built in 1996, was due for a home comfort and energy efficient upgrade. The homeowner wanted to make the rooms upstairs less drafty in the wintertime, and make the master bedroom cooler in the summer.
One of the problems was the unconditioned attic of garage extension, butted up against the conditioned upstairs living space of the house. This is an area contractors often fail to insulate and air seal properly during the initial construction.
Another problem is created with pull-down stairs that are neither insulated nor air sealed. This common feature allows conditioned air from the living spaces to be drawn up into the unconditioned attic. It also allows heat to radiate right through the plywood. In summer the unconditioned hot attic radiates heat into the conditioned cool living space. In the winter precious heat is radiated away into the frigid unconditioned attic.
This attic was otherwise very typical of most attics we see: it was in need of better insulation, and it allowed huge amounts of air to leak from the living spaces into the attic through widespread construction flaws, electrical, and plumbing penetrations.
Solution
The Garage Attic - the wall between the second story living space and the garage attic must be insulated and air sealed. Dr. Energy Saver accomplishes this two-fold problem with a one-step solution: a SilverGlow barrier.
Pull-Down Stairs - A hatch must be constructed that serves two purposes - it must insulate from heat transfer, and it must stop the flow of air between the conditioned living space and the unconditioned attic. Because of space restrictions a special attic hatch had to be created for this home.
The Attic - this standard problem requires several steps. The old insulation must be removed and the entire attic floor swept clean. Once the attic floor is thoroughly clean, all penetrations are located and sealed with expanding Zyp foam (orange stuff in the pictures). Next all bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans are properly vented through the roof deck and insulated to prevent water vapor from condensing inside the vent duct and dripping back down into the home, creating puddles on the floor and damaging ceiling drywall. Any special dam structures for containment of the loose blown insulation are constructed. And finally seventeen inches (or more) of TruSoft™ cellulose is blown across the entire attic floor, creating an R-Value of R60 or greater.
