How To Properly Insulate An Attic Ceiling

If only the living space will be insulated wrap the insulation around the room s walls and ceiling and then continue along the floor of the non living space.

How to properly insulate an attic ceiling.

Your home needs at least some type of insulation to keep the interior temperature of your home regulated regardless of the specific climate you live in. From the drywall depending on the insulation type. The recommended ceiling insulation level for most attics is r 38 or about 12 to 15 in. Plan to pull up the flooring and layer new insulation on top of the old.

Ensure ends of insulation are butted together and flush to underside of framing. Typical ceiling insulation involves spreading either loose fill or batt the term commonly used for blanket insulation within the attic or airspace of a home. To meet all three goals insulating your finished attic ventilating the roof and maximizing headroom use a combination of dense batt insulation rigid foam sheeting and air chutes. Ensure insulation extends to the outside edge of the exterior top plates and is flush against any ventilation dams baffles.

While wearing dust mask and gloves carry r 38 batts of unfaced fiberglass insulation into the attic. Use the insulation calculator to plug in your zip code lifestyle factors building design energy costs and budget to get a detailed recommendation. Purchase rolls or packages of insulation that will fit in the spaces between the ceiling joists. But if the floor is covered in plywood you can t stuff enough insulation beneath it to do the job sufficiently not even in warm climates.

Set up a stepladder tall enough to work comfortably from. Most codes require a specified minimum amount of headroom and it s tough to meet this requirement when insulating a finished attic especially since most codes require insulation equal to r 38 or more. Because the simplest and cheapest way to insulate an attic is to add material to the floor. The standard width for joists is 24 inches.

Friction fit insulation snugly between and parallel to all standard and narrow attic framing members.