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happycthulhu

Foam Insulation in Attic Rafters

happycthulhu
15 years ago

I've been thinking about having foam insulation blown into the spaces between the rafters in my attic.

The attic floor is insulated with cellulose, and the attic is open to the outside with a couple of whirly-gigs and two gable vents.

Would insulating the rafters give me any benefit at all?

Comments (14)

  • solargary
    15 years ago

    Hi,
    No, if the space above the current insulation is ventilated to the outside, then you won't get much of any benefit out of insulating the roof rafters.

    It would be better just to add more insulation on top of the current insulation. Blown in cellulose works well and is cheap and easy to do.

    Gary

  • energy_rater_la
    15 years ago

    search www.buildingscience.com for info on unvented attics
    lots of foam insulation companies sell a 'total enapsulated' attic package.
    best of luck.

  • garymunson-2008
    15 years ago

    foam....a good way to rot your roof deck and trusses

  • happycthulhu
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Ok, well I guess that's nixed that idea.

    How about insulating under my wood floors in the crawl space?
    Would that help my energy costs any?

  • rjoh878646
    15 years ago

    You would need closed cell foam sprayed in your crawlspace.

  • bill_bg6
    15 years ago

    Can't tell where you are located from the pics of your house, but if your concern is summertime heat gain you might consider radiant barrier installed on your rafters. It will help considerably in the summer. But to have any positive impact in the winter it needs to be installed right over the existing insulation and it looks like a large section of your attic is floored and you use it for storage.
    You can google radiant barrier and find plenty of sites that show how to install. It should be a pretty easy diy project in that attic,
    g'luck

  • lindamarie
    15 years ago

    You do not say where you are or if you have heat/AC ducts in your attic.

    You can use styrofoam panels with a foil heat barrier installed on your rafters.

    Those whirly-gigs are useless. I had mine removed when we put on the new roof.

    The conditioned crawl space is a great idea. Close your vents off.

  • happycthulhu
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Our ducts are in the crawl space.
    I can't close off my crawl space though because my house is balloon framed.
    I can look up from inside the crawlspace all the way into the attic because of the space between the outside brick and the wood frame for the interior.
    The cold air would just flow up into the attic and out the vents.
    As for whirly-gigs, ours work real well.
    We have two of them plus gable vents and it's cooler up there than it was before we had the whirly-gigs installed.

    I wonder if styrofoam panels with foil would be a good idea for between the floor joists in the crawl space?

  • CTFoamInsulation
    11 years ago

    Hi Happycthulhu. Yes! Spray foam insulation would do a tremendous job for your application(s). I provided a link below that has good information for anyone interested.
    Thanks,
    Mike

    Here is a link that might be useful: Spray Foam Insulation

  • ionized_gw
    11 years ago

    Spammers dig up old threads.

    There is lots of bad information in this thread. Nothing good can come without climate/location information.

  • PRO
    Windows on Washington Ltd
    10 years ago

    +1

    Hopefully future readers will not get steered in the wrong direction.

    Get to Building Science.com and get educated folks before you invest big money in SPF.

  • Mandy13
    10 years ago

    Two years ago, I had foam sprayed into my roof, trying to live more comfortably. This did not seem to be helping so I installed 3 whirly gigs thinking it would ventilate the attic. This is an older home. After reading some posts now I don't know what to do. I'm older but I climbed into the attic and put styrofoam in the openings to close them, now I'm worried if rain will come into the opening where the WGs are! Input please!!

  • renovator8
    10 years ago

    Cap them from above.

  • PRO
    Windows on Washington Ltd
    10 years ago

    +1

    If the roof is now insulated, pull the attic vents and close them up.

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