All About Attic Insulation

But let’s look at it this way for a minute. Some of us wrap our hot water heaters and our self’s with blankets, right ?. And as we know they work pretty darn good at that. Well, the insulation in our attic is just that. A nice big blanket for the top of our houses.

Like that hat that we won’t leave the house without. The same thing once again. So by now, you can understand just how important that insulation can be. Can you have too much, sure you can? Is it a waste of money, no way? But really why put more than is needed.

For the most part, it cold out there, but not that cold. Most newer homes and I mean most if not all are built and inspected with way too little insulation. Why you may ask. Well to be honest, because they can. It’s just what the builder needed to install in order to pass inspection.

Most homes only have R19 in attics. To give you an idea that’s only 5 1/2 inches of insulation. That’s ok for your walls. But remember heat rises right. And your attic has how much more space to add even more.

Now to understand what the R means will help you. The R stands for resistance to heat flow. Just that says a lot.

So by adding another R19 “5 1/2 inches will give you an R38 value. And that’s a good number to live with. Or should I say sleep with? So between $500 – $1000 bucks, you can start saving some big bucks this winter.

You could just go rent a blown-in insulation machine and, of course, some real fiberglass insulation and do it yourself in 15 minutes, yes it makes a nice mess but works really well. Or buy the R19 insulation. But use the one that comes in four-foot batts. Yup, you guessed it, each piece is four feet long, and just lay them on top of your existing insulation. Make sure you buy the ones without a vapor barrier attached.

Also very important is to close up, seal up the attic access good so more of your warm air doesn’t escape through there.

Quick note: Ever go down the road and see all the frost and or snow on the house roofs. And one-half of the house doesn’t have any. Or some houses don’t have any at all. Well, those are the ones with some big heating bills. That’s all the heat from the house going right up and out that melts that snow.

Did you know energy codes change? As of 2021 attic insulation needs to be R49. That’s 12 inches thick. WOW right. Well so much for using your attic for storage. Unless your ceiling joist are 2×12″, and chances are they are not.

This is what R49 looks like when you open the package. WOW, I say.