Insulate Old House Attic

Affix rigid foam insulation to the attic side of the hatch or door.

Insulate old house attic.

People fall in love with the character rich architecture of these homes but they don t want the crazy heating and cooling bills that come along with that character. Attic hatch or door. Even if you bought the house with insulation already installed into it it s best to double check. In older homes specifically asbestos may be found in many different materials from pipe insulation to flooring adhesive to roof shingles.

Insulating the attic and roof. This answer will vary from old house to old house. Chances are good that if your house was built before the 1960 s there is little to no insulation. The insulation must meet doe standards.

There are a couple creative yet expensive ways i would consider retroactively insulating the walls of an old house if you are in a far northern climate where it might make financial sense. See below for a shopping list and tools. Use a zippered insulated tent to keep the enclosure draft free attic tent at 7 attic cover insulator 120. Before you take that step learn how to insulate an old house effectively.

Cost effective way to save energy with this old house general contractor tom silva. As mentioned most heat loss is typically through the roof. Add weatherstripping around the perimeter and a sweep to the door of a walk up attic. But just because your insulation is old doesn t mean it is dangerous.

Some common insulation methods can actually cause long term damage. Since warm air has a tendency to rise and cool air to fall insulating the attic is the place to start. But that might be a bad idea. I get asked a lot about insulating old houses especially in the wintertime.

One of the most common materials containing asbestos fibers is attic and wall insulation. This old house general contractor tom silva and host kevin o connor demonstrate the proper way to insulate an attic. Pull down stair or ladder. Rather than insulating the whole home and potentially causing.

For anyone living below the mason dixon line it is never worth the expense to retrofit an old house with wall insulation. The answer to making an old house inhabitable is insulation. The insulation materials used in older houses are not as effective in keeping heat in as the new ones. Roughly a quarter of the average home s heat is lost through the roof.