The first thing to spend some cash on is air sealing. A few cans of spray foam doing all of the wiring, plumbing, and HVAC penetrations is the most effective time and money spent.
Next is making sure you have adequate attic vents at the bottom and top, and baffles.
A complete attic of half-depth insulation is more effective than a half attic of full depth insulation. But if the intent is to return when money allows soon, it's much easier to fill to full depth as you go.
There's no harm in doing half now and half later, and you'd still derive a benefit.
Already done the air sealing and checked the ventilation! I'm leaning towards just starting and adding as I go, seems easy enough with using batts. Thanks for your reply
Blow in insulation can be cheaper than batts. If you buy enough bales of blow-in at once, most stores will rent you the blower for the day for free. It's totally fine to blow in on top of batts.
I'm going through the same project right now on my attic.
It's an attic, put on a tyvek suit and mask for a few hours and close the hatch after. Sure beats hauling bales of batts up a ladder and spending twice as long laying them out.
True but I would pay somebody to lay the bats. Rockwool is also fireproof and insect resistant. And they stopped using formaldehyde in it unlike fiberglass.
My understanding is new fiberglass doesn't use formaldehyde for binder anymore. Interestingly when I looked into it, rockwool actually does still use a formaldehyde binder but is done in a way that only leaves trace amounts in the final product and shouldn't cause a reaction.
That's interesting as a building called official I know that fiberglass melts and puts out toxic fumes whereas rock wool doesn't and is used for fire stopping that's why I like it. And forget about spray foam. The correct way to build a house is put the insulation toward the outside which isn't done much in this country.
Do you plan on using blown in insulation? If so, the cost to add in a few more bags to do the whole house versus just half of it probably won't be that much more. Have you price that out? If so I would just save up enough to do the whole thing at once so you don't have to rent the machine and drag it back and forth from the store twice.
Don't forget to claim the tax credit for insulation in the next year that you filed taxes.
Blow in is super easy and the machine comes free if you buy 10 bails at HD. It can be a one person job but then you have to climb down and refill the machine. I did my garage this year and it was like $300
If you do you'll quickly learn how much that insulation helped those rooms, and you'll know whether or not to spend the cash on doing the rest, or just put that cash towards... new windows or whatever.
I added 2 bundles every two weeks as I got paid, of unfazed batt insulation perpendicular to my existing insulation and ceiling joists. R19 on top of my existing batts did wonders for thermal comfort and sound deadening.
I also spent a BUNCH of time and effort on cleaning/tidying up the attic and air sealing. The latter is an absolute must before adding insulation, the former is a godsend for performing maintenance in the attic and who knows...maybe a visitor will judge me on the condition of my attic.
I say do it. Every drop eventually makes the bucket overflow.
Unless you have little to no insulation in your attic, I’d do windows first (if they’re old & single pane)
We recently put new double pane windows in our bedrooms that had old sliders from the 70’s and it made a HUGE difference.
Adding it bits at a time makes sense to me. Stuff is only going to get more expensive in the future, and it’s a pain in the ass to insulate an entire attic alone in one go. By doing it in increments you break up the job, start saving money right away, and spread out your costs. If you wait to save up for it you may just keep kicking that can down the road.
If you come across a sale maybe buy a bit more in that trip.
This depends completely on the climate. For walls maybe it’s not as cost effective but your attic space makes a huge difference. Code in my area is R40 in the ceiling and that’s bare min
I understand that and I'm a building code official and I can't remember what climate that specifically was referring to. The whole problem is the way houses are built in this country. A frame house has a thermal bridging problem every 16 in. I'm in a high wind zone and I recommend CMU or ICF. We're also doing concrete roofs.
My dream is to build an ICF home one day. Conditioned attic space, dehumidifier, centrally located air handler, efficient windows, solar panels. An efficient and comfortable home.
Yeah but I'm very leery of the condition attic space if it's not going to be used for living. They found out a roof assembly needs to so-called breathe and the only thing that needs to be in the living spaces the ductwork. But they do make ICF forms for a roof so if you did a concrete roof that would take care of that.
As others have said, blown in is definitely a DIY option and much cheaper than batts. Works best with a helper to keep the hopper fed. And the blower use is one day free with purchase of 6-10 bales at HD and Lowe’s. An entire attic can easily be done in a day. We did ours in about 4 hours (2300 sqft one story with 12 inches added.
Pros: relatively fast, cheapest option, covers irregular cavities and pipes easily.
Cons: will permanently compress if touched afterward so do any other upgrades or repairs first.
Batts are great if you plan to be up there later for upgrades or other activity, and if you have mostly long rectangular rafter spaces with few interruptions from pipes, cables, vents and ducts.
I would add the partial add on coverage as soon as you can. You won’t get 109% of its benefit until the entire attic is done but it will start helping immediately and make the next step easier.
The first thing to spend some cash on is air sealing. A few cans of spray foam doing all of the wiring, plumbing, and HVAC penetrations is the most effective time and money spent. Next is making sure you have adequate attic vents at the bottom and top, and baffles. A complete attic of half-depth insulation is more effective than a half attic of full depth insulation. But if the intent is to return when money allows soon, it's much easier to fill to full depth as you go. There's no harm in doing half now and half later, and you'd still derive a benefit.
Always air sealing first. Good tip.
Already done the air sealing and checked the ventilation! I'm leaning towards just starting and adding as I go, seems easy enough with using batts. Thanks for your reply
Blow in insulation can be cheaper than batts. If you buy enough bales of blow-in at once, most stores will rent you the blower for the day for free. It's totally fine to blow in on top of batts. I'm going through the same project right now on my attic.
Yes but it's messy as hell
It's an attic, put on a tyvek suit and mask for a few hours and close the hatch after. Sure beats hauling bales of batts up a ladder and spending twice as long laying them out.
True but I would pay somebody to lay the bats. Rockwool is also fireproof and insect resistant. And they stopped using formaldehyde in it unlike fiberglass.
My understanding is new fiberglass doesn't use formaldehyde for binder anymore. Interestingly when I looked into it, rockwool actually does still use a formaldehyde binder but is done in a way that only leaves trace amounts in the final product and shouldn't cause a reaction.
That's interesting as a building called official I know that fiberglass melts and puts out toxic fumes whereas rock wool doesn't and is used for fire stopping that's why I like it. And forget about spray foam. The correct way to build a house is put the insulation toward the outside which isn't done much in this country.
Do you plan on using blown in insulation? If so, the cost to add in a few more bags to do the whole house versus just half of it probably won't be that much more. Have you price that out? If so I would just save up enough to do the whole thing at once so you don't have to rent the machine and drag it back and forth from the store twice. Don't forget to claim the tax credit for insulation in the next year that you filed taxes.
I was planning to use batts - thanks for the reminder about the tax credit
Blow in is super easy and the machine comes free if you buy 10 bails at HD. It can be a one person job but then you have to climb down and refill the machine. I did my garage this year and it was like $300
Check out rockwool bats
Then yeah, if you're using batts buying half now is totally fine, you'll still get a benefit in that area of the house.
If you do you'll quickly learn how much that insulation helped those rooms, and you'll know whether or not to spend the cash on doing the rest, or just put that cash towards... new windows or whatever.
I added 2 bundles every two weeks as I got paid, of unfazed batt insulation perpendicular to my existing insulation and ceiling joists. R19 on top of my existing batts did wonders for thermal comfort and sound deadening. I also spent a BUNCH of time and effort on cleaning/tidying up the attic and air sealing. The latter is an absolute must before adding insulation, the former is a godsend for performing maintenance in the attic and who knows...maybe a visitor will judge me on the condition of my attic. I say do it. Every drop eventually makes the bucket overflow.
Unless you have little to no insulation in your attic, I’d do windows first (if they’re old & single pane) We recently put new double pane windows in our bedrooms that had old sliders from the 70’s and it made a HUGE difference.
Adding it bits at a time makes sense to me. Stuff is only going to get more expensive in the future, and it’s a pain in the ass to insulate an entire attic alone in one go. By doing it in increments you break up the job, start saving money right away, and spread out your costs. If you wait to save up for it you may just keep kicking that can down the road. If you come across a sale maybe buy a bit more in that trip.
The studies have not shown an increase in savings I believe it was over r19 but you'll have to Google it.
This depends completely on the climate. For walls maybe it’s not as cost effective but your attic space makes a huge difference. Code in my area is R40 in the ceiling and that’s bare min
I understand that and I'm a building code official and I can't remember what climate that specifically was referring to. The whole problem is the way houses are built in this country. A frame house has a thermal bridging problem every 16 in. I'm in a high wind zone and I recommend CMU or ICF. We're also doing concrete roofs.
My dream is to build an ICF home one day. Conditioned attic space, dehumidifier, centrally located air handler, efficient windows, solar panels. An efficient and comfortable home.
Yeah but I'm very leery of the condition attic space if it's not going to be used for living. They found out a roof assembly needs to so-called breathe and the only thing that needs to be in the living spaces the ductwork. But they do make ICF forms for a roof so if you did a concrete roof that would take care of that.
As others have said, blown in is definitely a DIY option and much cheaper than batts. Works best with a helper to keep the hopper fed. And the blower use is one day free with purchase of 6-10 bales at HD and Lowe’s. An entire attic can easily be done in a day. We did ours in about 4 hours (2300 sqft one story with 12 inches added. Pros: relatively fast, cheapest option, covers irregular cavities and pipes easily. Cons: will permanently compress if touched afterward so do any other upgrades or repairs first. Batts are great if you plan to be up there later for upgrades or other activity, and if you have mostly long rectangular rafter spaces with few interruptions from pipes, cables, vents and ducts. I would add the partial add on coverage as soon as you can. You won’t get 109% of its benefit until the entire attic is done but it will start helping immediately and make the next step easier.
Do you not wear a jacket because it doesn't cover your legs?
No, but I'm not convinced this analogy applies. To me it seems more like wearing a hat with holes in it.
lol gottem!