How To Insulate Your Attic

hey guys welcome back today i'm going to be insulating my attic so stick around and i'll show you guys how i do this so today we're going to be using this fiberglass rolled out insulation this is r30 it does not have the paper or vapor barrier on the back of the insulation it's just the insulation so the climate that i live in the bare minimum of insulation our value you're supposed to have in your attic is 30. so we currently have insulation up there already and this is going to improve on that the bare minimum would be 30 at 45 that's considered good excellent would be 60 r60 now if you don't know for sure how much r value you're supposed to have just google that find out what region you're in and what would be considered excellent for where you're at before you start insulating your attic i would actually recommend to go up there fix it up make sure it's in good shape before you insulate i made a video on this if you click on that link up in the top right corner of this video you can check that out now i went up there the wiring electrical was in really rough shape this house was built in 66 and it had several owners previous and they made a mess of everything up here so i went up there found boxes that weren't nailed down exposed wires wires that weren't being used anymore some really old tar wires that were brittle and the insulation was breaking off so i fixed all of that i also sealed up with spray foam around all the cam lights around all the joints where the ceiling meets the walls i filled in any holes going down into the walls so now there is no air leakage from the downstairs to the upstairs attic now i also went back once i was done with that leveled out all the loose insulation again so that everything was back in place next i checked for framing issues we had a roof that was starting to sag a little bit because the previous owner took out the braces that were supposed to be there to support the roof so we had to fix some of that before we could insulate so doing this all beforehand helps so much because once you have more insulation in here it's harder to work harder to move things around you have to move the insulation away work then re-insulate and it's a lot of extra hassle so i recommend doing that first before you start insulating your attic completely now that i have those projects finished it's ready for the insulation so while you're doing this you want to make sure that you're not squishing down the old insulation that's already there so one thing that you can do to prevent this is actually run the insulation in the opposite direction of the ceiling joists so the ceiling joist will actually support the weight of the new insulation and keep it from sagging down and squishing the old loose insulation or even the old rolled out insulation that's below it this is important because insulation gets its r value because of the space it covers up the more air that's inside the fluffier it is the more insulating power it will actually have so if you squish that loose insulation underneath it to almost nothing it's not going to give much benefit to your house so the fluffier you can keep the insulation the more you keep it from getting squished down the better it is now this project is actually really simple you don't need a ton of tools in order to do this you don't need to complicate it all you need is a razor blade knife to cut the insulation and a light to carry around with you if you don't have light in your attic a light is really crucial in order to get the work done it's going to be really hard to see you're gonna end up getting hurt if you're doing this if you don't have a light so those two tools other than that i would recommend having some safety equipment to make sure that you're staying safe and staying comfortable the dust and insulation is very harmful for your lungs the fiberglass splinters that are in this rolled out insulation as well as a blown in insulation below this you do not want to be breathing that in so i would recommend getting a mask at the very least i'm actually using a respirator has filters on it that filter out a lot more than those cheap paper masks the fiberglass in this insulation is actually really irritating to your skin you can get pretty itchy if you have any exposed skin so having long sleeves gloves that cover your wrist and sleeves as well as long pants help a lot to prevent that itching also if you have the option to do this if you can choose when you're doing the installation doing it in a colder time of the year is really nice because then you can be more comfortable up in the attic not be roasting to death because the sun is so hot outside it heats up the roof and heats up the attic really fast after a quick check-in the boss gave me of her approval and we're good to go i'm finishing the rest of the attic i mentioned before that the installation did not have a backing on it does not have that paper vapor barrier and that's purposeful as you're doing layers of insulation like this you do not want to have that vapor barrier or else it can trap water and moisture inside that layer of insulation and cause a lot of water damage and rot in your attic so make sure if you're doing layers of insulation in your attic get the backless or paperless insulation and it's just the fluff insulation on there no backing i'm gonna speed up the video and try to get through this pretty quick like i said it is a pretty simple process this is a lot of hard work though don't get me wrong it's not fun to be up here and crawl around in the attic it's a lot of work but it goes pretty quick within just an afternoon i had this attic completely insulated [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] another thing i want to mention as you're putting in the insulation on the very edge of the attic you don't want to shove that down very far you just want to go to where it's just touching those rafters or trusses you don't want to wear squishing the gap in between the trusses up to where the sheeting is on the roof if you do that it's going to cut off all the ventilation to that roof and it could cause some mold or rot and will cause that sheathing to fail a whole lot sooner so you want to just make sure that there is still that gap in between the sheeting and the trusses at the bottom of the trusses still can breathe and it isn't closed off [Music] as you're rolling out the insulation and you run into obstacle like these support two by fours here all you need to do is cut a single slit down the insulation and just wrap it around the two by four it's a lot easier than trying to cut out a notch then you don't have a bunch of holes and wasted insulation everywhere you can easily just cut one notch wrap it around the 2x4 and it fills in the space really well [Music] with these rolls of insulation you want to make sure that there are no gaps in between you want to fill every gap possible so as you're rolling this out you want to make sure they're snug up against each other not squishing them to where you're losing width on the insulation but make sure they're tight up against each other at the same time so make sure those gaps are gone and fill any empty holes that you have i have a few right here that i'm going to be cutting a thin strip of insulation and stuffing it down in there making sure that everything has that six to eight inches of insulation coverage [Music] now a trick i like to do if you need a long strip that's either half of a roll or just a little sliver of a roll you can easily cut that down the middle before you unwrap it with the paper and plastic it holds everything together and really tight so it's easy to cut [Music] all right guys that just about finishes up the video for today i hope you guys found this one helpful if you did hit that like button down below also if you want to go check out those videos i mentioned before i'm fixing up the attic and as well as fixing the framing making sure everything's supported like it should be before you insulate go check those out i think those are pretty helpful videos you might like those as well i'll leave the links to those at the end of this video if you're interested thanks guys so much for watching don't forget to subscribe if you have not already and let me know what you thought down in the comment section i'll see you in the next one [Music] [Music] you

Channel: SimonSaysDIY

Views: 65,571

Keywords: Attic insulation, DIY attic insulation, How to insulate your attic, how to reinsulate an attic, insulating an attic, how to insulate an attic yourself, can you insulate and attic yourself, DIY attic insulating, best way to insulate your attic, attic insulating, how to improve attic efficiency, how to save money with better attic insulation, everything you need to know about insulating your attic, tips for insulating your attic, attic insulation tips, improved attic insulation

Id: mBTIbZcWRLs

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 26 2022