In this video I'm going to show you HOW to
install AtticFoil brand radiant barrier directly OVER your attic insulation, primarily for
mixed or cold climates. Now this is a follow-up video to an earlier
video I did explaining WHY you should install a radiant barrier. That video covered the mechanics and exactly
how a radiant barrier works. If you didn't see that video, you can click
on the link below and you can watch it first. The over-the-attic-insulation method is primarily
for cold of mixed climates; if you're in a hot climate, you've got a couple of options:
you can lay it directly over the attic insulation, like this, or you can do the staple-up method,
depending on your primary objective. This video I'm going to talk about the over-insulation
method and I'm going to cover the 2 most common questions we get: 1) what happens to dust
settling on top of the foil/how that affects the radiant barrier and 2) concerns about
moisture traveling through the insulation and potentially getting trapped under the
AtticFoil. Before you get started, there's a few tools
you're going to need to make the job go fast and pretty easy. The first thing you're going to need is a
standard utility knife, pretty much the standard box cutter-type knife with the throw away
blades. Don't use scissors, a box cutter is the way
to go. Secondly, a measuring tape - you might have
to measure some pieces of foil so you want to have this. A roll of foil air conditioning tape - this
is available in any hardware store in the air conditioning/duct work department; do
not use duct tape, you want the foil tape - it's made to be in an attic and it sticks
well to the foil. Also, a good quality dust mask or, this is
what's called a half face respirator, this is about $20 and it includes what's called
a P100 filter. This is especially important if you're around
fiberglass insulation, the last thing you want to be doing is kicking up that fiberglass
insulation and breathing it, so that's money well-spent. Also, a couple of clamp lights, these are
handy because you can clamp them and move them around so you can see what you're doing. You always want to have good lighting when
working in the attic. Finally, you're going to need to make a little
tool; basically this is a piece of wood trim (you can use a broom handle, a PVC pipe, pretty
much anything) and you're going to take a nail and just tape it to the end. This creates what's called a "poker" and what
you're going to be able to do is, once you get that foil out, just stab the foil (the
AtticFoil) and then you can push it back into the corners, that way you don't have to crawl
across your attic. This is kind-of like having an 8 or 10 ft
arm. I recommend making a couple - maybe one at
4-5ft long and one at maybe 8-10ft long, depending on how far you've got to reach back into the
corners of your attic. Installing AtticFoil radiant barrier directly
over your attic insulation is really pretty simple. People tend to overthink it and make it more
complicated than it really is, but it's really not that complicated! This video is going to be more kind of a checklist,
basically what to do and a couple things not to do. In the big picture, there's really two rules
you want to follow before you get started. First thing is cover as much area as possible. Radiant barrier has a cumulative effect, just
like any of the videos - the more coverage, the better. Don't worry about little gaps or cracks, you
just want to cover as much area as possible. The second thing, when you're installing the
over insulation method, is not to overlap the AtticFoil more than a couple of inches. AtticFoil is perforated so it will allow moisture
in its vapor form to pass through, but if you double it up, the chances are that moisture
can't escape both layers because of the permeability. So, when you over lap it, just an inch or
two is really the most you want to do, you shouldn't have any problems. The first thing is you're just going to lay
the AtticFoil directly on top of the attic insulation. There's no need to staple it down to the ceiling
joists. You want that insulation ABOVE the ceiling
joists, you don't want to compress it, basically it's just going to lay on top of the attic
insulation, almost like a big blanket. If you want to staple it to a rafter in a
corner or if you've got an upright support and you want to staple it there, that's fine,
but there's no need to staple it down. The next thing to understand is that AtticFoil
radiant barrier is NOTa substitute for regular attic insulation. You should have a good amount of attic insulation
in your attic, if you can look down and see the ceiling joists, you need more attic insulation. Ideally you're going to be at least a few
inches above the wood; you should be able to look down and see no wood. If you don't have that much attic insulation,
I'd recommend either going to Home Depot or Lowes (they'll actually loan you the machine)
and you can blow it in for free if you buy their attic insulation, or you can hire a
company to come top it off. If you do that, what you may want to do is
leave a few little strips or paths that you can walk through later so you can install
the AtticFoil. Then you can come back and as you install
the AtticFoil on top of the attic insulation, use something like a dustpan or something
and just shovel that insulation back to cover your paths. Ideally you want to start in the far corners
of your attic, and work toward the exit. You can either take the roll of foil up, and
roll it out in the attic; you can use a broom handle or hang it from a pipe or something
and create kind of a spool-effect. Or you can pre-measure the pieces and just
cut them outside and bring them up as needed. That's where the poker we talked about earlier
is going to come in handy. Just stab that foil and you can push it back
all the way to the corner, push it back to the top plates of the wall. You don't want to push it down into the soffits,
you don't want to block any airflow coming in from the soffits, but push it back as far
as you can into the corners along the sides of the rafters. You may have an attic that's big and wide
open with virtually no upright supports or ductwork in the attic, if you've got an attic
like that, you can do something a little tricky to cover a lot of area fast. What you want to do is take two pieces of
4ft wide, or maybe 3 pieces, roll them out in the driveway so you can get like an 8ft
or 12ft long piece, take that roll of foil air conditioning tape and just seam the pieces
together. Make yourself a big piece, maybe 8ft by 20
ft long, then roll it up like a rug, bring it in to the attic, use that poker - just
push it back into the corner of the area, push it along out to the outside - and you
can cover a lot of area really fast. Eventually you're going to get to a support
coming up that you've got to cut the foil around. You can just take your utility knife and cut
one slit up, wrap it around or if you want a cleaner install, where it lays flat, you
can do what I call a double-T cut. You want to cut two slits about 5" wide and
about 2-3" apart and then, take your knife, come from the bottom and cut all the way up,
then it'll wrap around and that foil will just tuck down real close to the support. It's a nice, clean, easy install that goes
fast and it's all you gotta do to cut around the supports or the penetrations. They don't have to be perfect, a few gaps
or cracks is perfectly fine. When it comes to overlapping the AtticFoil,
I'm going to show you a little trick that's so simple and it works great! You don't need to tape the seams, and in fact
it's pretty difficult to try to tape the whole seam while you're in the attic. So what you want to do is, take the foil air
conditioning tape in little 2-3" pieces, create a little "L" shape, tape it on one side and
do that every 3 to 4 ft, create little "tabs" if you will. Then, when you lay that other piece on top,
you can slide it back and forth, remember, you only want it to overlap an inch or two,
once you get that adjusted, then just take that stick, come through, just reach over
and push that tab down and it will stick to the other side, then it's perfect! It's not going to slide apart and you're not
overlapping more than a couple of inches; that's all you have to do for the seams. If you've got a truss-built attic, I'd recommend
using the 26" wide product. Normally, trusses are on 24" on-center, so
you can put a piece between each truss and it will overlap just an inch or two, which
is exactly what we want to do. It's actually pretty simple. What you want to do is go in to the attic,
measure from the center of the attic, out to the top plate of the wall. Say it's 14ft. Once you get that measurement, go out to the
garage and cut a bunch of pieces that are 14ft long. That's going to go from the top plate of the
wall, to the center of the attic. Roll them up, just like a bunch of posters,
put them in a box and carry them up into the attic. Then, all you have to do is take your poker,
grab each piece and just push it all the way out to the top plate of the wall, between
the trusses. And then do the other side. In fact, you can actually put a nail on both
ends and push to one side, then take another piece and push to the another side. Go back one rafter, do one, do the other. That's all you have to do for a truss attic. Just like before, if you want to take a little
piece of foil tape, you can put it on before, reach out and tack them together and that's
all you have to do for a truss-built attic. One common question I get is, "Can I lay the
AtticFoil directly on top of the plywood decking I have in the attic?" and the answer is, "Yes!" AtticFoil is super durable and tear-proof;
normal wear-and-tear and just walking on it is not going to damage the AtticFoil. You're going to get the main benefit in the
summer - the heat coming off the roof, you are going to reflect it back and in the winter
you're going to reduce some of the radiant heat loss due to its emissivity. If you do this, I'd do one of two things:
1) take a can of spray paint and outline where that plywood decking ends or 2) take a piece
of tape and do the same thing - outline it. The last thing you obviously want to do is
step off the decking in to your insulation. That's really all there is to it when installing
AtticFoil radiant barrier directly OVER your attic insulation. Just remember the two big rules: 1) cover
as much area as possible and 2) only overlap the AtticFoil a couple of inches. In most homes, given a typical size and complexity,
2 people can complete a job in less than a day, maybe even just a few hours. We've had people do whole attics in just 2
or 3 hours. Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect or
pretty to work. If it's wrinkled or crooked, it works just
fine. Next I'm going to talk about the two most
common questions we get. 1) How does dust accumulation on the top of
the AtticFoil affect its effectiveness and 2) questions and concerns about moisture being
trapped underneath the AtticFoil. One of the common concerns we hear from customers
is whether or not dust will accumulate on top of the AtticFoil and reduce its effectiveness. Now think about this for a second, how can
dust get on top of the AtticFoil? First of all, it's got to be light enough
that it comes in to the attic and then instantly it's got to become heavy enough that it falls
on top of the AtticFoil. Most dust either never gets drawn in to the
attic or it's going to come in and continue and go through the attic and out the top. I've been in a lot of attics that are 20,
30 or 40 years old and there's not as much dust accumulation as people would think. Now if you live next to a dirt road, yeah
- you might have some more dust in your attic than a typical attic, but normally it's really
not a major concern. Let's say though, that you are getting some
dust accumulation on top of your AtticFoil. AtticFoil is very reflective and it's pretty
simple to tell - if you look down and it starts to look dull or not shiny, then obviously
you're getting some dust accumulation. Most likely this is going to be after 5 or
10 years. However because of the double-sided AtticFoil,
it works off of two qualities: the reflectivity on this side and the emissivity quality on
the other side. Now, I'm going to explain because normally
you're just laying the foil on top of the attic insulation, you're going to have minimal
contact (an air space) between the foil and the top of the attic insulation. So, even if you get a lot of dust on top,
the bottom surface is working off a quality called EMISSIVITY. If you're familiar with radiant barrier decking,
there's products called Techshield, Solarboard, etc. they are actually installed on the bottom
of the roof deck so that foil faces the attic space. The way radiant barrier decking works is it
works off the quality called emissivity, basically when the roof gets hot the foil doesn't allow
that heat to radiate in to the attic. So, even if you get a ton of dust, say it
got so thick you couldn't even see the foil, basically it becomes radiant barrier decking. So it's still working off the emissivity quality. However, say for example that some day it
gets to the point where you actually have enough dust on it that you want to clean it
out. Really all you need is something like an air
compressor or a leaf blower, you can blow it off and it's probably going to get back
to about 90% or better as far as reflectivity. Once again, dust accumulation is really not
a typical concern in most attics. The other common question or concern that
we get when we talk about installing AtticFoil directly on top of the attic insulation, is
the potential (or the concern) for trapping moisture below the AtticFoil which would cause
the attic insulation to get wet and possibly mold or cause damage or something like that. AtticFoil is perforated so it's NOT a vapor
barrier. Basically, if you made a bag out of AtticFoil
and you put a wet sponge inside, a few days later it would be dry; the moisture would
pass through the AtticFoil just like as if it was a brown paper bag. It's a pretty good air barrier, but it's not
a moisture barrier. In the attic, moisture is passing from wet
to dry. In the winter, when moisture is inside the
house, normally it can pass directly through the sheetrock; if it can get through the sheetrock,
it can easily pass through the attic insulation and through the foil. Basically the bottleneck (or the choke point)
is the sheetrock. However, moisture (or condensation) can only
occur when one thing happens, that's when relatively warm-moist air comes in contact
with a cold surface. Just like if you breathe on a cold window,
you're going to see condensation; if you have a glass of ice tea, even though it maybe 85
or 90 degrees out, it's relatively warm and moist, it's coming in contact with a cold
surface so it's condensing into its liquid form. In an attic, the attic is cold and foil will
be a cold surface. Now the question is whether or not you have
warm-moist air coming in contact with the foil. Once again, the moisture will easily be passed
through; however, if you've got holes or penetrations that allow that warm-moist air to bypass the
attic insulation, it can come up under and condense on the bottom of the AtticFoil. These things are like light fixtures, can
lights, things like that; the warm-moist air can bypass and accumulate on the bottom of
the AtticFoil. If this happens, you can potentially have
some moisture accumulating on the bottom. There's a couple things you can do to keep
this from happening. One, seal up any penetrations in the ceiling:
can lights, light fixtures, etc., you obviously want to seal those up. You want to do that anytime for your home,
you want it to be as airtight as possible. If you're not sure if they're airtight, then
all you have to do is come through and cut a hole in the foil above any holes in the
ceiling. Say, for example, you have a can light and
you're not sure if its airtight, just cut a hole in the AtticFoil, that way you're giving
it a path for that moisture to go right past the AtticFoil. Finally, if you are concerned about moisture
and you're not sure, what you can do is increase the permeability of the AtticFoil. All you have to do is take your whole role
of AtticFoil, take a drill with either a 1/8"or 1/4" drill bit and you're going to drill all
the way though the roll into the center core; do maybe 30, 40 or 50 holes per roll. Then, when you unroll it, essentially it's
going to be a big roll of Swiss cheese, it's going to have little holes every now and then,
that's going to GREATLY increase the permeability (or the ability for moisture to pass through). You're still going to maintain a great AIR
barrier, but you're making it more permeable for that moisture to pass through. If you have any questions or concerns, you
can always call us at AtticFoil.com. We'll help you with any questions you've got,
we've got a technical staff who can help you on a phone call or by email. If you enjoyed this video, please LIKE this
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