Flooring An Attic Over Insulation

Attics are great for storage but flooring directly over the attic floor joists doesn t provide room for the recommended 12 to 16 of attic insulation needed to keep your house cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Flooring an attic over insulation.

For example if your attic already has. Gaps in the attic or between the lower floors and the attic will let heated or cooled air escape to the great unconditioned outdoors making any insulation you add essentially useless. However we would like to sheath the attic floor so we can use the space for storage. Also if the attic insulation is thicker than your ceiling joists you can raise the height of the joists to above the insulation by attaching 2 3 s to their top edge before you attach the attic floor boards.

Insulating an unfinished attic. References easy 2 diy. Attic flooring consists of materials as basic as sheets of plywood as well as more elaborate interlocking floor systems. Since the insulation is in the floor of the attic you will need to add insulation to the rafters as well so as to make the attic space into usable living space.

Find a diagram of common air leaks here. Plywood is another option for attic flooring. You can mix the type and material of insulation too. But before even they can start on a job that involves altering your home s structure they ll.

That will then have to be covered over with drywall or paneling and finished. Modifying an attic floor s joist system is a job for the pros. However it usually needs to be cut into smaller pieces to fit through the opening to the attic. We are attempting to build with minimal or no foam use.

To save money and reduce the amount of conditioned space we would like to insulate the attic floor and leave the attic space unconditioned. The roof will be a 10 12 gable with a metal roof.