the Attic Insulation

This is going to be a short post for a long project.  My upstairs was just always too hot in the summer and too cool in the winter.  I figured that adding attic insulation was a nice winter project that would pay for itself eventually with lower utility bills.  Plus the big box retailer near me had it on sale.  I figure my current insulation had settle quite a bit after 15 plus years.

Over the past few weeks, I purchased 40 rolls of R30 non-faced continuous rolled insulation.  Now I could only fit about 5 rolls at a time in my car so I’d just purchase what would fit, bring those home and haul them up to my second floor attic.  My attic doesn’t have drop down stairs, only a small hatch access panel in a bedroom closet.  The rolls did fit, but each roll needed to be pushed through the hole with tiresome effort.  Once I had about 10 rolls up, I would start the laborious process of cutting off the plastic covering and controlling the roll as it expanded all while not putting my foot through the attic floor.

You can see in the picture above how thick the new R30 insulation is, on both the left and right side of the picture.  Here is the completed job!

We had a new high efficiency furnace installed in the house this same winter so I can’t offer exact details on what a difference this added insulation made, but it sure seemed like the upstairs was more comfortable that winter and much cooler the following summer.  If I see this insulation on sale again, I would consider adding another layer!