Attic Insulation Issues
 

Hey there,

So now that it's cooler, I FINALLY got up into my attic. I wanted to fix some stuff up above the garage and seal up some of the fixtures and what not. I already knew I wanted to blow some extra insulation into the attic, so I also wanted to make sure that they had the rafter vents so that air could travel into the attic through the soffits. What I found wasn't encouraging...at least I don't think it was. I think in my 1446 sq ft bungalow...I found maybe 12-18 rafter vents....MAYBE. The rest were just covered up with the insulation. And in some spots above the garage, the spot where air is suppose to travel through the soffits, they had covered it up with wood.

So here are the pics.

This is the split between the garage and attic. As you can see most of the soffit vents are covered up. There is one rafter vent near the back.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255365633

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255365633

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255365633

Above the front living room.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255365633

This is above the garage (regular bat insulation that I put in)...as you can see whoever built this house covered the soffit vents with wood. A new home...let's go ahead and slap a piece of wood in front of the soffit vents...that oughta get us back to repair the roof in a few years.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255365633

One WHOLE rafter vent above the garage...I think there's another one on the other side. WOOOOO...aren't I lucky.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255366139

This is above the front door. Lots of air coming up this part.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255366139

This is above the living room. About 9-10 inches of insulation.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255366139

Above the rest of the house...it's about 12-13 inches. Starts to make me understand why my room is so warm and the living room is so cold. Well...at least part of the reason.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255366139

This is the air tube thingy for the bathroom...and that's the technical term for it. :D I was thinking of spray foaming that.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1255366139

So that's it...let me know your thoughts. Lazy construction on the part of the builder as far as I'm concerned...the house is about 7 years old. I guess I'm lucky I caught some of these things now.

Suggestions...comments. If you've got em, let me have em. Thanks!

Like we talked about, I think that just punching a few holes in those boards with a 1" spade drill will do just fine to allow air through it.

I'd definitely caulk/seal up that pipe hole though.

Well I went up there again yesterday unfortunately...and even with a mask I breathed in WAY too much fiberglass...stupid fiberglass. My throat and lungs are all nicely full of it by now. Yay.

My roof is just way too low for me to reach with the spade drill, so I'm not sure what I'll do there.

I also tried to seal some stuff up...but that didn't work either...mainly because I couldn't find anything and it was too hard on me to balance on the angled 2x4's and try and move the blown in inulation around. I had hurt my abs a few months ago and they aren't completely healed, so I'm not as agile as I normally am, nor as strong.

What I was able to do while I was up there, was fix up my bad bat insulation job that I did last year...things I didn't know about. So it should be a lot better now above the garage. So now it's just the main attic that I need to do.

can you access them from outside and punch through them, or knock them out? I would guess that removing the venting on the outside and using a BFH (big freekin' hammer) and a 2x4 to knock out those plugs would work. It's at least worth looking into.

Ya, that's a thought. I'd have to see how well the soffit vents could come off.

If you are not already using one, I would switch to a half face respirator instead of the disposible kind. They work better and the valve keeps you cooler. Installing soffit vents and their related channels is a pain in the butt. It is made more difficult with the nice fluffy insulation that you have. I raked mine out of the way and then put a piece of plywood over the rafters so that I could lay down while installing the channels.