Insulate Attic Roof Vs Floor

Why does your experience tell you that it s better to insulate the attic floor.

Insulate attic roof vs floor.

You may also insulate your roof to help regulate the temperature in an attic that is a part of your living space. If you insulate the attic roof you don t want any vents that allow outside air between the insulation and the rest of your attic. Insulating the ceiling will create a new heating zone and essentially you will be paying more to heat your attic. Because the simplest and cheapest way to insulate an attic is to add material to the floor.

How to insulate an unfinished attic in an unfinished attic the goal of insulation is to keep the rooms below cool in summer and warm in winter. It s usually much easier to get a good thermal envelope at the roof plane than at the attic floor. Another reason you wouldn t want to insulate the ceiling rafters is that you can wind up with ice dam issues. Unless in air conditioned attics insulation is typically installed on the ceiling plane not on the sloped roof assembly.

Insulating the roof is a priority if the ceilings of your home happen to be part of the roof deck as is the case with cathedral ceilings. It may cost a little more to insulate the roof plane but once insulated you re essentially paying nothing extra to heat that space. With a finished attic insulation must help keep the attic areas comfortable. Materials commonly used for the insulation of the roof deck include.

Plan to pull up the flooring and layer new. That would make no sense. At the same time the areas below the roof benefit from increased comfort both during the winter and the summer. Start with the attic floor.

If you do need to install insulation in the roof assembly take into account some rules. Since the ceiling in the attic is too low to make it into a living space you should only insulate the floor. That means insulating the attic floor only not the walls and having vents in the roof. But if the floor is covered in plywood you can t stuff enough insulation beneath it to do the job sufficiently not even in warm climates.

When you insulate the attic floor you do want to have a lot of venting to keep the attic space closer to the temperature of the outside. Stop using your attic for storage. But the best solution is actually to insulate both the attic floor and the underside of the roof. In this way you prevent the heat from the rooms below escaping to the attic rooms above.