The house was built in 1950.
The current rooms were always there I believe.
I do have gable vents at the end of each "kneewall" area, and one at
the very top of the attic.
The heated air needs someplace to go, so there should be proper vents
running up over the kneewalls to a ridge vent
This is what it looks like
x
x x
x x
x x
x ------ x
x ____ x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx x x
The area inside the triangle on the one side of the house is used for
storage.
Up the straight portion is insulated up to where the wall meets the
angled ceiling.
I pulled out the very top part so that air can rise to the roof vents
(there are three box vents on the very top.
What do you mean by "proper vents" running up over the kneewalls?
It seems cooler upstairs today after removing that insulation..
TakenEvent wrote:
"mrbeanfan" wrote in message
ups.com...
I live in Minnesota. I have a story and a half house (basically, two
bedrooms exist in the attic.). Every year I get nasty, nasty ice dams
and I am trying to get ahead of it now.
Here's my question:
The previous homeowner had insulated kneewall where the highest part
met the room walls. All the way to the top. There was NO AIR going up
over the insulation to escape out the three or four roof vents.
Completely sealed off.
No wonder my upstairs gets to be 100 degrees in the summer.
I ripped that out. I would like to cut in some soffit vents but I have
a tiny (5" overhang).
Are soffit vents going to do me any good?
What about a "Whole house fan" especially in the summer?
Did I do the right thing taking out the insulation batts at the top of
the kneewall connection so that air can move up to the vents?
Another thing that I thought of is my boiler (located in the center of
my home) puts out a huge amount of heat. It rises right through that
ceiling, right through the floor above, and right to the roof, where it
consequently melts a lot of snow.
Would I be doing the right thing by lining the ceiling in the boiler
room (it's a small room) with R 21 insulation, 1/2 sheetrock, followed
up by some 1" R-Board? My goal is to keep that heat downstairs and not
flying right to the roof every time the boiler runs.
any suggestions would be appreciated..
How old is your house? Are the attic rooms the result of remodeling or were
they part of the original plan? Typically, the easiest way to vent finished
attics is by running proper vents from soffit vents to a ridge vent. It's
surprising that this wasn't accounted for when the house was built
(depending, of course).
My Dad's house is over 100 years old. It has a partially finished attic,
with kneewalls containing bookshelves running the length of both sides.
Both sides also have an access door. Here's what I suggest for you, based
on what I did at my Dad's house.
Make sure the tops of the first-floor walls are covered by the attic
insulation. The tops of walls are a source of heat loss, even though the
walls
contain insulation. Trust me on that. If you have no soffit vents, there
is no air from the soffits to worry about. Tuck that insulation back in
there, without crushing it too much, of course. Insulation works by way of
its thickness. Cover the floor area (or the area between joists) behind the
kneewalls with insulation. A second layer probably would help.
You'll want a way for cold air to get in, say gable vents or soffit vents.
My Dad's house has soffit vents, unlike yours, but it also has gable vents
(leading to the area behind the kneewalls) on both ends of the house, behind
both kneewalls. If you don't have those, you should fix that. Without some
form of gable or soffit vent, the heat from your house will pool behind
those kneewalls, with no source of cold air to replace it, and nowhere to go
but through the roof, which makes ice. Make sure that the vents are not
blocked by insulation. While it is important that the hot air has someplace
to go, it won't go very fast if there is no incoming air to replace it.
The heated air needs someplace to go, so there should be proper vents
running up over the kneewalls to a ridge vent. Make sure the tops of the
kneewalls are covered with insulation, and also insulate the kneewalls
themselves. If you have access doors or panels, glue pieces of rigid foam
insulation to them.
Since your attic is finished, those standard solutions may not be
financially viable options at this point. You won't get those proper vents
in place without serious surgery. You may want to look into a solution
involving those zigzagging heater cables or roof flashing. The roof
flashing has a bit of a dated look, but you'll hardly notice the heater
cables after a while.
The following link may help you as well.
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/.../mytopic=11420