Rafters in Unoccupied Attic - To Insulate or not to Insulate?
 

Watching Home Free on TV. One of the teams was
assigned to insulate the attic in a Georgian Revival.


They were stapling batts in the roof rafters. I was brought
up to believe that you insulate rafters ONLY if attic was to
be occupied at least 90% of the time, and to insulate
just the attic deck(above the top floor ceilings).


Have things changed here in good ol 2015?

Rafters in Unoccupied Attic - To Insulate or not to Insulate?
 

On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 18:22:31 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Watching Home Free on TV. One of the teams was
assigned to insulate the attic in a Georgian Revival.


They were stapling batts in the roof rafters. I was brought
up to believe that you insulate rafters ONLY if attic was to
be occupied at least 90% of the time, and to insulate
just the attic deck(above the top floor ceilings).


Have things changed here in good ol 2015?

What if there are heating and cooling ducts up there? Shouldn't the
rafters be insulated to protect them, unless they themselves are fully
insulated....

Rafters in Unoccupied Attic - To Insulate or not to Insulate?
 

On Saturday, August 29, 2015 at 9:30:32 PM UTC-4, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 18:22:31 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Watching Home Free on TV. One of the teams was
assigned to insulate the attic in a Georgian Revival.


They were stapling batts in the roof rafters. I was brought
up to believe that you insulate rafters ONLY if attic was to
be occupied at least 90% of the time, and to insulate
just the attic deck(above the top floor ceilings).


Have things changed here in good ol 2015?

What if there are heating and cooling ducts up there? Shouldn't the
rafters be insulated to protect them, unless they themselves are fully
insulated....

Around here, new construction, the attic is still insulated the
usual way, regardless of AC, with insulation on the attic floor,
unless it's going to be a finished attic. It's obviously not the
greatest idea with AC eqpt in the attic. The AC ducts are typically
flex ones that have a couple of inches of insulation, but having the
air handler and all those ducts in a 120F attic has to be wasting
energy.

I wonder if he's on to something. Why not insulate at the rafters
and then again on the attic floor? Would seem to be a good idea for
houses with AC gear in the attic. I also wonder if you were going
to put down X inches of insulation, how putting half at the rafters,
half at the attic floor would compare to putting it all on the floor?

Rafters in Unoccupied Attic - To Insulate or not to Insulate?
 

On Saturday, August 29, 2015 at 9:22:37 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Watching Home Free on TV. One of the teams was
assigned to insulate the attic in a Georgian Revival.


They were stapling batts in the roof rafters. I was brought
up to believe that you insulate rafters ONLY if attic was to
be occupied at least 90% of the time, and to insulate
just the attic deck(above the top floor ceilings).


Have things changed here in good ol 2015?

If there is rafter insulation there should also be baffles to allow airflow from the soffit vents to the roof vents, assuming those exist.

I know that since we had our roof redone with full soffit vents cut, a ridge vent added, and then a DIY baffle installation, my attic is much, much cooler. We don't have rafter insulation, just joist bay insulation, so the baffles are just for where the insulation goes down towards the soffits.

We use our crawl space attic for storage and it so much easier to be up there now that the new ventilation system is in place. I wonder if they also insulated the access opening or staircase. I built a box from 1" foil faced foam insulation to go over my pull down stairs.