26
Almost certainly a vent for plumbing. It connects to the sewer, so it doesn't need a cap. It's highly likely there's a sink or other fixture nearly below it.
23
There are kits you can buy, where you attach a metal ring to the door and then have a pole you store nearby to reach the ring and pull down on to extend the ladder
22
Calculating Cubic Feet
The first step in determining what size exhaust fan is needed, is to calculate the volume of the room. To do this, you'll simply multiply the length of the room times the width of the room time the height of the room.
Length = 10 ft.
Width = 8 ft.
Height = 8 ft.
10 ft. * 8 ft. * 8 ft. = 640 ft.3
Calculate Equivalent Duct Length (EDL)...
20
Short answer : money.
Longer answer:
Inquiring at Google Contracting Services and doing some back of the envelope math, I came up with the following price ranges for the mentioned insulation types.
Spray foam is about $0.15-0.21/square foot/R
Fibreglass batts are about $0.03-0.07/square foot/R
Rigid foam panels are about $0.10-0.15/square foot/R
As we ...
17
"it's sap crystals that have been extruded from the wood due to high attic temperatures. We see more of this sap staining when the wood used for framing was not kiln dried before construction." Inspectapedia
Sap in painted wood will cause staining but it is ok in the attic.
12
The blower doesn't go in the attic. The hose and the control cable do. If you took the blower up there you'd also have to carry the insulation up after it.
If you don't have enough hose, request an extension. Leave the blower in your truck or on your trailer unless you can't park near the door or window nearest the attic access point.
11
The most direct answer to your insulation question is fairly simple. Your goal should be to have insulation equaling an "R" value of 40 or above on top of the ceiling of the second floor.
The cheapest method for a DIYer is to roll out unfaced fiberglass insulation over any existing insulation. We don't know what you have now, "R" value or type. That would ...
11
You're referencing the wrong code section.
Nonmetallic-Sheathed Cable
Romex is covered by article 334 Nonmetallic-Sheathed Cable: Types NM, NMC, and NMS.
Nonmetallic Extensions
Article 382 covers a cable known as FlatWire, or Concealable Nonmetallic Extension (CNE) cable.
Notice that this cable has a single insulation layer over the conductors. Whereas NM ...
11
You don't put blow in above the door. Use batts or cut several layers poly board insulation to mimic slightly less than your attic cover. 4-5 layers will give you good coverage.
This will not provide a perfect barrier but is the recommended way of handling attic openings.bb
11
I live in Florida too so I know exactly what you mean about hot attics. I had the same problem except for the pvc water pipes. I put up a number of 2 by 8 feet of 3/4 inch plywood on the rafters. Where it was possible to move over some of the cables, I did it. where I couldn't move them, I took some 2x4's, notched them for the wires to go thru and put them ...
10
Some states subsidize professionally-installed insulation as well as other energy-efficiency improvements. If that is the case in your state, you will likely be able to hire a pro for less than what you would pay for the materials if you were to do it yourself. Massachusetts covers 75%, so I paid only $300 to insulate the attic, including two roof vents and ...
10
4 inch thick insulation is thicker than a 2x4 (only 3.5" thick), which means you'll be compressing the insulation and decreasing the R value. Instead, I'd suggest laying the new insulation on top of the old (no need to throw out the old unless it's turned moldy), without a vapor barrier on the new (you only want one vapor barrier, against the ceiling), and ...
10
Necessary?
No.
More efficient? Yes.
When the HVAC is centrally located the warmer/cooler air has less overall distance to travel to cover the entire house, as it's radiating out from the center.
If you have noticed that one side of your house is less comfortable than the other, it may be worth the relocation. If the house is generally comfortable year ...
10
It's a vent pipe for the plumbing it connects eventually to the sewer.
It will catch a small amount of rain but the rain will stay inside the pipe and eventually reach the sewer.
You're probably not supposed to put rain into the sewer but this pipe catches such a small amount of rain that nobody cares.
9
Contact your local building department, and ask them if this would require a permit, and if you can do the work yourself. That's the only way to know for sure, as different areas have different rules.
You'll likely have to pay a small fee for the permit, and have the work inspected at different stages of the job (or maybe only once it's done). Most areas ...
9
Leave a hardhat or bump helmet (lighter version of a hardhat) by the attic hatch. Put it on when you enter; take it off when you leave.
answered Dec 31 '15 at 22:45
Aloysius Defenestrate
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9
There are electric ladders exactly for this purpose. There is no cool video of this one
but the description says
These stairways are available in 2 different models. One is the S3000 Series which is semi-automatic meaning the door panel will open or close automatically, but the stairway sections must be manually folded or unfolded. The other model is ...
9
OK for the most part these do not go in attics, but can. As long as you have a pretty good attic opening you can fit these in there and I have had to in two story homes - or deal with a mess. In no way am I advocating putting these in attics as a norm but I have done it a couple times with no issues. There were pros/cons - on each that I did it there ...
9
The biggest issue you have venting into the attic is warm, moist air being blown into a somewhat closed area (aside from the grease and particles you have a filter for). If the attic space you vent into is large, and has good ventilation this shouldn't be an issue. If you have to vent into a small portion of the attic and it looks like the moist air will ...
8
I think they're there for stabilizing the brown beams/joists. Typically, a loft is unused space with no floor. Between the joists, there is insulation supported by drywall or other material depending on the age of the house (as in pic 2 and 3).
Typically one would put in blocking between joists to stop horizontal flexing and torsion.
Since an attic is ...
8
Fiberglass can be bad for the lungs: http://www.lung.org/healthy-air/home/resources/fiberglass.html
However, for it to be a real issue, one needs a lot of exposure...typically someone that works with it daily as part of their job.
The amount of contact a typical homeowner would be exposed to in their lifetime is not likely something to lose too much sleep ...
8
Pretty much any fix that you attempt from the inside has the potential to create issues in addition to the primary problem, which is that your chimney isn't properly flashed. Spraying foam or shooting caulking/tar into the gap is very likely to create water traps somewhere in the roof decking, most likely underneath the existing flashing. You would ...
8
Yes, it is safe to touch the insulating jacket of an undamaged NM cable.
However, in the state of California, it may cause cancer to lick the cables.
7
There are two types of polystyrene (Styrofoam) insulation: expanded and extruded. The extruded type prevents the movement of moisture while the expanded type lets water through. The extruded type has better insulating properties (R-5/inch) versus expanded (R-4/inch). Both of these are going to give you more insulating ability per inch than a batt or loose-...
7
While soffits usually have some venting in them, the interior of soffits are interior spaces not much different from unfinished attics to which they connect. Attics do not require different wiring from other interior spaces, so it doesn't seem that soffits should either. While attics (and basements) may often be more humid than some other spaces in a wiring ...
7
FEMA writes:
Few, if any, smoke alarms are Underwriters Laboratories
(UL)-listed for use in the temperature extremes an attic can
experience. Few, if any, codes require alarms in one- and
two- family residential attics where nearly all (90 percent)
of attic fires occur.
— “Attic Fires in Residential Buildings”, Topical Fire Report Series ...
7
As a firefighter that recently battled a large and rapidly moving fire that appears to have started in the attic, I found myself searching the topic of smoke alarms in attics. Though it is a low percentage of structure fires that begin in the attic, they are not isolated incidents.
Chimney fires can easily extend into attics as well as HVAC units can ignite ...
7
There's no substitute for it: You're going to have to fish that wire. A couple observations:
1. If you were the "cable guy" you'd probably take the easy way out: Drill from the living room through an exterior wall, then go up the outside of that wall. Pretty cheesy, but common enough that people pretty much accept it without much question. I'd ...
7
Before I remodeled my house to have vents and radiant barriers and lots of insulation, I did put a water misting system on my roof using PVC pipes and drip mist emitters. The mist emitter was helpful because it broke up the water into a fine mist and sent it into the air, giving me evaporative cooling before the water even touched the roof. Also I had some ...
7
Looks like the sap is coming out of a board from the heat of the attic.
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