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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
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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 ...
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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 ...
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"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.
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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.
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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. ...
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
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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
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
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
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 ...
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
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 ...
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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 ...
8
Yes, it's normal to hear a wood-frame house creak any time the wind direction or speed changes. How much creaking you will hear will also depend on the temperature differentials between inside and out, and the humidity. What you're hearing is minute changes in the wood as the pieces in the wood framing either rub against one another, or 'slide' on a nail.
...
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The attic needs to be able to breath to reduce the heat buildup during the summer and prevent condensation and ice dams in the winter. So don't do anything that would block the air flow from the soffit to ridge vent, and don't place anything in direct contact with the roof. The result is that the rafters shouldn't have any storage items installed between ...
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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 ...
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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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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.
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You can, but there's a few issues to be aware of. First, your blown-in insulation requires space to stay "fluffy" and work well. Compressing the blown-in with batts will diminish the former's effectiveness and compromise the overall r-value.
Secondly any vapor barrier (the paper on the roll) should be against the drywall. If you don't have a vapor ...
7
The answer is "don't do that!" The vents you're seeing are ridge vents on top and a soffit vent on the bottom.
Attics need ventilation, these openings are by design and critical to avoiding serious roof damage. If you close them off, your attic will overheat in the summer, and cause ice dams and water damage if it snows. Newer vents include screens that ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Looks like the sap is coming out of a board from the heat of the attic.
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That material is most likely grit that came off the shingles of the roof. It could have gotten there during a roof replacement when old shingles were removed and roof sheathing was also replaced.
If the material is localized in just one area it is possible it got there even from the original construction if shingles were piled and opened on the roof before ...
7
That board is likely nailed to the top of the 2x4 wall framing and provides a nailing surface for the ceiling finish material. Yes, you can drill through it. It’s called a nailer, is not structural, and is not a beam.
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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-...
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