CRAPPY ATTICS are Standard in America! Here’s how to BUILD - DECENT or AWESOME 

I definitely would be interested in a video showing how to take crappy to good or great. Lots of people have an existing crappy attic.

Important tip, watch your duct work install, those guys often want to take the shortest path (makes sense) but will also eat up all your attic space putting duct work out in the middle of what could be very accessible storage. You can tell he either monitored the install, or had guys who knew what he wanted, given how the ducting is all secured to the ceiling rather then being strung all over itself on the decking. Very nicely done.

This could be an entire series. How to turn a crappy attic into a good and great attic in every climate zone from paper/concept to completion and the common pitfalls people run into during the process and how to avoid and/or overcome them

Dude has an OSHA compliant access to his own attic. A true professional.

I was having a house built, 11course walk-out basement, 9’ 1st floor ceilings, 2nd story with 3rd floor walk-up attic - I requested that the 3rd floor be constructed using a truss design that would offer the largest open spaces - my request was received by the custom home builder as if I insulted his honor and integrity… we ended up hiring an architect to design what we wanted and he recommended a custom builder that could/would do the job… Live and learn

Attic access: In the future use a raised heal roof which you build 2 foot to 4 foot walls along the sides so the roof height is raised. This also makes it a lot easier to run duct work along the sides of the attic leaving more space in the center available for storage or just maintenance access.

It would be AWESOME if you did a budget remodel of a house, like you were originally planning to do with your house. A lot of us are wanting to see that whole process you teased us with.

My house was built in 56. I have lived here for 27+ yrs and just this week went in my attic for the first time. Original insulation, so none by todays standards. I have learned so much by just watching this video on how to go from CRAPY to AWESOME.

It probably was a ringtail (Bassariscus astutus) not a lemur (Lemuroidea family) in your attic. Ringtails are found all through out Texas, lemurs only in Madagascar. Still cool because (1) ringtails are awesome and (2) they are not really all that common.

The concept of clipped rafters and extending the house wrap up and over the roof is pretty easy to understand. What I didn't quite catch was how you then built the deck on top of that to re-extend the eaves. Would love to see more detail about that aspect of the build. Great vid! Thanks!

This is a good book. Does provide a step by step introduction to how to build things ru-vid.comUgkxhgbP-6hUnXu_QRaoHgLztgsI0YF3HqR0 , also does offer some steps. Includes pictures to give you ideas for layouts and such. If you are looking for a guide, this is not exactly what you want. But if you are trying to familiarize yourself with the way that pole barn building and other out buildings, are made, then this will work just as you need it to. A few things in this book are a barn (of course), detached garage, storage building, and coops.

For your house, I'd love to see how you handled the exhaust issues for appliances like microwaves and ESPECIALLY dryers.

This is a great video! As an electrician and electrical contractor, for decades, I've been preaching this for many many years. I agree, why are houses still being built the OLD way? There are hundreds of houses being built in my area the old way with such poor quality that they don't even meet standards of the 1960s ugh! The customer just doesn't realize what they're getting and what it's costing them in the long run. Let's step into the current century and make some changes.

I kind of miss my mom and dads house. Yet it was built in 1920, but it was the first and only time I have ever experienced a full set of steps from my old bedroom that went up to the attic. It was frickin awesome. It’s a shame we never finished it.

I lived in a 2 family 1930's house in Boston which was build by National Lumber, the attic was beautiful. I can't imagine not having an attic and a basement, or all the wonderful wood work.

I grew up in a builder’s home, it was the best house in the neighborhood in weird ways. It had 3 foot overhangs double the closet space, a fully decked attic, two drains in the toe kick in the kitchen, double hurricane straps, plantation shutters throughout and 4 1/2 bathrooms in a 4 bedroom house. All one level and tight as a drum. He had planned to retire in that home but then someone built 3 story apartments directly behind the property so he moved. If you know, you know, but the builder was Pat Miramon in southern Louisiana.

Matt I am curious if you or one of the Build Show contributors might have some suggestions on retrofitting an old unconditioned attic and making it an improved attic.

Took a break from playing Starfield so I could eat some lunch, clicked on this video since it was recommended, and came away with an overwhelming desire to insulate my attic better.

"Thought and care ahead of time" = design. One of the things I love about your videos is their focus on sunbelt homes. I built an icf/sips house by Mueller about a decade ago and during my research realized that most energy efficiency info out there was about snow belt homes. Great shots of the SIP house you built. I would love to hear more about what you think of SIPs.

Matt, Any contractors in Austin that do attic make overs? Remove blown in insulation, add rockwool, put subfloor down, and tidy up all the ductwork etc. Maybe even hang the HVAC systems etc.

I really appreciate this video. I had my house built in 1993, moved in the very last week of. It was (and still is) my first house. I accumulated pages of “wants” for a number of years as I had anticipated this being my only house, I envisioned starting my career and retiring from it all walking in the same front door. This did happen, I’m 5 years into retirement! Needless to say some details/wants do get missed for the list. One major disappointment was why the heating/cooling/duct system was in my crappy attic! The system has four thermostatically controlled zones with hyperbaric bypasses etc. The zoning computer and duct damper motors being in the attic under the worst possible conditions in the summer and winter simply didn’t make sense, so after much consternation I dreamed up ways to create a conditioned space for the HVAC and duct controls. I came very close to installing insulation bats under the roof myself but oh what a job I figured it would be with my higher pitched roof. In the mean time I kept on replacing the controls since the plastics (housings/gears/etc) would become brittle and break about every 8 years. I worked on ideas for years until 2010 when I ran across a company at a builder’s convention who demonstrated their closed-cell spray foam installation system. I asked if this cold be applied to an already built home and they said yes. I asked if all the blown-in fiberglass insulation would be vacuumed out, they said yes. I asked what would be done with the turtle vents (attic ventilation) near the roof peaks, they would be blocked off but one or two would have to remain if I had a gas furnace. At the time I didn’t. I built my house with the intent of being all-electric but still had it plumbed for gas everywhere as a possible convenience for future equipment possibilities. I told them I would soon be replacing the all-electric heat-pump (w/30 kW back-up heat strip air handler) with gas just before the system turns 20 years old, so they said two vents would have to remain open. My house with 3300 sq ft under a 7/12 pitch roof would run about $10,000 to perform all this work. They came out June of 2010, did the work and I couldn’t be happier. The fellows who did the re-insulation work were absolute troopers. It certainly helped with my roof pitch being 7/12, meaning they were able to get almost everywhere by standing upright. The downside is more surface to foam than a lower pitch but this project was so darn worth every penny because of the performance to date, even with the requirement to have two of the attic vents remaining unblocked because of gas being plumbed/used in the attic. Made a HUGE difference in my utility bill, plus I can be in my attic any time of the year and be quite comfortable. The best part is the plastics in any piece of equipment no longer exhibit accelerated aging from the extreme seasonal temperature swings in Amarillo, TX. I had the HVAC totally replaced in 2012, employing a variable speed 23 SEER condenser and a gas furnace/air handler. The contractor for this bit said the best thing I had ever done to prepare him for this job was the spray foam under the roof, so much so, he was able to design a lower capacity system than what I had previously.

It would be so cool to see you compile a list of like minded builders around the States & Canada that are like minded to your processes. That way those of us who arent in the South US or local to Texas can find builders like you when we need them or want them. I wouldnt know where to begin finding a custom builder, let alone vetting them to see if they're knowledgeable like you.

As an HVAC pro who does remods on many problem duct systems, a home can either positive or negative or neutral depending on quantity and location (supply or return) of the duct leakage. I had a return knocked of the boot in my attic by some storage mishap and it made the house very humid and 2.3pascals positive! Great videos Matt! Love your work!

My wife and I, and a friend Insulated our entire garage; applied vapor barrier then we hung drywall. It took the three of us quite a long to complete this project, but I was determined for us to get this project done, and done correctly and properly. My wife and I paid someone else to mud the seams; tape the seams; then paint our entire garage. Our garage looks and functions very well. You did an amazing job in you garage with insulation; vapor barrier, then hanging OSB on the walls and ceilings! I liked your techniques with straightforward solutions to challenging situations whilst working alone in your garage! I cannot wait to see what you do next in your garage, Well done, Sir!

Hey Matt, I love the scientific mindset that you bring to building, especially with regard to the air-tightness of the structure, since that should always be the first line of defense in keeping indoor from outdoor. Only then can you make decisions about whether or not you even need a furnace, and instead just a heat pump. A friend of mine just built a new house well above code and discovered after an air leakage test that between the r-55 attic and r-40 walls, she didn't need a furnace. The kicker .... she lives in southern Ontario, Canada. I wish the North American building codes would get with the rest of the world and upgrade their requirements - Europe is about 20 years ahead.

As an old time plasterer I am amazed by all of this! Descent attics should be standard. I can't believe all I learned from you. Nice to see there are great builders out there that are always trying to make things better. Seems like the money being saved over the years would be tremendous. Thanks for the knowledge, keep up the great work!

The one thing you missed, is actually drywalling. Your attic can actually be a completely functional usable space and this is actually very common in Europe. It’s such a waste to throw away what is essentially an entire free floor (if you’re insulating on the roof side) it also means it’s much easier to keep clean no dust collecting in your Rockwool, no critters. Makes it much easier to keep it a tidy space.

I have experience as an instructor. The gentleman is an awesome instructor, only 35 minutes in, very easy to learn from.

I am not a builder but this vid is super insightful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and the detailed explanations from the concept, to materials to building it out. Cheers!

This is fantastic! I live in a New Orleans, 2 story house built in 1945. The attic is massive and when we bought it, completely uninsulated. We added 2-3’ of blown insulation which helped but if you’ve lived in Louisiana, you know how hot and humid it can get. Anyway, this video helped me to rethink how to go from crappy to average. The attic will never be awesome, but hopefully we can improve our cooling. Subscribed for your upcoming videos!

Matt love your channel, I wish you can do more videos on attic remodels. You did one on your house before you decided to start from the ground up. I'm not a contractor just a home owner that has a 1986 home that needs an upgrade to the attic and AC system. The summers in Vegas NV are getting more and more brutal.

Sealed, insulated saltbox with an "overroof". That's *exactly* what I did for my major remodel in 2017 for the exact same reasons: maximizing continuity of the insulation and barrier. Very unusual, but I'm quite happy with the resulting look and thermal performance. Super cool to see others trying this approach.

Thanks Matt You've really motivated me to do better on my next house build. Really enjoying your content.

I would love a video on a retrofit attic for the north. Two topics you don't normally cover, but I'd love to see it.

Properly done, the ventilated attic is the highest and best design for cost vs. efficiency that there is. The only real restriction is that you can't have your HVAC up there. That's it. As long as any penetrations from below are well-sealed and its got a good vent ratio and is protected from wind-washing with a good R-60 or so in the "bathtub," it will be _very_ hard to compete with long-term.

I watched this video when it came out. Just wanted you to know that I wish I had an instructor like you when I was working in the trades. Thinking ahead and planning were always discouraged by my teacher, boss, father. I wound up learning by learning what not to do ex post facto...I hope many eager builders find your site and their instructors imitate your presence, forethought, ability to explain, and pride in your work. Well Done. God bless you. o/

When I was a kid, my family built a house in northern BC so I got to see the insulation and windows as they went in. I now live in Houston and am horrified at the shoddy methods used. Insulation and air seal are basically mocked, in favor of putting in a huge A/C. I'm hoping to build in a couple of years and will definitely follow some of the recommendations you make here. I'm curious to hear what your thoughts on the bardominium style house that I learned about after moving here.

I built houses, and the sad part this type of construction pushes the price into top 10% earner price range, often times pushing over half a million dollars and more, making it impossible to buy by 90% of americans/canadians. I think Matt is extremely out of touch with what is affordable to an average joe and why we still have "crappy" build techniques in new houses.

Absolutely amazing video! You blew my mind with the concept of sealing the attic space into the living space. I know you film for builders. But my mind is reeling with ideas on how to renovate my house which has a basement and a crappy attic. 😅

Matt, with conditioned attic you forget about one more thing -- AC needs to dump the heat somewhere. It took heat from living space, so it needs to dump it somewhere (1 law of thermodynamics). With unconditioned attic -- AC makes it even hotter, but the heat escapes outside. But conditioned attic prevents that heat from escaping. So it's not just the stack effect. You need an additional vent from the AC to outside, just like a dryer has. Our put the AC outside of the sealed volume.

He says "I had a family of lemurs get in my attic." like that's a normal thing. When they say "Keep Austin weird" they mean it.

All I can say is wow!!!! This is a cool f****in video!!! I’m amazed that the industry hasn’t moved on and updated the old building standards when building homes, especially attics!!

Not interested in spray foam (doing Rockwool), but my real struggle with a sealed attic, is the risk of condensation when a traditional roof is installed (asphalt shingle and tar paper on sheathing).

Every time i watch one of these videos I get excited about building technology. I'm almost 50 and these videos make me wonder why I never got into this trade. Matt you do great work! I've learned so much from these videos and I've only scratched the surface of your content.

Love this. I always wonder why the biggest investment we ever make pays for typically pretty shoddy work. I'm in a 70s era house in TX and it was built probably pretty well. Not great, but *definitely* better than some of the mass-produced houses built these days. I've got the "crappy" attic. Definitely want the awesome one. I nerd out over quality stuff like this. Not sure how feasible it would be to tell a builder, "Hey I've been watching youtube and here's what I want..." Not sure I'll ever be building, though :)

I feel like people still build crappy attics because people that buy houses don't know the difference. They cost more but usually don't sell any better. The people that DO know build all their own stuff. So why would someone spend a Lil more money on a home attic if it doesn't really benefit them? I may just be ignorant, but I learn a lot from you. And I think it's absolutely amazing you throw all this information from your years of experience out there for everyone to see for free. This knowledge is a goldmine. It will help build my dream home, and hopefully I can spread knowledge and help bring everyone forward one day Like you have.

Thanks Matt! I've watched most (if not all) of your Rebuild series. Did I miss how you handled the plumbing vents and such that would normally penetrate the roof?

This is something that drove me crazy through my career. Building attics with tons of space without any type of walk way or storage. I have seen attics with 20 feet of space (because of a 10/12 pitched roof) with dormer windows that go to nothing. And no thought process about usable space up there.

I wish I could find a good builder like you in my area to build my house.

You tongue-in-cheek call it nerdy building science, I call it a thing of beauty! Well done!

When we bought our first house and I decided I wanted to store a lot of stuff in the attic, so I thought I’d do major cleaning. I didn’t know any better and vacuumed up all that insulation. Our house was built in the late 70’s. I didn’t know what it was, I assumed it was the mess the builders left behind many years ago. Boy did my hubby yell at me when he found out. And I felt like an idiot woman 😢

You should drywall that attic, exposed rockwool or fiberglass insulation is a known carcinogen, little glass fibers get in your lungs and stay there shredding them up. fiberglass makes an incredible amount of glass fiber dust, i only happened to notice with a low setting sun shining on it and a handled the material, dust flying out like crazy. Its the new asbestos and I think we will learn the hard way.

The great thing about this vid is that it helps get the building community off auto pilot for attic/roof/ceiling construction. I'm 500 miles north of you, so we get the heat/cool cycles. The big difference, as you have pointed out, is that most of our heating equipment is somewhere in the living space. With that, 99% of homes here have ducts draped all over the attic. Personally, i have searched but have never seen a study done on the "vs" of spraying closed cell directly on the ceiling joists vs closed cell on the roof rafters. If we spray the roof rafters, there is an element of cost associated with heating/cooling that attic space. I have never seen exactly what that is. So, our method is to stop the cycle of heat exchange at the ceiling level and insulate the heck out of any ducts up in the attic. Someday, it would be be good to see the cost-benefits of going this route vs the conditioned attic.

Now that you've been in your new house for a while, can you compare your energy usage for the new high performance house versus your old house across the street? Think it would be really interesting to see the details since it's the same family living in both places should be fairly apples to apples

Great video and info on this one Matt! For remodels, especially of historic homes where we can't change the roof profile and don't want to introduce spray foam to the roof deck, I have been toying with the idea of building a conditioned and insulated box around the HVAC equipment in a vented attic, and then doing a "flash and fill" on the attic side of the ceiling with closed cell to seal it and loose fill for the rest of the R value, with the ducts buried in the loose fill instead of hanging in the air.

The better video is how to take it from crappy to better? We’ve got a Lennar house, one year in, and I would love to improve my attic space but we couldn’t afford a spec house when it came to our first house.

Always wondered why some countries doesn’t use the attic as living space? Where I’m from that’s standard, but our roofs are steeper so there’s more inside head room and we use clay or concrete tiles that make the isolation process a lot easier as they can ventilate. Also we have the purlins resting on the side walls so we need only one rafter in the middle, that also saves a lot of space.

Good work, but wonder how this will work in a more 'temperate' area, like in the northern North America,, in northern Europe, etc, where A/C is not that prevalent, nor needed, and sealing up the outside can lead to moisture getting trapped inside the building envelope and condensate on the colder exterior surface. BTW, did notice you added a foam layer on the outside of the air/moisture barrier, but is that enough when temps drop to -20C or lower?

Being a 63 year Florida resident and owning my own HVAC company having almost 45 years in the trade there are a few things I wished you would have touched on . Although a tight structure is awesome remember all the chemicals from pest control to everyday products emit fumes that cannot escape and build up , I would recommend some type of an air exchange system for a healthy home. After being in attics that were over the 130 degrees I can tell you how much happier your system would be in a conditioned space and for the person doing maintenance it’s definitely a plus. That being said trying to talk the builder into the upgrade is not an easy task.

Hi Matt. I have a quasi crappy attic with HVAC in attic but I have put attention in air sealing any holes in the ceiling, mastic ducts, and ensure no holes for animal entry. Moving the air barrier to the attic ceiling seems scientifically to make sense but is this cost effective. I am going to guess the cost of spray foam will take too many years to make a return on investment via lower energy bills. I also don’t think you can raise the value in the house by such an investment on resale because few people value high end attics. I also wonder what happens when a leak occurs in the roof. It won’t be detected as the water gets trapped between the spray foam and roof. By the time to find out it’s leaking, the roof is rotted. Abu comments or suggestions?

This was the perfect video for me As I live in CENTEX about an hour north of Austin, I have an attic with the open cell foam. It's actually not bad, but it could be better. I wanted to do some improvements on the space and you threw out a lot of great ways to improve it. I also want to work on the attic space above the garage. The garage is insulated and stays fairly comfortable. The space above has no insulation and your current attic setup looks like it might work for that portion of the attic.

this is great and all. but it still makes it hard for me to decide how to retro fit something like this into my 70s style attic because the pitch of my roof is so low that my attic is a crawl space.

The "umbrella" approach to your roof is genius. I will have to do some cost analysis to determine the additional costs, but it is something we will consider for our new build. Thanks!

How well does a house built like yours hold up to settling? Do the tighter tolerances present challenges? ie- if the base of the house is settling, does the taped (butted up wall to roof-line) corner hold up since everything is cinched together or will it "tear" creating a hole?

Had spray foam applied 4 years ago. Fantastic. I still lament the wasted space due to lousy/lazy build- cheaper obviously.

I’m attempting to change my new (90s custom built) crappy attic to decent. Finding contractors that think this way is so tough

In Australia it is beyond crappy. 70% are tiled roofs without any house wrap at all, just bare tiles. I’m genuinely amazed by US and Canadian house tech that appears to be years ahead in HVAC technology.

How would you convert a vented attic with soffit vents and ridge vent to aa Awesome attic?

That routed HVAC is amazing! Also, if you have issues with your HVAC, it'll be easy to repair.

I was hoping to see how those of us that are currently with a crappy attic insulation situation could make it better or at least decent as a diy or contractor needed job. Just really looking for ways to make attic better with insulation since fans are not actually a way to help with keeping the temp down in a Texas attic.

4 years in my current home, we are 2nd owners, just learned I have an attic, though crappy when I finally got a look up there.

QUESTION: Hey Matt - Why did you go with Rockwool in your house instead of polyurethane foam? Is it a longevity thing? Cost? Performace?

This was actually a good video that I think all builders can relate to. Thank you. Looking forward to Building 101 videos.

Lemurs were in your attic?!? I sure hope you meant ringtails!

I’ve got a pretty standard house here in NC. At least for my area. There are numerous examples in a quarter mile radius from our home. There’s been some remodeling with a few walls that’ve been taken out to make a big open area kitchen/dining/living room. The attic has so much space that I’d love to put to use. Put in an extra room or even just make it a usable space for storage. The thick blown in insulation is also in the way for me to inspect and fix the crappy wiring…changes let’s say, that a previous owner did. Oh and around the outside of the house, there are vents, that have been painted over. In some places it’s completely blocked. I am a Disabled Vet living on a very fixed income. I can’t really do the work myself, maybe the electrical a room or circuit at a time.. The manual work and raised arms is just not possible. The electrical being on the floor of the basement means I could works on my knees or something. Maybe one day I’ll be able to do it all….

The crappy attic is awesome if you just don't put mechanicals in it. Smaller area to air seal and insulate with cheap cellulose.

Awesome video, great tips! I redid a 60's attic a while ago and sucked out all the old stuff + droppings. new vents, radiant barrier roof, it was a lot of work but worth it. On my new builds I'm going with conditions attics and try to get to awesome! I also painted the old brick white, which rejects a lot of the Texas heat, brick went from scolding hot in the afternoon to warm to the touch. but I didn't achieve much for house seal. I did foam up all the cable penetrations and gaps I could see attic to ceiling-wise. That R-50 roof is genius, best way to go for Texas. I saw another youtube builder doing something similar but the nailed the eaves to the siding which I felt was structurally weak and will sag eventually. Thanks again!

Lemurs? Your house is in Costa Rica?

Great video, lots of good information. Re: sealed attics, this is a complicated topic because it's counter-intuitive and it's very seldom explained well. As you say in the video, different climates have different challenges. In hot and humid climates, in a house with AC, you have to think more about humid outside air getting into the attic and then being sucked into the ducting and condensing. You may not have as many problems with water vapor from inside the house rising up into the attic, because the air-conditioned, colder interior air is more dry than the outdoor air, but I'm not sure about that. I can explain the cold climate issues a little better, because I live in a cold climate (IECC zone 5, western PA) and I've been trying to figure this out for my own house. The "what" of it is: In cold weather zones, water vapor comes from inside the house and will naturally rise into the attic. The water vapor will either exhaust through vents in a vented attic, or get trapped in a sealed attic and eventually condense and cause mold issues. If you want to seal your attic then you have to plan for clearing out that water vapor, whether that's a dehumidifier or a return air duct or whatever. (One common approach is to clear out any attic floor insulation and hope that natural air exchange between the attic and the floor below will clear out the water vapor). The "why" of it is: 1. Water vapor is molecularly lighter than air, so it rises like helium. 2. In cold weather, water vapor is mainly coming from inside the home. We think of cold weather as wet weather, but that's because the cold causes the moisture to condense and end up on the ground, so you're left with wet (or snow covered) ground and dry air. Inside the house the air is warmer and relatively more humid. 3. In houses with traditional vented attics, the water vapor rises up into the attic and then out through the vents. 4. In houses with sealed attics, you have to plan for what happens to that water vapor, i.e. make sure that it will get cleared out of the attic. This topic is complicated by the fact that every house's structure and family's usage patterns are different, so an approach that can work fine for one house/family may cause problems for another. For example, my parents house has had fiberglass insulation against the roof deck for 42 years and it's still fine. But somebody else might not have the same results. Also, I think part of the counter-intuitiveness is that people think of the attic as being part of the inside of the house, but it wasn't originally meant to be. The cubic volume of the attic is "accidental space". It's not there as part of the house interior but rather because it's really, really hard to make a waterproof roof without taking advantage of gravity.

Conditioned attics need to be required by code otherwise they will continue to be a small minority.

I live in NJ older 1970’s Bi level on slab with poured foundation AC air handler in the attic. However, upgraded in November to 38 insulation . The company ATTIC CRAWL vacuumed out all old insulation & sealed up everything added r 38. It cost us $7000 ! but worth every penny. Now much warmer even temps in the winter. Definitely not a DYI

Great video! I live in a suburb of Chicago, yes I have ranch home with a full basement and an attached three car garage (this is my second home with a three car garage). I do have a play room in the basement along with a full shower bath and a combo furnace/workshop/storage room. My home has lots of closet space, including a mud room with storage. My home was built with engineered walls and trusses built off site. I have a pull down ladder in the garage to access my attic space. The attic is blow in fiberglass insulation, but not over the garage. The home has 9’ ceilings and a a lofted ceiling that goes up to 14’ in the family room and entryway. Because of the 9’ ceilings, the garage ceiling is 10 1/2’ high. This allowed me to do perimeter shelving, 34” below the ceiling, in the garage for more storage. PS: Storage seems to be sought after down south, why don’t you build larger and taller garages for the extra storage space needed? PPS: My current home has lots of storage space and then some, I haven’t used up my storage space, and probably never will.

Nice presentation. Being from Ontario, I knew most of this stuff. Air tightness, HRV, hot waste water heat recovery is very much coded here in new builds. 32:25 "I can't fathom why we are not doing it...." It's because it's not sexy and readily visible / hidden. So they are reluctant to sink in time / effort /or $ for things like comfort and future ROI pay back. A lot of people only stay in a house +/- 10 years, so many will not see the ROI.

Great content. Living in Texas my whole life (5th Generation Texan 🙂) and getting ready to build our forever home in the Texas hill county this was great info. Thanks for sharing

I’ve put a plywood floor in several attics to make it into a light storage space. Easy to insulate-add lighting-add shelving- beef up the joists and add sum 3/4” subfloor decking-

I had a crappy attic. Insulation batts seemingly just thrown everywhere, rat and bat droppings, etc. I used a half-face respirator while moving all the insulation to one side and vacuuming up all the dust and crap, then laid out the insulation between the 2x4s. Then i floored it with 2x6 (where i worked, we routinely got pallets made of them, so all free wood!) Then i put more insulation under the roof, and covered the entire underside with plastic (to keep down fiberglass dust and help with moisture.) Added light fixtures, and now it's a decent storage area! Access still sucks, though. One small access hole in an upstairs bathroom.

Southern NJ here. Slab house, buried galvanized duct work. Normal stuff around here, mostly due to flood zones, but we do it different now.

My struggle with insulating my roof line is that my roof has so many hips and valleys, much of which is built around partial second floor rooms’ knee walls. that the nooks and crannies are so very hard to reach. Buy, this has convinced me to at least get an estimate.

I find it rather wild that houses are actually built with the HVAC in the attic. Owned multiple houses in Louisiana, Texas, and Florida which have all used a closet HVAC which places it within the controlled space. The best one, in central Texas, had ceramic coated hard ducting and a (older) Carrier control system you would find in a commercial building with sensors in each room, dynamic airflow balancing, etc which even included the walk in closets. Massive overkill but apparently the guy who built the house designed HVAC systems for big commercial buildings and it was his retirement home. Bought it as an estate sale and didn't realize what I got until the home inspector freaked a little while checking out the attic.

Coming From a non construction background (IT guy myself) but hands on hand guy that I am, When I First moved to the U.S. 24 years ago, I always found very strange the way ATTICs are constructed.. My critical thinking always agreed with your awesome ATTIC way.. And All my thoughts during all these years proved to be right by watching this video.. I was Right all along, even though I had to Fight with Building Inspectors about my detached garage I built completely air tight attic because they want to see Roof ventilation by their city code ...

This is an excellent video. I like the concept of a cmanopoly house. who is curious how you get the rock wool to stay when normally it is stapled in place. It was clear to me that the zips sheathing wouldn't grip staples. I noticed the black straps bridging the joist, apparently holding the rockwool in place. It was big on your house, but they were smaller on the other house.

Awesome video. I'm going to try to make my attic decent. Thank you for this video.

I live just outside of Austin and I just bought a house we’re remodeling and Gonzales on the river and I’m going to use your techniques in that space. I really appreciate us some great ideas good work.

In rural Southern Illinois where I live, it is common to have the boiler in the basement and the AC in the attic. It is nice having the warm air rise from the baseboard radiators and the cool air drop from the ceiling. There is cold air loss in the attic and the flexible dusts are not well insulated. It is an old 1979 Lennox unit.

At least half of the houses I've built.. I convinced the owners to add rooms upstairs and add a stairway, etc.. and get a lot more footage out of the house. Which forced them to think about what attic is left and optimize it for all the mechanical stuff. Even if they didn't fully finish those rooms, it sure made a better house because it forced them to insulate the rafters (like you're showing). So I agree, help push the owners to maximize their attic and basement areas and you'll have happy customers in the end.

I was doing an inspection in this ancient couples home. After talking Marines for a while with the OG Devil Dog he was telling telling a story about how they were the first people of color who had bought a house in that neighbood in the 50s. So I started my inspection and the first thing I noticed was the attic seemed fairly cool. It was early morning so I tried to dismissed it , but it was in the back of my mind. When I got to the very back of the house and I saw where the duct had come loose and was venting into the attic. It was beyond my scope of work but I worked on it for a minute and reattached it. Suddenly I hear his wife cry out THANK YOU JEUSUS!!! She started yelling for him to come back there quick! It turns out that room had been hot since they had air conditioning installed in the 70s!!! Take the time guys, you might just be working miracles.

I bought my childhood home from my mother. My grandfather built it. I sprayed the rafters with open cell and cut our heating and cooling down substantially. We had 2 rooms that wouldn't get under 77-78 degrees with the AC running all day at 95-100 degrees outside. We also sprayed the walls of that room, and added 1" of that Perma -R to the inside wall. Basically a cooler. After that, the AC would then cycle thru the day and maintain 68-70 in the house regardless of how hot it got outside. We could take a week vacation, check our temps at home remotely and even on a 98 degree day, 3 or 4 days in, the 2pm afternoon temp would only be 80-81 in the house. If it was only 90, in full sun we would only see 75-77. The biggest reason for AC in most of the summer was humidity control. North Mississippi. The house wasn't in shade until early evening about 3 hours before sunset and even then 50% shade.

"It's the least cost way..." And that explains the entire philosophy of the man who built our house in Wyoming. I am curious about the difference in cost between crappy and awesome attic, versus the cost savings from the lack of thermal loss

The American methods of construction were designed to be as cheap and quick as possible. If you stop to actually think about what you're doing, you can compare your house to a water reservoir. If you're building a water reservoir, you want to ensure that all joints and seams are welded together, to keep the water in. A house, principally, is the exact same thing except that it keeps water(and wind) out. If you build a house without windows or doors, you should be able to pressurize it. If you can't pressurize it, then you've built a faulty house. The same can be said for basements/foundations where we know that concrete has a certain amount of permeability, we either need to erect an additional water barrier or irrigate around it in such a way as to prevent water from reaching the concrete.

Thank you!! Appreciate all the walk throughs & detail work. This is where spending a little more can get you eons different after product. You don't always get that everywhere. This was a great video. Thanks brother!