Fixing an Attic - Insulation, Baffles, & Radiant Barrier 

Boy, adding soffit vents and baffles in an existing attic is not easy! Impressed that you did all that in such a tight space.

I'm looking at doing a similar project. Well done.

Thanks for sharing very detailed attic problems and practical solutions.

The 24/16 baffles fit perfectly between 24" rafters & can be trimmed for 16" rafters... Cut each 24" panel along its embossed trim line. You will now have a wide & a narrow piece. Simply "nest" the pocket of the narrow piece inside the pocket of the wide piece & you will have created a perfect 16" panel. I found that adding double-sided carpet tape in the nested pockets produced a very rigid 16" panel.

Thanks for all the info and products.

Outstanding video!

Excellent, informative video. Thank you.

Awesome work, Jim. That is definitely a lot of work but worth it. Especially on the those bathroom exhaust pipes! That condition had to be addressed! Again, great work!

Very thorough and informative

Good work

You provided a lot of good information. Thanks for sharing. I had similar issues. There is an old This Old House Tom Silva episode (How to Vent a Bath Fan Through the Roof | This Old House) that was useful for me. It looked like your roof sheeting was newer. Maybe it was just the lighting. If it was new sheeting, too bad the roofers did not put baffles in at that time. They make corrugated plastic baffles that can be fastened from above or below. (Matt Risinger's video: "Yep… This is my house.. and this is me fixing MY mistake" has the baffles at the 2m30s mark.) Good luck.

I appreciate the hard work. I know its A LOT!!!! Would love to see how you fix the vents. I to need to address venting from the bathrooms...

Great job... its really not appreciated unless you have done this. I had to educate myself after our roofer we hired ruined our home with $75k in damage installing a bad roof. I learned so much after it had to be re-done. As you mentioned in the beginning, education is key!!! You also found the exhaust fan issues and the radiant barrier is a GREAT addition

The bathroom fan tube to the gable vent is one of the most creative lazy solutions I've ever seen.

when you trim your piece for the 16" rafter spacing, overlap them after cutting. They are designed that way to accommodate the two sizes. taping two 8" pieces together is incorrect. It should be the 16" piece with the 8" piece piggybacked on top of it.

Nice work. I'd consider blowing cellulose in there. It's a insect replant, rodent replant, fire retardant, great R-value, and water doesn't ruin it. Great product

I will do something similar - baffles and radiant barrier 👍

Nice job!

Thanks for the useful and informative video. The hardest of this job for me would be negotiating the open joist bays. I once put my foot through the ceiling below. What a mess! Did you put down planking.

Once you pull out the insulation from the soffits and install the baffles, you could tuck those fiberglass batts back up against the baffles to avoid just throwing them away and to keep the blown in away from the baffles? Ok, I see that you did that. Those bathroom fan vents are at least directed to the gable vents. What they should have done as a minimum though is insulate those duct tubes so that the bathroom moisture would not condense and then freeze inside of them. But they're still better than I found them in my house, just venting right into the attic.

Equalized temp in northern attics manley help with even ice melt on roof , keeping ice dambs from forming

Since the weather is cooler, I need to buy some baffles and attempt to install them. My attic is a hot mess. Part of it was a flat roof so there isn't a gap for airflow from the soffit in some areas.

Vent those bathrooms straight up and out the roof! You don't want them venting into the attic at all. The attic should stay dry. It can get hot or cold but not damp or wet. Warm, moist air will condense on colder surfaces. If the warm moist condenses in those flexible vent pipes, they will likely freeze in winter and block the pipe, not allowing the bathrooms to vent

There's some debate about keeping an open vent from soffit to top vent vs just sealing the whole attic with spray foam. Curious what others think about this. I have a 100 year old house that needs insulation and my instinct is to use a similar vent to keep air flow, but I keep hearing that it may be best to just seal everything up tight.

Question for anyone. I just moved into a house and noticed some of the side vents are covered with insulation. Is there a way to scoop all the insulation out? I need to install these baffles.

Do you plan to close your gable vents since you have a ridge vent and baffles?

I put the radiant barrier in my 1900 sqft house took me two months off n on

what is my house do not have the soffit end, which is fully closed. do i still we need the baffles?

Did you have to do any stapling?

The joists should be tying in the rafters... They are not trusses .

Can you name and or link the radiant barrier product you used please? I’m having a hard time finding it. Thank you!

Use pump up sprayer 50/50 bleach n water

Yes good information but a dirty job

Hello jimginnyohio, Thanks for the great video. I too live in Ohio and ran across a reflective insulation product at a recent home/garden show and am starting to do some research on that. One of the questions that I pondered as I watched a few of these videos, is whether the reflective type fabric (perforated foil with various tradenames it seems) should be installed below the roof or above the ceiling insulation. I saw that you chose to install it below the roof, which I think is a good for hot weather climates for reflecting heat in the summer - most videos of these products seem to focus on this method. However, I believe in Ohio, where we are equally concerned about heat loss in the winter, it is preferable to install the product above the ceiling insulation and would recommend your viewers to see this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FJZrJLiP3Pc.html for the rationale behind that. Best wishes and hope you reaping the benefits of your labor.

Adding the radiant barrier and restricting the airflow to the rafter channel and won't allow air into the attic space except up near the ridge. You are likely to get a moisture and mold problem in the attic space thus negating the purpose of the baffles.

I don't think you needed to install the baffles or the material. They are only needed if you were to install batt insulation between the rafters. The baffles would keep the insulation from sealing off the air flow, which is the reason they are used.

Tape, gorilla tape , ....