We are excited and have an appointment scheduled in a couple weeks! All of your videos and informative information is what totally sealed the deal for us to choose Insulwise. We’ve only had our cape cod home for a year and noticed our current insulation isn’t doing the job. I’m very eager to see the results!
Hi there, thanks for the kind comment! We do everything we can to help homeowners understand why their homes are not as comfortable or energy efficient as they'd like them to be, and then show our unique and effective ways of remedying those issues. We look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!
You're welcome! Yes, baffles are a tough deal with these (unless the inside sloped drywall section is removed or the roof area). We've done well over a thousand homes this way and it's a standard weatherization practice in our area. The biggest thing is having the lower knee wall attics AND upper main attic effectively ventilated.
Very informative video. When you put the foam board in between the studs, does the foil backing need to be facing outwards? I have a wall along side an enclosed staircase that always feels hot. It only has batt insulation between the studs in the attic. Thank you
In the video it doesn't matter which side the foil is on. We were using the foam board to block transition gaps beneath the knee walls and it was buried in cellulose insulation later. But-- if the foam board were to be exposed -- you would want the foil side to face outward. The foil covering will act as a radiant barrier, reflecting attic heat back toward the roof and away from the home. So I believe in your application you would want it facing outward. Hope this helps! Andy
For the best result you'd want to leave the batts in place in between the stud bays of the knee wall, and then go over top of the studs with foam board. You never want to have air gaps between the insulation and the surface that you're trying to insulate, this can allow for convection currents to occur. Andy
Some people have reported that cellulose insulation leaves their house smelling very badly for a very long time. Many months or even years after it has been installed. I wanted to ask you what your experience has been with this and if there is a specific cellulose brand that is better and doesn't smell and have this problem over another?
Good question. Cellulose insulation basically just smells like paper, as far as I can tell. We air seal all of the attic floors that we work in prior to insulating them, so there really isn't much of a smell that comes down into the home. I've used just about every brand of cellulose insulation out there and it all smells pretty much the same to me. That said -- there have been a few cases of cellulose insulation being used as a damp wall-spray application in new construction and it was not allowed to dry properly before the drywall was put over it. I've heard of that creating a bad smell, but not cellulose on it's own.
I have a similar design house in Bucks County PA and was considering eliminating the knee walls entirely and making it basically all sloped walls top to bottom with just a small space at the top where it is flat 4 feet wide for a ceiling. Is that feasible or better to keep the knee walls and insulate like you have done here? Right now it’s gutted to the studs for a full remodel.
Hmm..I've seen a few houses where that was done, but you end up having a fair bit of useless space at the bottom of the triangle. I have also seen where shelving / dressers have been built into the knee walls to better utilize the space. Those things get tricky to insulate though on the back end / knee wall attic side. The simplest way IMO is to leave it as is. If you use the methods that I've shown here you'll have good results. There's always ways to optimize it / make it better, it's just a matter of the time and money that you want to spend on the project. Good luck to you!
