Insulated Exterior Walls And Attic Floor Now Basement Seems Colder

The crew sprayed r54 foam insulation all over the roof of the attic and onto the soffits to completely close things off.

Insulated exterior walls and attic floor now basement seems colder.

Moisture can invade a basement from two directions. Insulating your exterior walls in a cold climate is very important and ultimately should be done but it must be done wisely. It s a weird setup in this house. This makes the attic colder and a colder attic with moisture leaking from the house can result in condensation mold and wood rot.

Warm spaces have less condensation risk than colder space so when you add insulation to the attic floor you re intentionally blocking some of that heat from keeping the attic warm. Whether using loose fill or batts put the vapor barrier closest to the warm side of your installation where hot moist air would get in facing the house s interior in cold climates beneath floor insulation and the attic s interior in hot climates on top of floor insulation. In most cases a basement with insulation installed on its exterior walls should be considered a conditioned space. However adding insulation to the walls or under the floors can be more difficult since it requires opening up the walls or flooring.

There s a radiator prior to coming up the stairs in the hallway on the first floor. Now that the house is properly sealed it is crucial to verify the attic s thermal insulation is adequate and properly installed. Some regions don t require a vapor barrier. One radiator is along side an interior wall and not under the window of my sons room.

You can go into the attic and look down into the interior walls and see the drywall. Blowing insulation in a wall cavity willy nilly is a sure fire way to create rot and mold issues. How bout adding another radiator in our bedroom i have two exterior walls and only one radiator. Even in a house with an unconditioned basement the basement is more connected to other living spaces than to the outside which makes basement wall insulation preferable to ceiling insulation.

That means that cold attic air gets down into those cavities. Cold air rushes in on the ground floor to replace whatever is lost. In most cases rolled or batt insulation will have a vapor barrier already. With cold air inside the wall and warm air on each side in the house heat moves through the drywall which has a low r value and warms up the air in the cavity.

Basement insulation mold busting strategy 3. Use carpeting some floor materials are naturally colder than. The insulation on the floor of your attic needs to have an approved vapor barrier installed on the warm in winter side of the insulation.