home improvement ideas

[mgconnor13 206]

I live in central NC and I just bought a cabin. The downstairs is great but upstairs gets really hot during the day. Bottom of the house is made of 7.5"x7.5" logs and seems to hold the heat out fairly well but the upstairs room is standard 2x4 frame construction. What can I do to help insulate my up stairs? I'm already planning on replacing the windows because they suck plain and simple. Thinking about going in the crawl spaces on two sides of room and putting in new insulation. (pink fiber glass w/o backing is up there now) Also the top of the stair way is noticeably warmer. the whole second floor is several degrees warmer then the down stairs. Is radiant barrier or foam boards worth looking into? I want to make the room pleasant to be in and save on my utility bills. right now my AC is running a lot and the downstairs warms up 3-5 degrees during the day.

 

Here's a couple pictures of the exterior, the stairway and of the crawl spaces that are on both sides of the room upstairs. Any ideas on how to insulate this room better? Thanks

Edited August 12, 2010 by Rusty truck

[Boba Debt 350]

I have helped a lot of people do a lot of different types of projects to their houses.

 

If you want to call me, or I can call you, we can discuss the inherent problems and solutions with cooling the type of room you have.

[David Mark 2,452]

I installed a exhaust fan in the roof of my place along with two eve vents.

The fan has a thermostat switch which kicks on as soon as it gets above 90 degrees in the attic space.

 

It has made a huge difference in the temperature upstairs.

 

And you can't hear the fan running.

 

It's a pretty simple procedure which you can probably do yourself.

 

Good luck with the new place.

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

Nice score brotha! Yes, roof vents definitely. Thermo controlled fan definitely. You may actually be pretty close to Boba Debt where you are...

So what about the firing range?

 

[yakdung 2,926]

Radiant heat is your enemy my friend. I use a foil fiberglass material rated at R19 that is stapled directly under the rafters. The key is not to let the radiant heat enter your attic space in the first place. I only post this link as an example not an endorsement.

http://www.astrofoil...nt.barrier.html

 

It is also very important to have adequate ventilation in the attic. Soffit and a ridge vent system is a must. I would also poke around the Florida Solar Energy Center's website as they have done all of the due diligence and testing and they have been doing this for many years.

http://www.fsec.ucf..../priorities.htm

 

Good luck and stay cool!

Yakdung

[mgconnor13 206]

Been looking at the foil just not sure the best way to implement it. I'll look into a fan system too. Thanks for the help so far.

 

Hey cobra I found my septic tank so my back yard has a lot of room. just need to find a couple cheap 40' shipping containers and a back hoe

[The Bull 2]

I work for a construction company and have a little experience with this. There is a new product on the market that is a spray foam that works amazing. i dont have the name of it in front of me but ill see if i can find it.

[belt fed frog 56]

icelyne is what RamPage is talking about good stuff a neighbor did it on the inside of the steel clear span building (quanset hut) he built his house in .

i also live in a log cabin with the full A frame upper room 12/12 pitch roof, same log construction , double glazed windows but my rafters are 2x8`s so i put R-22 in then plated over it with 1x6 tongue and groove and i cool from the upper room with a 10,000 Btu air conditioner , i heat from the lower floor with a 35,000 Btu ventless fire place and i have the full ridge vented .i started the roof sheathing 1 1/2" down from the peak of the rafters so the space between the roof sheathing and insulation vents ,i have wire covered low vents in the eves ,now i have a tin roof with the raised barn cap on the roof ridge and this is down in west central FL . i only have 966 SF to cool/heat but i only have to run the AC on low to keep the upper room at 77* and the downstairs stays about 80* and the temps outside are usually 95-105* measured right under the eves 16' off the ground on the north side during the summer( i am up on an 8' block foundation so first floor is 8' off the ground ) . my power bill has never gotten higher than about $159 during the hottest part of the summer and my heat bill is usually about $140 in a normal winter . since i built the place my self i orientated the house so the south face of the roof catches the full winter sun so i get some heat assistance during the winter.

 

even though this place stands 3 stories tall to roof peak it has taken all a Cat 4-5 hurricane can dish out with top wind speed at 173 Mph ,136 Mph sustained during Charlie and i was less than 1/8 mile from the eye wall on the right front quadrant(the very worst place to be) ,i choose wisely when i built a log cabin because i was the only undamaged house in the entire neighborhood after Charlie and when i choose my building type i had to factor in my roommate a 40" long 6 Lb wood chewing Macaw he would go right thru a balloon frame wall in a matter of hours if it struck his fancy to do so , he folds pennies in half for fun and chews up Hickory shovel handles into splinters in less than an hour :eek:

 

i and one other person built this place the only contractor was for the pad and block work . and we used only block and tackle to to all the lifting ,all electrical, plumbing and roofing was done by me using only basic hand tools most of them older than i am !!! so i have what i always wanted a Very solid house in a 5 acre woods with a 100 yard rifle range right off the back porch

[westonsecurity 6]

If you are going to insulate the space between the rafters and roofing plywood w/ fiberglass type insulation, you MUST install the styrofaom blue hat track system. If you don't, then condensation will build up between the ply & insulation causing the wood to rot over time. The hat track creates an air channel and if a ridge vent is used along w/ soffit venting will create an air flow from the soffit thru the hat track channel and venting out of the ridge vent. Adding a t-stat roof vent will increase the cooling w/o disrupting the flow,

[belt fed frog 56]

WESTONSECURITY

if the styro hat stuff was available down here i would have used it and a higher R value insulation but R-22 is only 6" thick so i have 2" of clear flow space as for a T-fan cant do it my roomie climbs the roof like it is nothing and struts back and forth on the barn cap letting all the hawks ,buzzards and crows that this is HIS place and as youngsters they learn to avoid that big Blue and Green mother at all costs ,they will not fly over the cleared area around the house he is free range and backs down for no man or creature if he doesn`t know you he will attack you and hold nothing back .for a treat i give him bones that a dog would take weeks to wear down and he cracks them like popcorn for the marrow .an ANGRY Macaw is quite dangerous they are extremely long lived and hold grudges for a very long time .when you deal with a Macaw you are dealing with someone who will live 50-70 years minimum and has the intellect of a 5 year old human child armed with a beak as big as your fist who thinks chewing up 1/2" hardware cloth is fun . he was never taught to speak learned it all on his own and understands the concept and how to use "I" correctly he walks up to me and demands "I want ..." failure to give or do earns you anything from a nip to a serious blood bite !!!

[YARP 300]

I just did insulation in attic last week. It sucked, but on a good note here's what I learned....If you use Jonn Manville fiberglass blow in insulation it takes 10 bags to cover 1200 square feet that will hold an R-value of 60, yes thats right I said R-60 it will be about 24" deep so using your attic for storage is out. After watching the meter for a week, we have literally cut our energy bill in half. You may also want to make sure the roof is venting correctly. It cost $300.00 (you get the machine for free after 10 bags at Lowes) with no rebates or coupons. We will make our money back on the insulation in 5 months.

check it out, it's worth it.

[uzitiger 193]

I just did insulation in attic last week. It sucked, but on a good note here's what I learned....If you use Jonn Manville fiberglass blow in insulation it takes 10 bags to cover 1200 square feet that will hold an R-value of 60, yes thats right I said R-60 it will be about 24" deep so using your attic for storage is out. After watching the meter for a week, we have literally cut our energy bill in half. You may also want to make sure the roof is venting correctly. It cost $300.00 (you get the machine for free after 10 bags at Lowes) with no rebates or coupons. We will make our money back on the insulation in 5 months.

check it out, it's worth it.

 

I did my attic using rolls of R-30 and the the difference is great. My children no longer complain that they are cold in the mornings in winter. I used to keep the water in the tub when taking a shower to keep warm which I don't have to do anymore. I even added foam insulation on the access panel tot he attic. I had my children help install the insulation in the tight spaces where I don't fit easily and they did the job in 15 minutes where it would have taken me hours to crawl around since they are smaller. Last fall I added another layer of R-30 over the bedrooms. I added R-19 over the other end of the house where it was cold. The previous owner added an exhaust fan in the attic and you can't hear it, the attic probably needs more than one fan up there because it can get hot. When I did my parent's house it was 60 deg outside and the attic was unbearably hot but they have a whole house fan which vents into the attic and my father turned it on so I could install the insulation.

 

Replace any windows you have up there with thermal ones. You can search window and home improvement suppliers for mismatched or surplus windows which they may have in their boneyards and will sell them to you at a low price to get rid of them. I was able to get four windows and install them for under $300 which I did myself. Finding the right size is like a craps shoot, sometimes you find one and most of the time you don't but the saving is worth it.

 

If you go up into the attic and have a lot of dust like my house did (56 years worth) wear long sleeves and a face mask, even a paper one to keep the dust out of your lungs and nose. That stuff is nasty.

Edited August 14, 2010 by uzitiger

[G O B 3,516]

If you have a attic fan, disconnect it and install a passive ridge vent instead. It is both more efficient, and does not cause house fires.

[ticknc 5]

My two cents.

 

Starting with over all cost the best solution is Foam (I will be doing this to my home). I had Scott from Allied Spray Foam (ASF) based out of Holly Springs give me a free estimate recently. You get to have a semi-conditioned storage space. The stuff will pay for itself in about 5 years. Foam is a sealed system sprayed to the underside of the roof sheeting, between the trusses. No attic venting at all.

 

Second best would be a properly vented attic with a sprayed Cellulose (Ground-up Newspaper) plus a layer of R-30 blanket.

 

After that, any variation to better ventilation and higher R value will help.

 

 

A note on attic venting:

• Make sure the soffits are vented and clear of restrictions. Free air needs to flow along the roof truss and out the top of the attic. The vents can get clogged with paint from the outside or insulation from the attic is pushed against the trusses, restricting air flow.