Almost every house with an attic has some way to get there from the living space. It could be anything from a small hatch in a bedroom closet to a pull-down stair in the ceiling of a bedroom or hallway. Older homes may have a walk-up stairway leading to the attic.
If precautions are not taken to prevent energy loss from that area, a substantial amount of energy is wasted year-round. We have a solution for that problem no matter what type of access you have to your attic.
We use the Energy Guardian kits from Energy Sentry Solutions
and the results are incredible.
Here is a summertime infrared picture of a pull-down attic stair with no cover over it. You can see that the ceiling around it is cool because it is insulated. But the stairs are much hotter because there is no insulation over them. The picture shows the temperature but doesn't show the air which leaks past at an alarming rate carrying house air up and out also.
Here is a picture of the same attic entry with an ESS Energy Guardian installed over it. Almost 90% of the area is now cool except for some residual heat. A very drastic improvement.
Every job we do includes one of these covers.
Bath fans must be vented out of the house. That doesn't mean into the soffit or the attic. It means O-U-T of the house. It is extremely important that this is done before any airsealing is done in the attic because as the attic becomes colder in the winter, the moisture from the bath fans will condense and cause mold and rot in just months. This is one more reason to consult with a home energy specialist and not just an insulation contractor when you plan your energy upgrade. We have the tools and the knowledge to detect all the potential problems before covering the attic in a blanket of insulation. We have a specially made vent hood for bath fans to allow us to easily take the vent out of the house with minimal labor and expense. This hood is the finest quality product available and will last forever when installed properly. Unfortunately for do-it-yourselfers, none of the home centers sell them and we have to buy ours in bulk just to be have them available.
Attic Entry Cover
Soffit Vent Hood
