This is going to be a blast

Dave, seems to me, everything I've read says that cellulose is more resistant to airflow than FG.
Likely, HD has a better margin on the FG, so they push it.

 

Cellulose is a much better option for a lot of reasons...

Big one is that it acts as its own air barrier
Better effective R value per inch
doesn't loose R value as much when compacted vs FG.
It doesn't itch.
Its cheaper to produce and to buy (just recycle newspaper)
Its a recycled material and more env. friendly.
It doesn't give off as many nasty chemicals in the event of a house fire.

Modern cellulose is treated with borates for fire and bug resistance. Try taking a match to it... wont light.

The only thing where FG has an edge is wet performance. Thats easy, dont have leaks

 

@jharkin thanks for the reasoning behind using it. At least I got one thing right this year

 

Do you have a flat floor area all around the ladder opening... but maybe the ladder sticks up in the attic space a bit? If you do, ya might be able to do what we did at the farm. Made a "box" cover. I bought 2" blue styofoam board insulation, got out the benchsaw. Made narrow 6" strips for the sides and bonded & strap taped it together with a panel large enough to be outside of the ladder opening. It worked perfectly and was light weight too, when lifting it off to get up there.

 

Thought of making a cover up in the attic, but my wife has stuff up there she accesses fairly often.
W/o some place to put it when she ascends the stairs, I can see it getting torn up.
Probably worth it even if it only lasts one winter.
Got me thinkin' again Stinny, and we know that can't be gooder.

 

... I know, I know... sorry...

 

Ok so I spent a bunch of time playing around with the attic access to figure out how I wanted to try to seal it and round one is done for now. First I pulled all the trim pieces down and put them back up after putting silicone all the way around where they would seal to the drywall. I then caulked the framed in access inside the attic and caulked the inside of the trim pieces. Next I glued 3 pieces of 1" thick foam down to the bottom side of the access drywall and placed rolled insulation on top of that and set the access in place.

I think I am going to do one final thing after a trip to the hardware store. I am going to get some 1/4"-3/8" soft foam weatherstripping and place it on the back side of the trim pieces so the access lays against it flush when in place. Then I am going to place some small weights on the back of the drywall to make sure it presses down against it for a good seal. Any other suggestions?

 

Pretty sure the weight of all that will seal some soft foam weatherstripping.

I'd say you did pretty good there.
You may not even need the T6 this winter.

 

Looks awesome. I work In weatherization in update NY.

 

Nice job Cert!

 

Thanks guys, this whole day has been a real drag....... I would have rather been doing just about anything else than all the little finishing touches. However I think they have all been necessary. While I had the caulking out I spent 2 hours trying to seal every other little nook and cranny around the house so hopefully that helps out some. I think I am finally getting close to ready for the winter.

 

When the wind howls, and it's 20 below... whatever temp you got going on at the time inside... will be easier to maintain by far. That'll be a mighty sweet feeling long after you forgot what a PITA the job was...

 

Looks good to me, I had the problem of the access not being heavy enough to press as firmly as I wanted on the foam weatherstripping also, I ended up running a line or two of Mortite around it, not too attractive but my access is hidden, maybe there is white mortite.

 

You hired an infidel to insulate your attic instead

 

Built a box to go over the top of some attic pulldown stairs in a rental house I had... Plywood and foamboard attached.. Built a similar one for my sister's house. Here's the basic box. Didn't get final pics of the whole thing installed. Did 4 inches of foam board on the side and 6 inches on the top. The big difference is made by cutting the airflow of warm air escaping to the attic. Not too hard to move for attic access when needed.

 

That's almost exactly how I built my attic access, works great. When I get into the attic for Christmas decorations every winter, it's like being in a wind tunnel while standing in the access hole. Definitely best to stop the air leaks there.

 

I predict your wood usage will go down by 1/3, cooling bill too.
Attic insulation is the best bang for your buck and relatively easy to install. Pays you back year after year.

 

We did the same thing last fall. It made a HUGE difference.