So, I seem to end up talking about my insulation issues in other people's threads a bit to often, so I'll get a new one going. Everybody who's done any remodeling and/or insulating should feel free to chime in here (BBar, are you there?). I have a very good idea of what needs to be done, but I'm sort of working on a skinny shoestring budget right now. This will be a long term project, and I need to finish one room at a time. I'll try documenting as I go, if anybody is interested enough, but pics may be tough from the attic.
An example of my need to get more insulation in the attic: House was 67 this morning with an outside temp of about 22 @7:30. Plenty of coals in the stove for a restart, so I had a good overnight burn, with the stove @300. Put in 2 medium splits, and got the stove to 550-600 for about 1.5 hrs, then let it cruise on down to 300 again by 10:30. In that time, the house lost about 3 degrees, so I put 5 splits in the stove, outside temp @26. I expect the house to be back to 70 by about 11:30 or a little later with the stove @ 500 right now. House will drop to mid-upper 60's by 2 or so, I'm guessing. I'm always curious how other folks stoves run, and how long their homes hold heat.
I've been tracking heat loss/hour compared to outside temp and sunshine much more closely lately. Today the house was 76 this am after an overnight burn, so I had no fire during the day, 30 degrees out all day and no sun, was down to 70 in about 6 hours. The house is 10 years old 2200 sqft of living space, another 700 sqft of insulated space in the basement where the stove is with average insulation but very "tight". I was pretty pleased with that, but still plan on blowing in some cellulose in the attic.
Well, there's R11 batts with at least a couple inches of loose vermiculite on top of that. The vermiculite is different depths in different parts of the attic, and it's somewhat crushed the batts. Pretty much didn't really add anything worth much. I had an hour or so today, so I pulled some more of the old stuff out, cleaned out the soffits, put up baffles, then stapled up R19 batts. There's a bunch of other stuff up there that needs to get pulled out (old boards, etc.). That's the next step in the stove room attic.
Not sure what your roof setup is with the soffits, but I ended up re- fitting new rafter vents. I used raft-r-mate from Owens Corning, because they have a baffle built into the vent that bends down and gets stapled to the top plate. They really helped with redirecting the cold air from the soffit up the rafter instead of into the fiberglass bats. Before I did this I would get ice forming on the drywall at the wall/ceiling.
My house was built ~80-81, typical Cape but being down south only 2x4 exterior walls. When I gutted it from the outside due to termite damage in the siding I found Jimmy Carter Styrofoam board sheathing and random acts of R-13 bat insulation - anywhere a full length cut was required it was omitted. After replacing everything with 7/16" OSB Tyvek and Hardiboard, along with Pella double panes and new doors the house became a lot less drafty. Even the coldest/windiest of days here I've never seen the back hallway drop below 66 that's with a dead cold stove, typical overnight I wake to 68-70 and reload before I leave for work and can achieve 76 within an hour or so(when I'm burning - GF maybe 72) I wish I could fix the insulation on the eve spaces to the first floor ceiling as I found R-11 sorta laid in between the joists when I remodeled the kitchen - that space has r-30 now
What is the budget you are working with? Blowing in seems like the easiest way to go. With my attic I had 550 square feet of area that could use blown-in. I had a few bats hap haphazardly thrown around up in the attic (I'm serious, it was like they just randomly unrolled some bats and thought "good enough."). So I rearrange the bats and condensed them into one area at the end of the third section. I then closed off an old stairwell in the third section with some plywood. Then I blew in the insulation. It was really easy to do. It is a two person job and does not take long to do. I went through about 32 bags and brought everything up to R38-R49. I plan on buying 20-30 more bags and getting everything up to R60. It was about $400 for 32 bags. You mentioned your attic was tough to move around in, so, blown-in seems like the way to go for you.
Got back in the attic today and discovered (after moving a bunch of old boards and the insulated flex) that the other side of the stove room attic space doesn't have any loose vermiculite. So, moved the crap out, and got out of there. I can now do the rest from the room. I'm thinking now of doing R-19, then R-30 perpendicular to that, giving me R-49. Or, would R-38 suffice? How do all ya'all fit this down at the top of the wall/rafter junction? Just smoosh it in there, or cut to fit? I now have baffles in the rafter bays, but discovered the roofers (roof done in 2007) didn't cut back for the ridge vent they installed. I have gable vents too. Sort of pizzed off right now.
You are in northern Michigan. For that zone, R60 is recommended based on what I read. After manipulating the bats and then blowing in insulation, blown-in seems far, far easier.
Used to be R-49. Gotta be a point of diminishing returns. I'd like access to the Class A, although once done, I shouldn't need to get in there again. Famous last words, eh?
Went crawling around in other areas to see what the rest of the attic insulation looked like. Man, WTH? Main area above the kitchen and part of the living room has a paper backed stuff that feels like coarse hair. Problem is that it's not even filling the cavities, and the paper is on the cold side. I'll need to take a flashlight or worklight with me next time to see better. Looks like the area next to the stove room can just get another layer of either blown in or batts on top of what's there. Oh, and the bathroom exhaust fan blows right into the attic. WTH is wrong with people? Out of sight, out of mind, I guess. Jeesh.
Dave what is the status of the wall insulation? Sounds like the attic needs blown in insulation and if the walls are half azzed as well punching holes in the exterior and filling them up as well could do wonders. If you do go blown in keep the soffet vents clear they sell cardboard inserts but cut cardboard boxes will work as well - the price on that prefab crap is ridiculous
Yep, I had to stick my hand down in the soffits while in the attic to get some loose stuff. Like I mentioned though, it doesn't look as though the ridge was cut back for the ridge vent, so I may need to redo that next year if I still get ice dams. I've avoided most of the damming by using a snow rake all winter....more fun than I plan to have when there's 1.5-2' of snow in the yard.
This is the 2nd room I've torn down to the studs and found that the R-11 in the walls has shrunk to about 60% of it's original depth. All the wall insulation will be redone after I seal up anything I can find to seal. Went to the HD today and got some R-30 for the stove room to put on top of the R-19 that I put in there already. Hoping to get this room done before the weekend is done and see some good results. Cold's coming.
Did some more work on the attic insulation today, and got to where the front porch light was going to be easier to rework now rather than later. Spent more time looking for all the tools I needed than it did to rewire (I'm adding a motion light pointed at the woodshed) for the new light. Ran out of steam about 4:30, so I'll have to finish the last 2 strips and baffles tomorrow, then get into the attic with the R-30 I picked up yesterday. I meant to grab 5 rolls, but only picked up 4, so that won't quite get done until I make another trip to HD. Need to get the light too. Didn't plan to do the light until later, so didn't get one. I'd like an LED version, but they're still kind of pricey. I'll keep looking.
The ridge vent really only matters if you plan on sealing the rafters from the sill plate to ridge line. I'd guess you have gable end vents - louvered wooden ones? The full ridge vent will keep temps down in the summer and extend the life of the shingles, it won't do much for ice dams - that's where the soffets being clear is key. As for lights I'd stick with standard floods for exterior, CFL's take quite a while to warm up and the LED's haven't come far enough to justify the price point. If it were a light that was being used a lot(interior) I'd say yeah but exterior motion sensor - you want it on and bright when you want it on
