I'm trying to hit the best bang for buck upgrades in this house. I plan on selling it but not sure when. So I don't want to invest a lot and turn around in 2 years and not make a good ROI. That being said, it could be many years before I move and doing some basic upgrades should make it more comfortable while I am here and help on heating costs. About the house... 1900 cape cod, 32x24 with knee-walled upstairs and a short cellar underneath. Addition in 1990, 22x36 2-story with full block basement. The house is tee shaped. Probably the biggest heat loss is the upstairs of the old side. I recently found out why - one half of it has no insulation on the knee wall or ceiling. This room has old plaster and lath walls. There are fiberglass batts on the floor on the attic side of the knee wall. The other room upstairs they did renovate recently before we purchased the house. It has drywall, and they used fb batts everywhere... the floor, walls, ceiling, and even eves and roof. It was not ventilated, and they also sealed everything up with plastic sheets and it has collected moisture and some of it will need removed. Anyhow I am going to focus on the uninsulated part as it is a pass through bedroom, which includes heat... heat has to go through the uninsulated room to get to the room on the end that is my sons bedroom. And during the coldest couple months of winter it is often low 50's up there, even 40's. That't with both out pellet stove running (directly below that room) and Jotul Rockland in the new side of the house. Here is a sketch, to scale best I could. This is the upstairs of the old side of the house. 2 bedrooms labeled North and South (N-BR, S-BR). The S-BR was the one remodeled with studded walls and insulation, and they made it wider. I've got some advice recently and had a few directions I could go. Trying to add insulation to what I had, or gut it and start over. I've pretty much decided to gut it. I'll remove the plaster walls and re-stud interior walls to match the width of the other room and use drywall. I can't remember exactly if the roof truses were 4" or 6" but they were not very thick, and the ceiling is right up against them. So if I tear it down and its only 4" I could add some 2x2 strips to increase the amount of insulation I could put in the bays. I also need to decide if I am going to ventilate the attic. I'd like to, but it wouldn't be ideal no matter what I did without a more major renovation. There are no eaves, and only one gable end is exposed (the other is up against the 2 story addition). And the bedroom that is already renovated is hot roofed. So I could cut two vents in the south facing gable end, and add some roof vents over the north bedroom. Not sure if its worth it, or if I should just seal it all up. I've read a lot and got the most info so far from http://www.energysmartohio.com/blog/how-to-insulate-and-ventilate-knee-wall-attics I've learned most importantly I need to air seal the cavities under the knee walls, so some foam board and expanding foam I think I'll use for that. The floor already has FG batts so that's ok, I might add more, and re purpose the ones I remove from setting the walls further out. I'll try to spray foam around fixtures and other air leaks into the attic space. I'm unsure what exactly to do on the sloped ceiling. If I ventelate I'll probably need those baffle pieces that put an inch air gap. Then FG batts? Maybe 1" foam board over that then drywall ontop of the foam board? The link I posted above also suggests covering exposed FG with a radiant barrier. Is this what they are talking about? http://www.menards.com/main/buildin.../4-x-125-radiant-barrier/p-1993951-c-5778.htm They mention it only for the knee wall but whats the difference with the FG batts on the floor with exposed surfaces? It does get REALLY hot on a bright summer day up there, the bedroom ceiling can get over 110ยบ on a bright summer day (on the interior side). Just for clarification here is a cross section pic: Red lines I plan on using FG batts, radiant barrier (at least on the vertical part) with air sealing underneath. Yellow part use vent baffles (if I decided to vent the attic) then FG, 1" foam board, then drywall. The little mini attic at the top will be where roof vent goes if I decide to vent, otherwise I'll pack as much insulation as I can up there. Right now all there is up there is FG batts on the horizontal part of the red lines. Everything else is uninsulated. I'll try to also air seal under the knee walls in the other bedroom that was more recently remodeled. I also plan on removing the stairway, as it is unused and makes the attic non-continuous. The north end of the upstairs adjoins the upstairs of the addition and that's how we go up there. I'll lose how a lot of heat comes up though, so may install some floor vents. I'll have to check local code but I've seen houses around here have them. I've been recommended to get this: http://www.menards.com/main/paint/c...14-foam-sealant-gun/p-1473359.htm?cm_vc=PDPZ1 But I noticed the 'pro' great stuff cans are $15 / 24oz versus the regular cans at $2.50 / 12oz. Wow that's 3X the price! Is the stuff in the pro cans actually 3x better or is the only difference the fact you can use it in the fancy spray gun? Any other advice or suggestions? I've never done any home improvements to this scale but always wanted to do something bigger like this. I'm fairly handy, just need info on how to do something and I can usually do it.
