like a big hole in your ceiling is actually many smaller holes and gaps hiding under insulation and lurking around chimneys, pipes and fixtures. And this will keep sucking out your heated air, along with your energy bill dollars, until you find and seal these smaller holes.
Attic Sealing Strategies:
- Make a sketch of your floorplan. Mark the furnace or chimney flue and plumbing pipes. These will be your primary reference points in the attic.
- On your sketch, mark the location of soffits located over bath vanities or cabinets, mark any dropped-ceilings, and mark slanted ceilings over stairways. Often these areas have open areas between studs and will be a major source for heat loss. These areas are an important strategy in attic sealing.
- Start with the largest holes. Following your sketch, find where walls (inner and outer) in the room below meet the attic floor.
- If your attic has kneewalls, check behind them to determine if there are gaps and if these areas require additional insulation.
- Look for any insulation that is dirty or dusty. This will be a sign of air blowing into the attic.
- Use expanding spray foam insulation for sealing gaps between a quarter inch and 3 inches.
- Use acrylic latex or silicone caulk for holes less than one-quarter inch.
- Use unfaced fiberglass insulation for filling stud cavities in dropped ceiling areas or behind kneewalls.
- Use rolled insulation with reflective foil to cover open walls and large holes.
- Use a special high-temperature silicone caulk and aluminum flashing to seal around a heated flue or chimney.
- Seal and insulate the attic access door. Attach a section of insulation or foam board to the attic side of the door. Glue or staple it in place, and add self-stick foam weatherstripping around the edges.
Contact the heating and cooling experts at Geisel to help you plug that huge hole in your ceiling. They have been helping with attic sealing around the Greater Cleveland area for 75 years.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Geisel Heating, Air Conditioning and Plumbing services Western Cleveland. To get started, check out our website.
