Fine Home Building Insulating Knee Walls Roof

We reduced the air leakage nearly 50 on this house in shaker heights without insulating the walls.

Fine home building insulating knee walls roof.

If you are designing or building a new cape you shouldn t have to worry about the air sealing and insu lation problems discussed here as long as you plan from day one to include an insulated sloped roof assembly that brings the attic and kneewall spaces inside the home s thermal barrier. Enough of each tie remained exposed to anchor the stone facing to the concrete wall. Another alternative for knee walls conditions is to remove and reinstall the batt insulation to qii standards. We prefer cellulose but we use fiberglass sometimes too.

In tight attics or odd shaped wall conditions i e. An unvented assembly can perform well but it s important to get the details right to avoid sheathing rot. There are many ways to build an insulated sloped roof. Air permeable insulation such as fiberglass batts dense packed cellulose or blown in fiberglass can t be used alone for an unvented assembly since these types of insulation can allow moist indoor air to reach the cold roof sheathing leading to condensation or moisture accumulation.

Kneewalls short walls under sloped ceilings are common in story and a half homes and in bonus rooms above garages. Insulating the knee wall with rigid foam keeps stone and cement which are poor insulators from conducting cold and dampness into the greenhouse. Added bonus the floor of this knee wall leaked too so there is a line of foam just above the floor joist. In finished attic rooms with or without dormer insulate 2a between the studs of knee walls 2b between the studs and rafters of exterior walls and roof 2c and ceilings with cold spaces above.

Insulating only the attic roof rafters and the walls at the end of the attic is one method some use to insulate the knee wall area underneath but carson dunlop author of principles of home. There are several common types of rigid foam insulation each with different pros and cons. Few building materials have been embraced by so many builders as rigid foam insulation certainly there are builders who avoid it but rigid foam can be used everywhere from beneath a basement slab to the rooftop and that versatility gets it into a lot of residential projects. Thick rigid foam insulation onto the metal ties.

2d extend insulation into joist space to reduce air flows. Although kneewalls can help turn attics into living space they often present insulation challenges most builders install fiberglass batts between the studs and some type of blown insulation between the floor joists.