Insulating the Front Attic

This weekend we finally insulated the second knee wall attic along the front of our house. Before it was filled with old blown in cellulose that was no longer doing the job and the walls had thin batts of insulation with paper backing.

So I donned my jumpsuit and headlamp and shoveled out all the old insulation, all 18 bags of it. This time around instead of carrying the bags though the house, Tom lowered them out the second bedroom window. Less dust equals a slightly happier husband during a reno. Then I vacuumed to make it even more clean in the attic

After a trip to Home Depot for 5 bags of insulation, I put in the wall batts and covered them with vapour barrier. This time we tried something different, I left the vapour barrier full width so it covers the wall, then continues onto the floor and about 18” up the other side wall. Hopefully this will help trap in the heat even more. 

 Finally we added insulation to the floor, the simplest and fastest portion of this project.

 Oh and I also attached some insulation and vapour barrier to the inside of the access door.

And now we know: this was definitely worth doing ourselves. We actually got a quote and it would have been $1200 just to remove the old stuff, never mind put in new. It was only about $250 for the new insulation and my labour is free!

Glad that is over though. I enjoy working on the house and I even don’t mind working in the attic, but the safety gear you have to wear is ridiculous and makes you so hot. Also the husband is so antsy about the dust