[Greenbuilding] attic insulation in Seattle house

Erin Rasmussen erin at trmiles.com
Sat Nov 12 16:10:15 CST 2011


Well I live in Portland, and I used rolls of insulation instead of blowing
it in (actually, I was fixing a previous attempt and adding insulation) and
I found that restoring the flow of soffit ventilation really helped my
house. It had been blocked intentionally, but then when I did a better job
of sealing barrier between the living space and the attic space, and
restoring the airflow from under the eaves out through the attic ventilation
it solved a lot of humidity problems I'd been having in the floor of the
house, and along the walls on the ground floor , and the air felt warmer,
and less stuffy in the living areas over all.

 

My house is a different vintage, but I think that the house was originally
designed for natural draft ventilation has a lot to do with it. 

Erin 

 

From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Sacie
Lambertson
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 6:14 PM
To: Greenbuilding
Cc: Dan
Subject: [Greenbuilding] attic insulation in Seattle house

 

All, I would appreciate advice.  I am going to Seattle to help our son
install insulation in an unconditioned attic in a 1906 house that has been
completely upgraded with insulation everywhere except the attic.  (As an
aside, I was amazed to find in Seattle NO pre-50s houses on the market had
attic insulation and most had none in the walls either--pretty amazing).

We plan to carefully seal any openings between the conditioned space below
and the attic, then blow in however much cellulose we need.

J. Listiburek is quite adamant about the need for a wash of air via
continuous soffit ventilation when insulating this way.  But no one in the
Seattle marine climate has continuous soffits vents.  What is our
alternative?  What else should we be concerned about?  Ice dams btw are not
a problem in Seattle.

L. doesn't like one to store anything in the attic either, but if one has
walk-in space up there, why not?  What are the considerations here?

Thanks,  Sacie

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