Why Insulating is hard - if you do a good job, that is.

Today I am not loving my insulation project so much. Today the job is very difficult. Today I don't like my insulation very much at all, but what I did today, had to be done.

First here are some photos of the current state of insulation in my attic. Not very effective insulation. The paper "vapor barrier" has seriously deteriorated. The second photo shows the insulation near my chimney. I dread insulating around that because you have to install a fire barrier before you can put insulation outside of the fire barrier and that's despite the face that I don't use my fireplaces. What you cannot tell from these photos is that the tallest point is about 4 ft. It is extremely difficult crawling around in there.

Older fiberglass insulation from the 50s

Ok, so here is the worst place to insulate. It is over my outdoor front porch and there are obvious air leaks and no insulation. In addition, the attic ceiling height might be 2 feet at best. You will be bonking your head on the rafters.

This view is looking straight down at those gaps. I'm going to put a small piece of foam board there to seal that area.

Remember the most important principle in applying effective insulation is air sealing before insulation. Otherwise your insulation just functions as an air filter.

So I caulked all around in this area of my front porch ceiling today. No after photos because I was so covered in caulk that I could not pull out my iPhone to take a picture.

Also, here's helpful hint. Caulk the area that is away from you first so you don't have to crawl through the just applied caulk to get to the distant area. You will be much happier if you do that.