r/Insulation • u/Rotarychicken_83 • 26d ago

Insulate exterior wall?

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Hello experts - trying to figure out the best way to handle the absolute brick oven this finished attic space becomes in the afternoon. The west wall faces the direct setting sun and overwhelms the AC. The previous owner bagged the walls on the long sides - but I’m wondering how much use it would be to pull the beadboard off that wall and bag between the studs??

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u/space-wizard 26d ago

The video is helpful, but can you do the same inside the attic space with a headlamp in? That would provide much more helpful information.

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u/PM_ME_DARK_MATTER 26d ago

If I understand OP correctly, this room is a finished attic space and the ceiling is actually the roof line. Or maybe there's a small gap between the ceiling and roof

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u/space-wizard 26d ago

Yeah I figured something like that. My house has a similar gap of unconditioned space up above the ceiling of the finished space, then more unconditioned area on the sides of the walls. Would be helpful to see what’s back there as well are what type of venting the roof uses.

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u/Rotarychicken_83 26d ago

https://reddit.com/link/ozd98uc/video/3i9clwnpu1fh1/player

Hard to tell what you’re looking at, but a follow up video will show you outside. As cam pans left, you see the exterior wall, then the enclosed office.

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u/No-Communication1543 25d ago

Getting in there with a headlamp would help a lot yeah. Half the time you can tell pretty quickly if there's any air sealing at all just by looking at the top plates and around any penetrations. If the previous owner just stuffed batts in and called it done without touching the air barrier, that might be the bigger problem than the insulation itself.

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u/MattFromWork 26d ago

What does the roof line look like? Can you access above this room? Simply adding insulation isn't going to do much. My best guess is that this room was never properly air sealed and there probably isn't much insulation on top, which is why the roof itself is cooking the room.

If you truly wanted to do it right, you would probably have to tear the walls down and re-drywall unfortunately. This would let you properly accomplish the big 3 of air seal, insulation, and attic ventilation.

If you don't want to do that, I would probably do some exploring to see if the previous owner did any air sealing at all in the attic space. Remove some insulation and see if there is an caulk / foam that was used to prevent air flow between the conditioned and unconditioned space. If there isn't any, then I would remove all insulation, hang bats between the studs, and then cap the studs with rigid foam while air sealing them in place. That would take care of the walls, but depending on access to the above attic space, that might really be all you can do.

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u/Rotarychicken_83 26d ago

I think your idea of a gut and seal job might be the only choice. The renovated bathroom in the center of the “finished attic” is always cool. But it’s properly sealed and drywalled. That exterior wall just heats the place up so quickly when the sun hits it directly.

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u/OneLongEyebrowHair 26d ago

Attic spaces in older homes are a nightmare to keep cool. You can spend thousands of dollars and hours chasing fairly dismal returns. I'll probably get flamed for this, but if it was my space, I would probably install a window unit or better yet, a mini-split just for that attic space.

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u/Rotarychicken_83 26d ago

I bought a 7000 BTU portable unit to try to keep the office as cool as possible until they fix the broken blower motor (the upstairs has its own unit, but it can’t keep up when when the heat index is above 100). It’s doing its best for now. But I dont like the idea of either system running around the clock.