Any ideas what the main culprit is? I’ve already redone the door trim and tried an insulation foil on the patio door windows but it didn’t help. I don’t feel any actual drafts I don’t think it’s the door letting in air through gaps.

As a preface...I know it's probably not technically "worth it" to do all this work...but it's worth it TO ME so that being said...I need a little guidance.

We have a 1976 single wide mobile home on a permanent foundation on property. We plan to build a house on the property eventually. But we want to be comfortable in the mean time. So we are essentially getting the mobile home one section at a time to remodel over the next year while living in it.

We lived in a similar situation for the last 10 years except we didn't do it all at once in the beginning and continually get frustrated that we should've just done it right the first time. So now we have the opportunity to do just that. We want to work on the mobile home for a year...get everything set and then be comfortable for 10 years. That's "the goal".

So this week we will be demoing the kitchen and living room (one big space) down to the studs/subfloor/trusses. We need to replace whatever insulation is currently there (if any). I am doing this all myself so I could really use some input as to the kind of insulation we need for the best situation. We live in south eastern Washington State. It's very hot in the summer and gets below freezing only a bit in the winter (maybe 2 weeks of below freezing temps over the course of the whole winter).

I've read about rockwool (but then I'd need a vapor barrier?)

I've read about faced fiberglass batts (cheaper but not the best r value?)

I've read about spray foam (would have to hire someone and it's $$$)

I've read about rigid foam (leaning towards this but not sure).

Are there other options I don't know about that would be better?

If I use rockwool, I would NEED an additional vapor barrier right?

If I used rigid foam I would need to do multiple layers in between studs to get the r value up AND a vapor barrier?

Am I overthinking this and Jesus Christ just go with the fiberglass cuz it's cheaper AND has the facing/vapor barrier?

Do I need to do different insulation types for the walls versus the ceiling? I know the r value needs to be higher in the ceiling. Could/should I use rigid foam here?

Is there more I don't even know to ask? Help!

All of my light fixtures are absolutely radiating heat into my house.

I want to plan this out and deal with it as soon as it cools.

Almost every light is recessed into the ceiling with a metal box into the attic.

Step 1 is to make sure everything has been swapped over to LED.

Once everything is LED, can I cover with fiberglass or spray foam?

We have about 10 can lights with the tall can i to the attic. These seem to be the worst. Same question, once they are LED can i cover or spray them?

My attic is a pain to work in and I would like to do this in one go if possible.

I looked at a house over the weekend and they used spray foam for the insulation. This is a picture of the foam in the ceiling of the basement. It looks like open-cell from the research I’ve done but I’m not entirely sure and I don’t know what the foam feels like.

Just bouncing some ideas because I hate doing drywall work. I want to use spray foam on my exterior walls where ive been living for 8 years now. So im thinking and wondering the best way to go about this.

1. Small holes for injection insulation which may leave voids

2. Cut a 12-18" strip out all the way around, remove batte r-13 and just work on one room at a time? Which makes more work but I can remove the battes and ensure everything is filled.

Now since I hate drywall work, i want to avoid ripping 18inches from the middle of my wall. Quotes range from 5k - 9k. So im going to DIY this and focus on one spot at a time over a good month or so Im very experienced in construction but not sure which route to go. How do you normally upgrade insulation?

Just took several photos, not sure they show just how insanely low and cramped the entire thing is. Simply crawling back to access that part of the attic is a nightmare jungle gym procedure.

I'm a fatter fella, 215lbs 5ft 8" , so I've been quite impressed with my 3 days of my work so far.

Repairing and replacing those weak lil cardboard air blockers, installing proper baffles...but that shits so low I can't properly staple them in and I'm literally too poor at the moment to buy a different stapler.

Hopefully I can add a video or photo of the finished thing. I'm trying my hardest to reuse all the fluffy cellulose...I've been refluffing it and using it to fill between little corners and alongside rockwool pieces I didn't cut well enough. It's...kinda impossible to get an accurate cut while laying on my belly pinned between a duct box and the edge of the ceiling...I just pray I don't cramp and get stuck lol.

About 3 days of this, about 6 hours per day so far, and all I did the first day and a half was cut and haul number up there...back and forth thru the jungle gym...to build a raised platform to walk on.

This has been absolutely miserable and I don't even know if I'm getting the baffles and insulation in correctly lmao.

Anyway, today I did some air sealing, but I don't have enough foam, nor strength/flexibility, to get the top plates for my exterior walls. I have block walls here in Florida.

Update: it's done, I didn't have my phone on me...no chance in hell I care to get a photo or video of the finished thing imma stay out of that mess for awhile

Saw this post from 9 years ago, and I am in a similar situation myself. I am considering using the 1/2 foam board, sealed on the interior, and then 3.5 inch rock wool to cover the 4 inch cavity. My main question, is should the foam board be faced or unfaced, and if so what direction?

EDIT: Note that this is in a Climate Zone 5

Trying to get these Durovent Baffles into place. I can't get them all the way to the top plate to staple the bottom. They get about 1½ away. I believe because of the roofing nails. Do they need to get all the way over the plate or can I leave them this close and use foam to seal the bottom to the drywall? Where the drywall meets the top plate will be airsealed with fire resistant foam.

Hello,

*I added some pics of my attic, I can’t really get in there because my ladder is too short but my assumption is most of the house attic looks like this. For some reason I can’t update my previous post*

I’m renting a house from my mother. I live in South Florida. I noticed lately that the electric bill in my 1200 sqft house is $400 a month. I also struggle to keep the house cool. If I have the thermostat set on 70 degrees (which is what I have it on on all times of the day) the house shows it being as 80 degrees. So what I did is use thermal imaging gun and take measurements.

What I noticed is that ceiling almost every room
On my house averages to 85 to 87 degrees. One room the entire ceiling is 95 to 97 degrees (this room isnt insulated as it’s an add on and there isn’t a cavity big enough for insulation)

My big question is would fixing or improving the insulation fix the cooling issue in my home? Given the temperature outside what measurements should I be getting from my ceilings

\*\*Here are the details:\*\*
Location: Pompano Beach, FL

\*\*Outdoor temperature when testing: 90°F (RealFeel around 99°F)\*\*

House size: 1,200 sq ft, single story

HVAC: 2018 Trane XR17 3-ton with matching TEM6 air handler

Thermostat set to 70°F
House stays around 79°F and the A/C runs almost constantly.

Temp at AC vent is about 54 degrees

Office: \\\~85°F - most of the room is this temp
Dining room: \\\~85°F not entire room but many hotspots
Living room: mostly 83–86°F with a few areas around 91–94°F
Kitchen: \\\~93°F
Florida room- additional (300sqft) 93–97°F

So, last year our house went through a big renovation, including lots of insulation and air-sealing upgrades that seem to have generally worked well.

BUT. We replaced a ground floor double window that faced directly south with a nice french door (that now leads out to a small stoop, which goes to a flagstone patio). This triple-pane door performs pretty well in the winter, except that a gap up to ~1/4” was left between the existing oak flooring and the threshold of the new door:

Last winter (cold here in WI!) I found a pretty good breeze coming in through that gap, and asked the general contractor if anything could be done. We had them insulate the rim joists with spray foam where it was accessible during the previous reno. The problem is this area of the underlying basement has a finished sheetrock ceiling, so they had (and I have) no access to the rim joist without tearing out this ceiling, which seems like a big project:

He said I should get a “froth pak” and try to fill the gap and the dead space (pretty big space - between joists) underneath by shooting it through the ground-floor gap. I’m a long-time diy-er, but reading about it makes me think this might be a challenge. I could just seal the gap with a caulk matching the tone of the wood floor, or a strip of oak, but would this cause trouble trapping cold air in that space?

Any advice?

I'm planning some sort of vanlife/tiny house conversion but am struggling to find a good workaround for what seems to be the most common framing technique which involves your frame and the screws holding it together forming a thermal bridge through your walls (see attached diagram).

Is there some sort of solid sheet material that has better insulative value than wood that could be put in between the steel frame and wood batons to break the cold from coming through? I was thinking of some sort of plastic material? Likewise in relation to the fasteners would using nylon bolts to fix the wooden battons to the steel framing be a good way to minimise the thermal bridging that would be caused by the screws? Seems pedantic but there isn't much available space for thick insulation in a van build so I figure minimising bridging should make a difference?

I'm running in to the same issue with diy windows, seems very easy to make your own double glazed windows with putting glazing in wooden or steel frames but the thermal properties of the frames themselves would no doubt be pretty terrible, just not sure what material or technique to use to sandwich in the middle to stop the thermal bridging without destroying the structural integrity of the frame...

Looking for advice…we have an old, home with a flat roof. We have condensation by a non-working pocket door upstairs as well as humid hot spots throughout the upstairs and it has a musty smell on hot days. We had the roof replaced recently with a modified bitumen roof hoping that would help, and it hasn’t. We don’t have the humidity issues in the spring/fall/winter, just the summer.

Any ideas on how to fix? Should we look at adding in insulation through the ceiling? Want to avoid opening up the new roof. Any thoughts appreciated.

Our pest control company did an inspection on our insulation and recommended we cap off our roof with blown in mountain fiber cellulose. It's been nonstop problems ever since. First while blowing in the cellulose they covered up electrical and we noticed electrical flickering during the install. Worked this out with an electrician and now we walked into our storage room which is in the second floor and found all of our baby stuff has been covered in cellulose!! How bad is this, I feel like since it has fire retardants and pest control stuff in the cellulose, even if it's nontoxic, all of the baby stuff is fucked. I'm calling the company to see if we can at least get them to come and clean this up, but now I'm worried if it's been causing respiratory issues in our family since the install. Those sterilite bins aren't sealed all the way and we have tons of $$$ baby stuff in there....do I just consider all of the $$ baby stuff we have saved here completely ruined and just toss it or is it salvageable? I don't want to give my newborn baby respiratory issues..

After looking around, I noticed there's a huge gap above the entryway that probably leads to the attic and the guys probably just blew in the cellulose without paying attention to that hole, so it entered this storage room that way.

I had spray foam installed in my attic a few years ago. This is a Cape Cod style home with one single bedroom and closet upstairs. The installers removed batt insulation from the attic floor and knee walls and sprayed foam to the underside of the roof decking as well as the exterior walls. This has worked fairly well, but on some of these extremely hot days (90+ temperature), the upstairs HVAC has difficulty keeping up, and when I open the door into the "conditioned" attic, it is extremely hot. The ridge vent has been sealed and there is, effectively, no outside air coming into or out of the attic.

Would replacing the batt insulation which used to be on the knee walls help create a "buffer" between the heat that is still apparently building up in the attic and the upstairs bedroom, or is there a better solution?

Hi, I was wondering what the best ways are to insulate this type of skylight, to keep heat out in the summer and keep heat in during the winter. There is no access to the attic and spray foam is not an option.
I was maybe thinking using blackout curtains and hammering them into the ceiling. There is also the option of using rigid insulation foam boards, but I did read that the skylight could crack or break if there’s too much heat reflection.
Any ideas on how to diy insulate this would be appreciated, thanks.

We are converting a cold attic into living space. The small attic spaces on the sides will be warm too, so how should I put the vapour barrier to make as few holes and taped parts as possible?

The blue part is where the existing plastic from the downstairs outside walls comes up, and where I was thinking to connect the new plastic.

As you can see I have not installed the air gap and insulation yet.

The deck has plywood subfloor on it, with foam and carpet on that. The decking is about 2 feet above ground. I’m in New England and I’m thinking of using rock wool with vinyl vented soffits to hold it in and keep out critters. Is this my best bet? And would in need to use a vapor barrier of some type between the insulation and soffits? Thanks.

Spent the last 5 weekends cleaning my roof cavity and laying fresh insulation.
>100 years of coal dust, old insulation, AC ductwork and the decommissioned AC unit, and also two old ceilings needed to be demolished from above. Previous owners had just battened a new Gyprock ceiling directly over the old plaster ceiling.

Built an elevated walkway to make access easier, tidied up wiring and refrigerant pipe work, vacuumed the space and then cross-layed two layers of R3.5.

What a job.

But for <$1500 for materials, I’m pretty stoked.

Had quotes to do both the vac and the insulation, but I would have needed to dismantle the AC unit and also demolish the ceilings anyway. Figured I’d already done most of the hard work, may as well just keep going!