I have a 1 1/2 storey Craftsman house. The closets on each side of the upstairs master bedroom consist of the roof slope and kneewalls. The attic is somewhat insulated but the frost on the closet walls and ceiling this winter tells me that the roof sections are not. Short of tearing out the plaster and lathe (the closets are big!) to insulate what are my “insulate in place” options for the roof and knee wall space? I would be happy to punch as many easy to patch holes as needed I just don’t want to have to drywall both closets and loose the original plaster. Thanks.
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Greetings farmhouse, as a first time poster Welcome to Breaktime.
Old 1 1/2 storey farmhouse complete with original plaster lathe and looking for an easy out I see. Sometimes one can get lucky.
What type of insulation is in there now and what part of the country you are in is info that will help decipher your
predicament and hopefully arrive with some worthwhile opinions.
"Live Free,
not Die"
Thanks for the welcome and the questions. The floor of the attic has some loose fill insulation but with some existing knob and tube wiring I don't plan to add any more. The good news is that the knob and tube wiring doesn't run into the spaces I want to insulate. I have looked down into the spaces over the closets and there does not appear to be any insulation.
We live in central Iowa with mature trees on the south side but marginal wind protection on the north. Predominant winds are from the NW in the winter and with our shelter belt a good 100 yards away the wind can really suck the heat from the house. I was hoping there was some way to fill these spaces via access from the attic. This construction style does not have a vented eave. I am assuming that loose fill would attract moisture and fail eventually. I am also assuming that foam would act as my vapor barrier if I can fill the space. Thanks.
Farmhouse
Yes, unfortunately the best thing to do now is inquire in the archives to familiarize yourself with the up to date approaches that answer your questions.
If there were just one button to push to provide you with the singlemost quick and easy solution I would press it.
If you scroll down in the lower left corner of your screen there is a search function that will take you to previous threads dealing with whatever you type in the search bar.
If you type in 'dense pack' 'cellulose', 'wall insulation' or other keywords of the subject matter you'll get a supply of data from those old threads.
There is much information contained in the archives. There may even be an identical situation discussed. Good Luck.
Cheers"Live Free, not Die"
Thanks razz. I don't mind going through the archives. I'm sure it will help in finding the best solution and now that the weather is starting to get warmer I have until next fall to get my act together for next winter.
Farmhouse
When you have an entire day free, do a search on "dense pack cellulose" in Breaktime. You will get hours of cutting edge info. My take would be to dense pack the kneewalls tight behind the closets then do the cathedral ceilings after. But, its a thorny issue as you will discover.