Batts Which Direction Attic Knee Wall

Knee walls are short usually wooden walls installed around the sides of an attic where the rafters meet the floor.

Batts which direction attic knee wall.

The shortest distance from the top of the knee wall to the top of the outside wall beneath is still along the roof line and you avoid having to insulate the floor behind the knee wall. There are arguments about shingle life over a hot roof vs vented but shingle color is more significant and as already stated one can install ventilation chutes. You ve added yet another nail in the coffin of the archaic kraft facing retarder barrier system. Install a top and bottom plate or blocking at the top and bottom of all knee wall cavities.

If the knee walls are sharing space with an attic that already has radiant barrier on the rafters then the room on the other side of the knee wall is already benefiting from not gaining heat. Wall and knee wall insulation. You can see the image below for an example of a knee wall. I ve got some kneewalls that i d like to beef up.

However if you are in a cold climate then adding radiant barrier to the attic side of the knee wall will help the room retain heat in the winter. 1000 2000 cfm50 reductions are fairly common with this method. Kneewalls are commonly found in attics especially in attics that have been converted to living space but they can be difficult to insulate properly. Installation instructions tthis section provides info on how to install insulation it contains specific information on installation details for wall and knee wall insulation that will assist with proper installation to meet resnet grade 1 criteria for fiberglass and mineral wool batt insulation.

A job we finished last week dropped from 4060 to 2150 cfm50 just with knee wall air sealing we were able to get 8 of one wall that had no top plate. In this energy smart details article senior editor martin holladay describes two ways to insulate attic kneewalls. If i place vertical runs of r 30 unfaced against the current plastic barrier i d use a perforated barrier to hold them in place. Despite all the bad publicity reflective insulation is getting lately i like to use it quite a bit on knee walls.

Install insulation without misalignments compressions gaps or voids in all knee wall cavities. Allison your comments about the irrelevance of the location of kraft facing on fiberglass batts are spot on and for all the reasons you iterate. Install an air barrier on the exterior of attic knee wall insulation and to block open floor joist cavities under attic knee walls.