insulting family room over crawl space

[William.Deans]

Greetings Phil,

You ask two questions.

Phil Schuman wrote:

Yes. More insulation always helps. I would start between the joists.

Use craft faced batts. Use the highest R value that will fit. You can staple it up with a staple gun or they have metal wire about the thickness of a coathanger that will "bow" between the joists using tension to hold up the insulation. If you really want to go crazy you could also screw up some foamboard insulation but I wouldn't. Also insulate air ducts and pipe in the crawl space. Do this before installing the batts for easy access.

Hope this helps, William

[Jeff Wisnia]

Try standing in it and telling the floorboards that they are all sons of beeches.......

and the window moldings that they were the loosest pieces of ash in the forest. :-)

Jeff

[Phil Schuman]

well - title pretty much lays down the question... We have a 2-story house, with the family room behind the attached garage, and above a stone crawl space. The other part of the house area has a full unfinished basement.

I've had extra insulation blown into the attic area above the family room, but have done nothing in the crawl space under the family room. This room seems to be a couple of degrees "different" from the rest of the house... Summer - it's not as cool with the A/C running. Winter - it's not as warm with the furnance running.

Would laying some insulation in the crawl... help ? along the sides - from foundation to where the floor meets the sides under the floor - between the joists

If so - what kind of insulation and what kind of facing -

tnx for any comments - Phil -

[Kirby]

Hehe, that's one way of insulting the family room.

[Dr. Hardcrab]

LOL

Gott Dambit! Ya beat me to it!!!

[rider89]

Aside from an insulation issue, you may have an air infiltration issue. The crawl space is probably vented to the outdoors and if there are large gaps where the flooring meets the wall structures, you could have surprising large air movement. On a really cold and windy days, you may feel drafts down around the baseboards or anywhere there might be penetrations. If the floor was old tongue & groove, there might even be air coming right through the floor. If this is the case, insulation would help, but not eliminate the infiltration, and something like Tyvek on the bottom of the floor joists may also be needed. One of those energy consultant guys with the infrared cameras could detail out the problems pretty fast.

bill

[Phil Schuman]

yeah - we were in a hurry to get to a varsity football game and didn't reread the title - missed the "a" - but I'll try your technique instead of a sweater :)

[C & M]

Use the wire thingys. It's way easier and faster. Also, you can glue beadboard to the concrete walls to assist with insulating. Additionally, cover the floor of the crawlspace with 6mil poly to cover the dampness issue.

>

[Stretch]

Phil

Depending on where you are and your climate, you may want unfaced insulation. With an air conditioned house in a humid climate, vapor barriers are a bad and no longer needed acording to the new International Residential Building Code. If you are up north, the vapor barrier should be on the warm in winter side. Be careful with adding foam insulation to fiberglass. You may create two vapor barriers and trap moisture, creating a mold and wood rot problem.

Stretch

[FACE]

No you haven't been beat to it. This is about how to insult the family room over the crawl space. Much like insulting the girl over her boyfriend. Example: "of all the nice rooms in the house, you had to pick a piece of dirt!"

FACE

[Phil Schuman]

I looked around at Home Depot today, and they have the R-13 faced rolls - It appears that the facing should be facing the "warm floor", with the bare fiberglass facing outside toward the air - Is this going to present an airborn problem with the fiberglass particles wandering thru the air in the crawl over to the basement area ?

hmmm - just read this article that basically says the floor insulation is not worth the effort -