storage area insulating

Hi group:

I have a storage area in a bedroom over our garage. The area has soffits to allow the area to breathe. My question started when I visited the home and garden show this past weekend. A couple of spray foam insulation guyes said that I could close off the soffits and spray some foam insulation in there for a lot better weather proofing. Of course, I cannot help but wonder if it is safe to cut off the breathing in the storage area. If it can be done, is it safe, and could it be done with batts of fiberglass insulation and sheetrock, or do I have to use spray foam insulation, then sheet rock over it. If it is safe and can be done, then I would have done it a long time ago because the air leakage from the bedroom to the storage area is terrible, and is changing the room in the bedroom by at least a couple of degrees

Thanks, RB

Reply to
rabacu
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I'd bet it's more than a couple of degrees. With spray foam people are frequently astounded by how little heat needs to be applied, how much quieter the attic room is, cooler in summer, etc. Good stuff.

Unvented attics cannot be done with anything other than spray foam. A perfectly continuous, unbroken amount of insulation must be applied, and there must be a perfect vapor barrier. The powers that be are in the process of updating construction codes to incorporate unvented spray foamed attics and living spaces under the rafters. If the correct amount of spray foam is applied (Google spray foam rafters dew point for more information on that), then there will be little problem as long as the roofing is kept in good or better condition.

Code requires that foam must be covered, and if it's a living space drywall is the obvious choice. There are some products that might satisfy your local code, that come in rolls that are reflective on one side, have a fiberglass mesh embedded and are barriers to ignition.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Spray foam is very expensive for a storage room (do you want a warm storage room, or just a warmer bedroom?). Can't you just insulate the wall between the storage room and the bedroom? Spray foam might be a good choice for that, but rigid foam board might be good enough and much cheaper and DIY (if the wall itself is not already insulated, that's an easy fix too, just rip of the sheetrock or sheathing on the storage room side and install batts).

Some cities (including mine) won't allow a spray foam installation that eliminates venting from soffit to ridge (every bit of research I've seen says this is overkill, but the inspectors haven't all caught up yet). Maybe that won't apply in a storage room, but it might do since it's still part of the house. Instead you have to run chutes from soffit to ridge (that part's an easy DIY and not expensive)

Reply to
cubby

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