When I bought my house a few years ago, the home inspector recommended another layer of insulation in the attic floorMost of the attic floor is exposed joists (with batt insulation exposed) - there's only plywood flooring over a small portion of the attic.I need more storage so am planning to lay more plywood up thereWas wondering about adding additional insulationCan I just compress the batts that are already there and layer more on top? The existing insulation comes right to the top of the joists.Or do I need to somehow extend the joists vertically to make room for the new insulation?
It sounds to me like the books you are looking for are: 1) A Rose by Any Name: The Little-Known Lore and Deep-Rooted History of Rose Names by Douglas BrennerISBN: 97815651251862) Little Yellow Digger by Janet SamuelISBN: 9780760792896 Hope this helps!
The answers you got about adding insulation to the roof instead of down on top of the existing insulation were stunningly stupid and ridiculousWhatever you do don't do something that crazy and wasteful! You're right on the money by saying it's not gonna be effective! It's downright insane! Think of the insulation on top of your ceiling as a blanketIf you need more insulation you pile on more blanketsPutting insulation up above the existing blanket of insulation onto the underside of the roof is absurdIf you're in bed and cold do you put another blanket up on the ceiling to get warm? Of course not! You pile on another blanket or 2 right on top of what's already there to warm you upI have put down plywood flooring in much of my attic just like what you're wanting to doThe best thing you can do is to beef up the joists that are already there to raise them above the existing insulation and add more insulation if you can create enough additional spaceWhatever you do don't just slap down plywood and compress the insulationThat greatly reduces it's R value and makes it much less effectiveThe plywood you put down will have next to no R value to speak of so don't kid yourself and think it's gonna help at allIn my home I actually put down 2 x 4's on top of the joists and I ran them at a 90 degree angle to the joistsThis was a lot easier than trying to run them directly on top of the joists and trying to attach them would have been a big painIt's a little harder to add additional insulation if you do it the way I did but it's not a big deal if you blow in more insulation on top of what's thereWhat you're wanting to do is a smart way to create additional storage and as a side benefit, if you do it right, will be a little more R value in your insulationGood luck and I hope this helps!
