mundamanu
Silver Member
I was just poking around in the attic and two crawl spaces since I have noticed that it has gotten a little chilly on the second floor during our fall cold snaps.
I discovered that all of the attic and crawl spaces have insulated floors. The main attic has blown insulation about six inches deep. The two crawl spaces have rolled insulation about six inches thick and covered with plywood (not 100% coverage, but significant). There is no insulation at all against the roof. As I understand insulation, having the floors insulated and not the roof is fine since all of the heat is trapped below the attic and crawl spaces (and in some ways this is better since that way you are not heating the attic/crawl spaces). Access to the attic is through a small square hole in the ceiling covered by an insulated cover. Access to each of the two crawl spaces, however, is through a full-sized, uninsulated, two-inch thick wood door. It seems pretty clear to me that the cold air is coming through the uninsulated doors (the house-side walls of the crawl space are also insulated).
So, onto my question. Would a reasonable solution to this problem be to make an insulated wooden frame six inches thick and backed with plywood that fits snugly in the door frame on the crawl space side? The frame can be thicker than six inches, if necessary, I would just need to build a support off of the inside of the existing door-frame to hold it in place.
If my idea is not a good idea, what is a good idea?
Thanks in advance.
I discovered that all of the attic and crawl spaces have insulated floors. The main attic has blown insulation about six inches deep. The two crawl spaces have rolled insulation about six inches thick and covered with plywood (not 100% coverage, but significant). There is no insulation at all against the roof. As I understand insulation, having the floors insulated and not the roof is fine since all of the heat is trapped below the attic and crawl spaces (and in some ways this is better since that way you are not heating the attic/crawl spaces). Access to the attic is through a small square hole in the ceiling covered by an insulated cover. Access to each of the two crawl spaces, however, is through a full-sized, uninsulated, two-inch thick wood door. It seems pretty clear to me that the cold air is coming through the uninsulated doors (the house-side walls of the crawl space are also insulated).
So, onto my question. Would a reasonable solution to this problem be to make an insulated wooden frame six inches thick and backed with plywood that fits snugly in the door frame on the crawl space side? The frame can be thicker than six inches, if necessary, I would just need to build a support off of the inside of the existing door-frame to hold it in place.
If my idea is not a good idea, what is a good idea?
Thanks in advance.