Attic Knee Wall Door Insulation

The latch should lay flush against the frame.

Attic knee wall door insulation.

The problem with many kneewalls is that they have fiberglass batt insulation with nothing covering them on the attic side as shown in the photo below. From inside the attic check for any openings holes or fenestrations into the knee wall surrounding area. Knee walls that share space with a conditioned room in your home should have a combination of both traditional insulation and foil radiant barrier insulation. First you will want to add traditional insulation between the studs this can be batt insulation spray foam or even rigid foam insulation.

You can buy knee wall doors that have built in insulation and weather stripping. Apply weather stripping to the door to create a seal. The 2 5 8 thick sash fully filled with thermo insulating material provides an excellent barrier reducing heat loss r value 9 5. Knee wall doors provide access through the knee walls to the unconditioned parts of the attic.

What happens then is that the batts don t make contact with the air barrier the drywall air moves through and around them and they fall out of the attic kneewall. Use spray foam to air seal these openings if they exist. If the door doesn t have these weather strip it to provide a tight seal and make sure the latch pulls tightly against the frame. The dwt knee wall access doors are new and highly energy efficient design.

The attic tent is the ultimate attic access insulation cover ever invented attic stairs scuttle holes knee wall doors and full size doors its primary design is to stop air infiltration between the home and attic the most common medium for wasting costly residential energy during both hot and cold seasons. Most builders install fiberglass batts between the studs and some type of blown insulation between the floor joists. We prefer cellulose but we use fiberglass sometimes too. The doors as standard are equipped with handle and finishing lining.

We reduced the air leakage nearly 50 on this house in shaker heights without insulating the walls. Kneewalls short walls under sloped ceilings are common in story and a half homes and in bonus rooms above garages. Although kneewalls can help turn attics into living space they often present insulation challenges.