In this video I'm going to show you HOW to install AtticFoil brand radiant barrier directly
OVER your attic insulation, primarily for mixed or cold climates.
Now this is a follow-up video to an earlier video I did explaining WHY you should install
a radiant barrier.
That video covered the mechanics and exactly how a radiant barrier works.
If you didn't see that video, you can click on the link below and you can watch it first.
The over-the-attic-insulation method is primarily for cold of mixed climates; if you're in a
hot climate, you've got a couple of options: you can lay it directly over the attic insulation,
like this, or you can do the staple-up method, depending on your primary objective.
This video I'm going to talk about the over-insulation method and I'm going to cover the 2 most common
questions we get: 1) what happens to dust settling on top of the foil/how that affects
the radiant barrier and 2) concerns about moisture traveling through the insulation
and potentially getting trapped under the AtticFoil.
Before you get started, there's a few tools you're going to need to make the job go fast
and pretty easy.
The first thing you're going to need is a standard utility knife, pretty much the standard
box cutter-type knife with the throw away blades.
Don't use scissors, a box cutter is the way to go.
Secondly, a measuring tape - you might have to measure some pieces of foil so you want
to have this.
A roll of foil air conditioning tape - this is available in any hardware store in the
air conditioning/duct work department; do not use duct tape, you want the foil tape
- it's made to be in an attic and it sticks well to the foil.
Also, a good quality dust mask or, this is what's called a half face respirator, this
is about $20 and it includes what's called a P100 filter.
This is especially important if you're around fiberglass insulation, the last thing you
want to be doing is kicking up that fiberglass insulation and breathing it, so that's money
well-spent.
Also, a couple of clamp lights, these are handy because you can clamp them and move
them around so you can see what you're doing.
You always want to have good lighting when working in the attic.
Finally, you're going to need to make a little tool; basically this is a piece of wood trim
(you can use a broom handle, a PVC pipe, pretty much anything) and you're going to take a
nail and just tape it to the end.
This creates what's called a "poker" and what you're going to be able to do is, once you
get that foil out, just stab the foil (the AtticFoil) and then you can push it back into
the corners, that way you don't have to crawl across your attic.
This is kind-of like having an 8 or 10 ft arm.
I recommend making a couple - maybe one at 4-5ft long and one at maybe 8-10ft long, depending
on how far you've got to reach back into the corners of your attic.
Installing AtticFoil radiant barrier directly over your attic insulation is really pretty
simple.
People tend to overthink it and make it more complicated than it really is, but it's really
not that complicated!
This video is going to be more kind of a checklist, basically what to do and a couple things not
to do.
In the big picture, there's really two rules you want to follow before you get started.
First thing is cover as much area as possible.
Radiant barrier has a cumulative effect, just like any of the videos - the more coverage,
the better.
Don't worry about little gaps or cracks, you just want to cover as much area as possible.
The second thing, when you're installing the over insulation method, is not to overlap
the AtticFoil more than a couple of inches.
AtticFoil is perforated so it will allow moisture in its vapor form to pass through, but if
you double it up, the chances are that moisture can't escape both layers because of the permeability.
So, when you over lap it, just an inch or two is really the most you want to do, you
shouldn't have any problems.
The first thing is you're just going to lay the AtticFoil directly on top of the attic
insulation.
There's no need to staple it down to the ceiling joists.
You want that insulation ABOVE the ceiling joists, you don't want to compress it, basically
it's just going to lay on top of the attic insulation, almost like a big blanket.
If you want to staple it to a rafter in a corner or if you've got an upright support
and you want to staple it there, that's fine, but there's no need to staple it down.
The next thing to understand is that AtticFoil radiant barrier is NOTa substitute for regular
attic insulation.
You should have a good amount of attic insulation in your attic, if you can look down and see
the ceiling joists, you need more attic insulation.
Ideally you're going to be at least a few inches above the wood; you should be able
to look down and see no wood.
If you don't have that much attic insulation, I'd recommend either going to Home Depot or
Lowes (they'll actually loan you the machine) and you can blow it in for free if you buy
their attic insulation, or you can hire a company to come top it off.
If you do that, what you may want to do is leave a few little strips or paths that you
can walk through later so you can install the AtticFoil.
Then you can come back and as you install the AtticFoil on top of the attic insulation,
use something like a dustpan or something and just shovel that insulation back to cover
your paths.
Ideally you want to start in the far corners of your attic, and work toward the exit.
You can either take the roll of foil up, and roll it out in the attic; you can use a broom
handle or hang it from a pipe or something and create kind of a spool-effect.
Or you can pre-measure the pieces and just cut them outside and bring them up as needed.
That's where the poker we talked about earlier is going to come in handy.
Just stab that foil and you can push it back all the way to the corner, push it back to
the top plates of the wall.
You don't want to push it down into the soffits, you don't want to block any airflow coming
in from the soffits, but push it back as far as you can into the corners along the sides
of the rafters.
You may have an attic that's big and wide open with virtually no upright supports or
ductwork in the attic, if you've got an attic like that, you can do something a little tricky
to cover a lot of area fast.
What you want to do is take two pieces of 4ft wide, or maybe 3 pieces, roll them out
in the driveway so you can get like an 8ft or 12ft long piece, take that roll of foil
air conditioning tape and just seam the pieces together.
Make yourself a big piece, maybe 8ft by 20 ft long, then roll it up like a rug, bring
it in to the attic, use that poker - just push it back into the corner of the area,
push it along out to the outside - and you can cover a lot of area really fast.
Eventually you're going to get to a support coming up that you've got to cut the foil
around.
You can just take your utility knife and cut one slit up, wrap it around or if you want
a cleaner install, where it lays flat, you can do what I call a double-T cut.
You want to cut two slits about 5" wide and about 2-3" apart and then, take your knife,
come from the bottom and cut all the way up, then it'll wrap around and that foil will
just tuck down real close to the support.
It's a nice, clean, easy install that goes fast and it's all you gotta do to cut around
the supports or the penetrations.
They don't have to be perfect, a few gaps or cracks is perfectly fine.
When it comes to overlapping the AtticFoil, I'm going to show you a little trick that's
so simple and it works great!
You don't need to tape the seams, and in fact it's pretty difficult to try to tape the whole
seam while you're in the attic.
So what you want to do is, take the foil air conditioning tape in little 2-3" pieces, create
a little "L" shape, tape it on one side and do that every 3 to 4 ft, create little "tabs"
if you will.
Then, when you lay that other piece on top, you can slide it back and forth, remember,
you only want it to overlap an inch or two, once you get that adjusted, then just take
that stick, come through, just reach over and push that tab down and it will stick to
the other side, then it's perfect!
It's not going to slide apart and you're not overlapping more than a couple of inches;
that's all you have to do for the seams.
If you've got a truss-built attic, I'd recommend using the 26" wide product.
Normally, trusses are on 24" on-center, so you can put a piece between each truss and
it will overlap just an inch or two, which is exactly what we want to do.
It's actually pretty simple.
What you want to do is go in to the attic, measure from the center of the attic, out
to the top plate of the wall.
Say it's 14ft.
Once you get that measurement, go out to the garage and cut a bunch of pieces that are
14ft long.
That's going to go from the top plate of the wall, to the center of the attic.
Roll them up, just like a bunch of posters, put them in a box and carry them up into the
attic.
Then, all you have to do is take your poker, grab each piece and just push it all the way
out to the top plate of the wall, between the trusses.
And then do the other side.
In fact, you can actually put a nail on both ends and push to one side, then take another
piece and push to the another side.
Go back one rafter, do one, do the other.
That's all you have to do for a truss attic.
Just like before, if you want to take a little piece of foil tape, you can put it on before,
reach out and tack them together and that's all you have to do for a truss-built attic.
One common question I get is, "Can I lay the AtticFoil directly on top of the plywood decking
I have in the attic?"
and the answer is, "Yes!"
AtticFoil is super durable and tear-proof; normal wear-and-tear and just walking on it
is not going to damage the AtticFoil.
You're going to get the main benefit in the summer - the heat coming off the roof, you
are going to reflect it back and in the winter you're going to reduce some of the radiant
heat loss due to its emissivity.
If you do this, I'd do one of two things: 1) take a can of spray paint and outline where
that plywood decking ends or 2) take a piece of tape and do the same thing - outline it.
The last thing you obviously want to do is step off the decking in to your insulation.
That's really all there is to it when installing AtticFoil radiant barrier directly OVER your
attic insulation.
Just remember the two big rules: 1) cover as much area as possible and 2) only overlap
the AtticFoil a couple of inches.
In most homes, given a typical size and complexity, 2 people can complete a job in less than a
day, maybe even just a few hours.
We've had people do whole attics in just 2 or 3 hours.
Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect or pretty to work.
If it's wrinkled or crooked, it works just fine.
Next I'm going to talk about the two most common questions we get.
1) How does dust accumulation on the top of the AtticFoil affect its effectiveness and
2) questions and concerns about moisture being trapped underneath the AtticFoil.
One of the common concerns we hear from customers is whether or not dust will accumulate on
top of the AtticFoil and reduce its effectiveness.
Now think about this for a second, how can dust get on top of the AtticFoil?
First of all, it's got to be light enough that it comes in to the attic and then instantly
it's got to become heavy enough that it falls on top of the AtticFoil.
Most dust either never gets drawn in to the attic or it's going to come in and continue
and go through the attic and out the top.
I've been in a lot of attics that are 20, 30 or 40 years old and there's not as much
dust accumulation as people would think.
Now if you live next to a dirt road, yeah - you might have some more dust in your attic
than a typical attic, but normally it's really not a major concern.
Let's say though, that you are getting some dust accumulation on top of your AtticFoil.
AtticFoil is very reflective and it's pretty simple to tell - if you look down and it starts
to look dull or not shiny, then obviously you're getting some dust accumulation.
Most likely this is going to be after 5 or 10 years.
However because of the double-sided AtticFoil, it works off of two qualities: the reflectivity
on this side and the emissivity quality on the other side.
Now, I'm going to explain because normally you're just laying the foil on top of the
attic insulation, you're going to have minimal contact (an air space) between the foil and
the top of the attic insulation.
So, even if you get a lot of dust on top, the bottom surface is working off a quality
called EMISSIVITY.
If you're familiar with radiant barrier decking, there's products called Techshield, Solarboard,
etc. they are actually installed on the bottom of the roof deck so that foil faces the attic
space.
The way radiant barrier decking works is it works off the quality called emissivity, basically
when the roof gets hot the foil doesn't allow that heat to radiate in to the attic.
So, even if you get a ton of dust, say it got so thick you couldn't even see the foil,
basically it becomes radiant barrier decking.
So it's still working off the emissivity quality.
However, say for example that some day it gets to the point where you actually have
enough dust on it that you want to clean it out.
Really all you need is something like an air compressor or a leaf blower, you can blow
it off and it's probably going to get back to about 90% or better as far as reflectivity.
Once again, dust accumulation is really not a typical concern in most attics.
The other common question or concern that we get when we talk about installing AtticFoil
directly on top of the attic insulation, is the potential (or the concern) for trapping
moisture below the AtticFoil which would cause the attic insulation to get wet and possibly
mold or cause damage or something like that.
AtticFoil is perforated so it's NOT a vapor barrier.
Basically, if you made a bag out of AtticFoil and you put a wet sponge inside, a few days
later it would be dry; the moisture would pass through the AtticFoil just like as if
it was a brown paper bag.
It's a pretty good air barrier, but it's not a moisture barrier.
In the attic, moisture is passing from wet to dry.
In the winter, when moisture is inside the house, normally it can pass directly through
the sheetrock; if it can get through the sheetrock, it can easily pass through the attic insulation
and through the foil.
Basically the bottleneck (or the choke point) is the sheetrock.
However, moisture (or condensation) can only occur when one thing happens, that's when
relatively warm-moist air comes in contact with a cold surface.
Just like if you breathe on a cold window, you're going to see condensation; if you have
a glass of ice tea, even though it maybe 85 or 90 degrees out, it's relatively warm and
moist, it's coming in contact with a cold surface so it's condensing into its liquid
form.
In an attic, the attic is cold and foil will be a cold surface.
Now the question is whether or not you have warm-moist air coming in contact with the
foil.
Once again, the moisture will easily be passed through; however, if you've got holes or penetrations
that allow that warm-moist air to bypass the attic insulation, it can come up under and
condense on the bottom of the AtticFoil.
These things are like light fixtures, can lights, things like that; the warm-moist air
can bypass and accumulate on the bottom of the AtticFoil.
If this happens, you can potentially have some moisture accumulating on the bottom.
There's a couple things you can do to keep this from happening.
One, seal up any penetrations in the ceiling: can lights, light fixtures, etc., you obviously
want to seal those up.
You want to do that anytime for your home, you want it to be as airtight as possible.
If you're not sure if they're airtight, then all you have to do is come through and cut
a hole in the foil above any holes in the ceiling.
Say, for example, you have a can light and you're not sure if its airtight, just cut
a hole in the AtticFoil, that way you're giving it a path for that moisture to go right past
the AtticFoil.
Finally, if you are concerned about moisture and you're not sure, what you can do is increase
the permeability of the AtticFoil.
All you have to do is take your whole role of AtticFoil, take a drill with either a 1/8"or
1/4" drill bit and you're going to drill all the way though the roll into the center core;
do maybe 30, 40 or 50 holes per roll.
Then, when you unroll it, essentially it's going to be a big roll of Swiss cheese, it's
going to have little holes every now and then, that's going to GREATLY increase the permeability
(or the ability for moisture to pass through).
You're still going to maintain a great AIR barrier, but you're making it more permeable
for that moisture to pass through.
If you have any questions or concerns, you can always call us at AtticFoil.com.
We'll help you with any questions you've got, we've got a technical staff who can help you
on a phone call or by email.
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