There’s one simple strategy that you can use to lower your energy consumption and costs. It doesn’t involve any fancy equipment or tools. Simply by air sealing your attic, your HVAC system will be spared, and your monthly energy bill will see significant savings.
While the attic might be a great place to store the kids’ old toys or worn-out trophies, it’s also a place that can improve the functionality of your home. An airtight attic improves your home’s energy efficiency and consumption, protects it from air leaks, and ensures comfortable temperatures inside the home.
For Myron Ferguson (@thatdrywallguy), a drywall contractor, author, trainer, and advocate for the building trades, air sealing an attic is essential for reducing energy bills and improving performance. As part of that mission, Ferguson installs a foam sealant to cover any current air leaks.
Ferguson states, “The gaps along the top plates are very common leakage areas that really should be sealed.”
So, what’s the best strategy for air sealing an attic? We detail the most important tips for this process and what you need to know for optimal results and efficiency.
Before we dive into how to seal gaps in the attic, let’s focus on why air sealing an attic is important to you as a homeowner or property owner. Your home’s air barrier is an essential part of maintaining comfort and efficiency. When that air barrier is broken, it means outside air is getting in, and conditioned air (cooled or heated air) is escaping through gaps somewhere in the home. This has several consequences:
- Comfort level: When there is uncontrolled or unmitigated air leakage, a home will have trouble with comfortable temperature levels. It can be difficult to maintain a certain temperature without working the HVAC system on overdrive. Air sealing an attic will also help keep other unwanted guests away, including pollen and pests.
- HVAC system problems: Constantly leaking air means your HVAC system will run constantly. A system that runs more often than needed will likely suffer from maintenance issues and overuse, which will lead to the need for more and often prolonged repairs and replacement of parts.
- Higher energy bills: When an HVAC system runs constantly, a home’s energy bills increase. The EPA estimates that homeowners can save up to 15% on energy costs by properly sealing and insulating their homes.
Follow the steps to make your attic as airtight as possible, thereby improving your home’s performance and energy efficiency.
Before air sealing an attic, take a tour of the property and create a map of the home, taking note of where the room boundaries are.
The goal is to ensure you know where the partition walls are located so you can easily find the top plates once you go up to the attic. It is those areas along the top plates that tend to be a problem when it comes to air penetration.
These spaces should be sealed and covered to prevent air escaping and increasing energy consumption. Other things to look for in the home that will likely have unsealed gaps in the attic include:
- Ceiling fans: Fixtures like ceiling fans may have a junction box above them or bathroom fans that open into the attic.
- Wall partitions: Pinpoint where walls run through and where they meet.
- Other fixtures: Things like smoke alarms or switches can often have a cable running up to the attic with a non-sealed penetration.
- Specific architectural features: If you have a dropped ceiling or a staircase ceiling, these are areas that create major gaps or voids and should be insulated properly.
Additional tip: Draft out a map of the home and all the areas where walls meet and connect, as well as fixtures that may have elements that need to be sealed. Once you go up to your attic, the visual reference will save you time, making the process more efficient.
Once you go up to the attic, you will find that it likely already has a layer of insulation across the entire surface of the attic. It may be necessary to remove some of this insulation to expose the places where the top plates meet and form gaps.
Using your map and reference guide will make it easier to remove only the insulation that is needed based on where these problem areas are in your home.
When removing the insulation, there will likely be a lot of accumulated dust and debris. Before installing any sealant, ensure that the area is clear of this debris by vacuuming or clearing some of the dust from these areas. It will help the sealant adhere better to surfaces, improving its performance and longevity. When performing this part of the job, don’t forget to wear protective equipment to protect your lungs from excess dust.
For this scenario, the best option is Loctite Tite Foam Gaps and Cracks. This insulating foam sealant is specially formulated to seal thicker gaps. Attics can sometimes have thicker spaces that require a little more sealing power. This polyurethane insulating sealant fills spaces up to one inch wide while creating an impenetrable seal between the surfaces.
Other features of Loctite Tite Foam Gaps & Cracks
- Durability: It's uniquely engineered polyurethane foam is based on purified and concentrated ingredients. Because of its formulation, it withstands harsh elements like UV rays.
- Flexibility: The spray foam’s flexibility means that even with seasonal movements or shifts of the home, the seal is maintained and uncompromised.
- Adhesion: It has the power to adhere to any building materials.
The goal is to spray directly into the gaps to ensure an airtight seal.
“This foam really does expand,” Ferguson says when installing Loctite’s spray foam, “but we’re up in the attic so it doesn’t matter if it’s over-expanded or we put a little extra on.”
And yet, clean-up is easy with this foam material. To remove excess foam, you can take a knife and simply cut out the extra material once it has dried and cured.
Expert contractor Myron Ferguson discusses part of the goal for sealing the attic: “We’re really trying to give this house a second chance. By air sealing this attic, we’re going to make the house a lot more airtight and save the customer on their energy bills.”
Spending some time air sealing your attic can save you headaches and unneeded expenses. Making your home airtight is one way to increase the performance and longevity of your HVAC system.