Would be good. I live in Western Australia. What you are showing as 70’s in Texas is what is in new right now for us in WA. None of it is good but it’s all we have to work with. How can we make it better? Where to start?
He has a video doing this (somewhat) I believe it's titled Insulation 2.0. They suck out all the insulation. They seal every on the attic floor like between the joists/drywall, can lights, etc.
This is a good book. Does provide a step by step introduction to how to build things ruclips.net/user/postUgkxhgbP-6hUnXu_QRaoHgLztgsI0YF3HqR0 , also does offer some steps. Includes pictures to give you ideas for layouts and such. If you are looking for a guide, this is not exactly what you want. But if you are trying to familiarize yourself with the way that pole barn building and other out buildings, are made, then this will work just as you need it to. A few things in this book are a barn (of course), detached garage, storage building, and coops.
This could be an entire series. How to turn a crappy attic into a good and great attic in every climate zone from paper/concept to completion and the common pitfalls people run into during the process and how to avoid and/or overcome them
Climate would not matter. You would just go for a texas attic with or without a basement. Then have your basement be open for whatever you want instead of noisy hvac. The texas attic make sense for any attic because the space is otherwise unused.
@@aussie2uGA This is a complicated topic because it's counter-intuitive and it's very seldom explained well. Also, as he says in the video, different regions/climates have different issues. I'll try to write a longer comment above to explain this, but the short version is that: In cold weather zones, water vapor comes from inside the house and will naturally rise into the attic and either exhaust through vents in a vented attic, or get trapped in a sealed attic and eventually condense and cause mold issues. If you want to seal your attic then you have to plan for clearing out that water vapor, whether that's a dehumidifier or a return air duct or whatever. (One common approach is to clear out any attic floor insulation and hope that natural air exchange between the attic and the floor below will clear out the water vapor. Note I said "hope"...) In warm, humid weather zones, you worry more about pulling outside air in, which is warm and humid. It hits the AC in the attic* and either condenses on the exterior of the AC machinery (which is pretty cool) or worse gets sucked into leaky ducting and condenses inside, leading to some of the problems shown in the video. (* Warm weather zone houses tend to have ACs in the attic, because they don't have basements, because houses in those zones don't need to worry about frost heave and don't have a frost line, and also often have a near-surface water table.)
Yea, but he get's no ad rev for it. you lose your ad rev when you swear in the first 2 minutes of the video now, I think. This was a good potential series about addicts.
Important tip, watch your duct work install, those guys often want to take the shortest path (makes sense) but will also eat up all your attic space putting duct work out in the middle of what could be very accessible storage. You can tell he either monitored the install, or had guys who knew what he wanted, given how the ducting is all secured to the ceiling rather then being strung all over itself on the decking. Very nicely done.
Well, it was his house, so he got what he wanted lol... Agree though... every thing in my attic is strung in the worst, laziest way possible and though its big, it is 0% usable.
I had a duct guy run duct in my attic and he was great. Ran that ductwork around the perimeter of the finished attic to give me maximum storage space. So they're not all bad.
It would be AWESOME if you did a budget remodel of a house, like you were originally planning to do with your house. A lot of us are wanting to see that whole process you teased us with.
dong a 'budget' remodel implies less than best practices. not necessarily bad, but more 'good better best'. matt sometimes does 'good better best' but not usually.
It will never happen. The problem with a lot of his content is that the building techniques just aren't economically viable. The only people using his techniques are the ultrawealthy who have more money than sense.
The concept of clipped rafters and extending the house wrap up and over the roof is pretty easy to understand. What I didn't quite catch was how you then built the deck on top of that to re-extend the eaves. Would love to see more detail about that aspect of the build. Great vid! Thanks!
27:50 covers it somewhat. He may have other videos on it. Basically they're 2x4 sized LVL beams (engineered lumber) fastened to the roof framing on top of the main roof rafters. They extend up the roof 2 to 3 times the length of the overhang to give proper cantilever support. Then the 2 layers of rigid insulation is placed on top of the original ZIP system roof deck, and cut around those secondary "rafter" tails.
I didn’t get it either. however, the picture shows a grid, so it must be something like 2 x 4 on edge filled in with insulation. But it seems like he also said that those rafters don’t extend all the way to the top of the roof, so maybe only the two by fours run horizontal full length, and as far as the pit goes, little pony raptors extend up the roof pitch, maybe 2 feet or 4 feet past the wall.
It probably was a ringtail (Bassariscus astutus) not a lemur (Lemuroidea family) in your attic. Ringtails are found all through out Texas, lemurs only in Madagascar. Still cool because (1) ringtails are awesome and (2) they are not really all that common.
Microwaves don't require exhaust and he installed a heat pump dryer which also does not require exhaust. The only things that need exhaust is the ERV and the Kitchen vent.
I was having a house built, 11course walk-out basement, 9’ 1st floor ceilings, 2nd story with 3rd floor walk-up attic - I requested that the 3rd floor be constructed using a truss design that would offer the largest open spaces - my request was received by the custom home builder as if I insulted his honor and integrity… we ended up hiring an architect to design what we wanted and he recommended a custom builder that could/would do the job… Live and learn
Wow, what an attitude from the builder. You're literally paying for him to build it to your requirements! 🤷🤦 Attic space should not be wasted just cause the builder can't plan properly.
"Thought and care ahead of time" = design. One of the things I love about your videos is their focus on sunbelt homes. I built an icf/sips house by Mueller about a decade ago and during my research realized that most energy efficiency info out there was about snow belt homes. Great shots of the SIP house you built. I would love to hear more about what you think of SIPs.
Attic access: In the future use a raised heal roof which you build 2 foot to 4 foot walls along the sides so the roof height is raised. This also makes it a lot easier to run duct work along the sides of the attic leaving more space in the center available for storage or just maintenance access.
This is actually quite common practice in Europe. We recently built a house and we did the same, the attic space is living space with attic windows and raised heal roof
Amen! Love how he built his own home. I just had my ductwork caulked and re insulated attic to r 60 in south Texas, did the best as could be done on a 25 year old stilt home next to the bay. I can’t help thinking about a radiant barrier as well inside attic roof. New roof has ridge vents put in, I need to put sensor back up there to monitor how hot it gets and put in a gable end vent fan. It was getting up to 120 Fahrenheit up there last summer. I do notice my a/c is not cycling on as much so I’m hoping it will make a difference on my power bill. Heat index has been 115 down here in south Texas, power went out early this morning until 12 pm, house stayed cool until it came back on. I wish all builders were like him!
I have a barn shape with space on the sides but I am going to add drywall so I'll be closing off the sides: foamed roof deck to the eaves, and the knee walls will have two layers 5/8" + insulation for soundproofing. Am I running a high risk of mildew or issues? I wonder if the solution is as easy as running to/from 4" flex ducts so I can hook up a dehumidifier at some point?
@@GregoryGuay Depends on multiple factors: is there eaves vents, how humid is your area. Typically interior moisture moves up into the attic, and condenses on the colder roof sheathing. In a vented attic airflow prevents any significant condensation. If your installing drywall the the condensed moisture can become trapped and accumulate. An attic dehumidifer would definitely help, but may not guarantee you don't have issues. I would install a drain line for the dehumidifier, since odds are some one is going to forget to empty the bin. Perhaps get the dehumidified running and see if it can maintain RH below 60% before installing drywall. Generally finished attics need to be apart of the building HVAC envelope to reduce condensate build up.
@@guytech7310 Eaves were sealed off with spray foam w/ the roof deck. Charleston, SC is very humid. I currently have a dehumidifier, small cheap one, in the approximate 1,000 sq foot attic space. No AC up there, but the lower level of course travels up through the ceiling. The dehumidifier is connected to HVAC drain so I could continue that...
I kind of miss my mom and dads house. Yet it was built in 1920, but it was the first and only time I have ever experienced a full set of steps from my old bedroom that went up to the attic. It was frickin awesome. It’s a shame we never finished it.
This is a great video! As an electrician and electrical contractor, for decades, I've been preaching this for many many years. I agree, why are houses still being built the OLD way? There are hundreds of houses being built in my area the old way with such poor quality that they don't even meet standards of the 1960s ugh! The customer just doesn't realize what they're getting and what it's costing them in the long run. Let's step into the current century and make some changes.
Matt I am curious if you or one of the Build Show contributors might have some suggestions on retrofitting an old unconditioned attic and making it an improved attic.
I lived in a 2 family 1930's house in Boston which was build by National Lumber, the attic was beautiful. I can't imagine not having an attic and a basement, or all the wonderful wood work.
I cant imagine not having my basement (An extra kitchen, 2 bedrooms/office, media room and 1500 sq ft of wood shop). My attic still needs some love but flooring options are really slim
I agree with you Ms Heart. I designed and built my own house out here in California with the weather similar to that of the southeast, except not so humid. I have NO Attic. All of the interior space is living space including lofts and lofted ceilings. Therefore no upper space is wasted. My cottage is magnificent, and I have a very thick roof with proper ventilation and insulation. I also have a basement. Very very rarely are basements ever built in California, even millionaires and billionaires don’t do it much. What a missed opportunity! My basement covers 1/2 as much as the upper floor space and has a storage area and a studio apartment. Not trying to take the side of women, because I’m a guy, but there are not enough women involved in house design, and if there were we would have a lot better houses. I work in building, almost always the women have better ideas than men. It is a stark reality.
@@steveperreira5850 False, you are spreading misinformation. "there are not enough women involved in house design, and if there were we would have a lot better houses. I work in building, almost always the women have better ideas than men. It is a stark reality." Its not reality, cut the misandry.
It would be so cool to see you compile a list of like minded builders around the States & Canada that are like minded to your processes. That way those of us who arent in the South US or local to Texas can find builders like you when we need them or want them. I wouldnt know where to begin finding a custom builder, let alone vetting them to see if they're knowledgeable like you.
As an HVAC pro who does remods on many problem duct systems, a home can either positive or negative or neutral depending on quantity and location (supply or return) of the duct leakage. I had a return knocked of the boot in my attic by some storage mishap and it made the house very humid and 2.3pascals positive! Great videos Matt! Love your work!
My house was built in 56. I have lived here for 27+ yrs and just this week went in my attic for the first time. Original insulation, so none by todays standards. I have learned so much by just watching this video on how to go from CRAPY to AWESOME.
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872he's got a point, we live where the boss of the company lives in a nice suburban homes and his workers making the money are struggling with money and addictions. Not a single boss I worked for gave a fuck about the employees, they all had "you should be thankfully you're working" mentality
@@MadLadCustoms Ok. But it's still wildly off-topic for what he's replying to. It doesn't matter if he's right or wrong. The topic at hand is a guardrail and he's off in left field talking about Marxism.
I really appreciate this video. I had my house built in 1993, moved in the very last week of. It was (and still is) my first house. I accumulated pages of “wants” for a number of years as I had anticipated this being my only house, I envisioned starting my career and retiring from it all walking in the same front door. This did happen, I’m 5 years into retirement! Needless to say some details/wants do get missed for the list. One major disappointment was why the heating/cooling/duct system was in my crappy attic! The system has four thermostatically controlled zones with hyperbaric bypasses etc. The zoning computer and duct damper motors being in the attic under the worst possible conditions in the summer and winter simply didn’t make sense, so after much consternation I dreamed up ways to create a conditioned space for the HVAC and duct controls. I came very close to installing insulation bats under the roof myself but oh what a job I figured it would be with my higher pitched roof. In the mean time I kept on replacing the controls since the plastics (housings/gears/etc) would become brittle and break about every 8 years. I worked on ideas for years until 2010 when I ran across a company at a builder’s convention who demonstrated their closed-cell spray foam installation system. I asked if this cold be applied to an already built home and they said yes. I asked if all the blown-in fiberglass insulation would be vacuumed out, they said yes. I asked what would be done with the turtle vents (attic ventilation) near the roof peaks, they would be blocked off but one or two would have to remain if I had a gas furnace. At the time I didn’t. I built my house with the intent of being all-electric but still had it plumbed for gas everywhere as a possible convenience for future equipment possibilities. I told them I would soon be replacing the all-electric heat-pump (w/30 kW back-up heat strip air handler) with gas just before the system turns 20 years old, so they said two vents would have to remain open. My house with 3300 sq ft under a 7/12 pitch roof would run about $10,000 to perform all this work. They came out June of 2010, did the work and I couldn’t be happier. The fellows who did the re-insulation work were absolute troopers. It certainly helped with my roof pitch being 7/12, meaning they were able to get almost everywhere by standing upright. The downside is more surface to foam than a lower pitch but this project was so darn worth every penny because of the performance to date, even with the requirement to have two of the attic vents remaining unblocked because of gas being plumbed/used in the attic. Made a HUGE difference in my utility bill, plus I can be in my attic any time of the year and be quite comfortable. The best part is the plastics in any piece of equipment no longer exhibit accelerated aging from the extreme seasonal temperature swings in Amarillo, TX. I had the HVAC totally replaced in 2012, employing a variable speed 23 SEER condenser and a gas furnace/air handler. The contractor for this bit said the best thing I had ever done to prepare him for this job was the spray foam under the roof, so much so, he was able to design a lower capacity system than what I had previously.
You are describing my house! Zoned HVAC. Crappy attic insulation on attic floor. I’m replacing all electric HVAC system in a couple of years with gas heat. The unit in the attic looks like crap. Built in 2009. I bought 12/22 due to my home being destroyed. Didn’t choose to rebuild due to many factors. I always read to use open cell insulation in the southern states. Now you all say closed cell. So, closed cell it is between rafters. Once that is done, do I need to pull out rolled insulation between floor joists? Or will company doing blown in cell remove it? Thank you all very much! S. Hall (this is my son’s RUclips account)
@@Xrager101x When I asked the fellows about vacuuming out the attic floor insulation they said it actually was a recommendation of their’s to aid in passively conditioning the attic. Temp swings in the attic would sharply reduce (they certainly have!) and benefit the operation and longevity of the HVAC equipment and duct work suspended from under the roof. We’ve had many weeks this past summer in the low 100’s. Though my attic was warm it was not hot, no where near enough to chase me out while routing new CAT6 cables among drops to various rooms, though my shirt eventually got wet in the usual places. It was actually workable whereas before the environment was quite unbearable even with summer temps in the 90’s. We get well below freezing (teens, single digits) for extended periods in the winter, sometimes below 0. Before, I could put an ice tray of water on the insulation covering the attic floor and it would readily freeze. The attic now, though cooler than in the house is still quite bearable. The system no longer has to work so hard to overcome extreme heat to cool the house, nor quite the opposite in the winter.
I grew up in a builder’s home, it was the best house in the neighborhood in weird ways. It had 3 foot overhangs double the closet space, a fully decked attic, two drains in the toe kick in the kitchen, double hurricane straps, plantation shutters throughout and 4 1/2 bathrooms in a 4 bedroom house. All one level and tight as a drum. He had planned to retire in that home but then someone built 3 story apartments directly behind the property so he moved. If you know, you know, but the builder was Pat Miramon in southern Louisiana.
@@Turri_Moreira Housing costs are already skyrocketing. Building the way Matt does would only increase those costs. There are plenty of well built homes out there if you are willing to pay through the nose or hire a custom homebuilder to make it for you. We have a huge shortage of cheap housing right now. If we doubled the number of houses we built every year, it would still take us a decade to satistify the current demand for housing. Interest rates have tripled in the last two years and housing prices have only increased because there just isn't enough supply.
The house next door to me is a builder's home, kind of a grand showcase home in a large HOA neighborhood, and it's probably 50% larger than any others here - at least 6500sqft. 3-story columns on the front of the house, three stories of covered porches in the back, a cedar master closet, and so on. The builder also never lived there. And every family that moves in (there have been 4 since I've been here) uncovers another terrible construction fiasco under the surface. Radon problems, mold, bad foundation, an arched window that cut through a load-bearing ceiling joist, an unsealed attic full of rodents, missing insulation, poorly installed windows, the entire third story (and stairs) built on particle board and MDF. Quite the money pit.
@@brooke510 He probably didn’t treat his subs right and they screwed him over knowing he was going to be living in the home 😂 On a serious note, it’s hard to make the economics work on a house that’s so much better than the neighborhood it’s in. The people who can afford to live in a house like that don’t want to live around people who are so much worse off than them. The decreased demand ends up pushing the value of the home down.
Matt love your channel, I wish you can do more videos on attic remodels. You did one on your house before you decided to start from the ground up. I'm not a contractor just a home owner that has a 1986 home that needs an upgrade to the attic and AC system. The summers in Vegas NV are getting more and more brutal.
My wife and I, and a friend Insulated our entire garage; applied vapor barrier then we hung drywall. It took the three of us quite a long to complete this project, but I was determined for us to get this project done, and done correctly and properly. My wife and I paid someone else to mud the seams; tape the seams; then paint our entire garage. Our garage looks and functions very well. You did an amazing job in you garage with insulation; vapor barrier, then hanging OSB on the walls and ceilings! I liked your techniques with straightforward solutions to challenging situations whilst working alone in your garage! I cannot wait to see what you do next in your garage, Well done, Sir!
I am not a builder but this vid is super insightful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and the detailed explanations from the concept, to materials to building it out. Cheers!
Hey Matt, I love the scientific mindset that you bring to building, especially with regard to the air-tightness of the structure, since that should always be the first line of defense in keeping indoor from outdoor. Only then can you make decisions about whether or not you even need a furnace, and instead just a heat pump. A friend of mine just built a new house well above code and discovered after an air leakage test that between the r-55 attic and r-40 walls, she didn't need a furnace. The kicker .... she lives in southern Ontario, Canada. I wish the North American building codes would get with the rest of the world and upgrade their requirements - Europe is about 20 years ahead.
@@jphickory522 If the builders were more scientifically minded, and did it themselves, then there'd be no reason to ever get the government involved. Like Mr. Matt here. He even says that you don't necessarily need to increase the price by a boatload to do it.
@@jphickory522 You've got a choice. Either businesses can be free to sell you shoddy unsafe houses and fill your food with poison, or you as the actual citizen can be free to know that your house is wholesome to live in and your food is wholesome to eat. Pick one.
Sealed, insulated saltbox with an "overroof". That's *exactly* what I did for my major remodel in 2017 for the exact same reasons: maximizing continuity of the insulation and barrier. Very unusual, but I'm quite happy with the resulting look and thermal performance. Super cool to see others trying this approach.
When I was a kid, my family built a house in northern BC so I got to see the insulation and windows as they went in. I now live in Houston and am horrified at the shoddy methods used. Insulation and air seal are basically mocked, in favor of putting in a huge A/C. I'm hoping to build in a couple of years and will definitely follow some of the recommendations you make here. I'm curious to hear what your thoughts on the bardominium style house that I learned about after moving here.
Not interested in spray foam (doing Rockwool), but my real struggle with a sealed attic, is the risk of condensation when a traditional roof is installed (asphalt shingle and tar paper on sheathing).
yes, you have a problem. cheapest solution is 4” of spray foam to resolve your venting issue, then the rest with your rockwool though you would be better off spending the cash an filling the cavity with closed cell spray in. The combination of 2 insulation types reduces the up front cost and allows for an unvented roof.
Spray foam is terrible in southeast US. It's a textbook perfect environment for termites flying and ground. You can't even inspect the wood. Don't fall for this fad. Or else your home will be held up by foam alone.
The one thing you missed, is actually drywalling. Your attic can actually be a completely functional usable space and this is actually very common in Europe. It’s such a waste to throw away what is essentially an entire free floor (if you’re insulating on the roof side) it also means it’s much easier to keep clean no dust collecting in your Rockwool, no critters. Makes it much easier to keep it a tidy space.
he didn't miss it, the way the HVAC is setup it's in the free space. drywalling it wouldn't have made an appreciable different to making it a usable space, as all that equipment would still be in the open space.
The "umbrella" approach to your roof is genius. I will have to do some cost analysis to determine the additional costs, but it is something we will consider for our new build. Thanks!
Great video and info on this one Matt! For remodels, especially of historic homes where we can't change the roof profile and don't want to introduce spray foam to the roof deck, I have been toying with the idea of building a conditioned and insulated box around the HVAC equipment in a vented attic, and then doing a "flash and fill" on the attic side of the ceiling with closed cell to seal it and loose fill for the rest of the R value, with the ducts buried in the loose fill instead of hanging in the air.
Absolutely amazing video! You blew my mind with the concept of sealing the attic space into the living space. I know you film for builders. But my mind is reeling with ideas on how to renovate my house which has a basement and a crappy attic. 😅
Every time i watch one of these videos I get excited about building technology. I'm almost 50 and these videos make me wonder why I never got into this trade. Matt you do great work! I've learned so much from these videos and I've only scratched the surface of your content.
Took a break from playing Starfield so I could eat some lunch, clicked on this video since it was recommended, and came away with an overwhelming desire to insulate my attic better.
@@Meekseek so....sarcasm aside can you clarify your comment without the insulting behavior? Until this video I had no opinion on the subject apparently you do have one. What is it and why?
@@vulpinemachine Spray foam is terrible for wooden structures and was meant for all metal buildings. It's a textbook perfect environment for termites flying and ground. You can't even inspect the wood. Don't fall for this fad. Or else your home will be held up by foam alone. This guy is spreading terrible advice. This video is full of stupidity
This is fantastic! I live in a New Orleans, 2 story house built in 1945. The attic is massive and when we bought it, completely uninsulated. We added 2-3’ of blown insulation which helped but if you’ve lived in Louisiana, you know how hot and humid it can get. Anyway, this video helped me to rethink how to go from crappy to average. The attic will never be awesome, but hopefully we can improve our cooling. Subscribed for your upcoming videos!
I’ve put a plywood floor in several attics to make it into a light storage space. Easy to insulate-add lighting-add shelving- beef up the joists and add sum 3/4” subfloor decking-
Properly done, the ventilated attic is the highest and best design for cost vs. efficiency that there is. The only real restriction is that you can't have your HVAC up there. That's it. As long as any penetrations from below are well-sealed and its got a good vent ratio and is protected from wind-washing with a good R-60 or so in the "bathtub," it will be _very_ hard to compete with long-term.
@@kc9scott A friend of mine is the OP above. He told me that he has answered you twice but both posts have been immediately removed though they had no links or anything else unusual about them. So I am going to attempt to post his reply in different language and see if it gets through whatever is happening on YT or with this channel. Your question is best answered by Joe Lstiburek, a building envelope engineer. If you do a search for -- building science insights to vent or not to -- it should come up. (My reference is missing normal punctuation in case that has something to do with the problem, maybe referring to the work of someone else.)
@@mpenner2124 OK, thanks, I checked it out. For others casually reading here, the “bathtub” is the attic floor (really the ceiling of the level below), along with any vertical barriers needed along the outer edge to hold in loose-fill insulation, and to stop air from blowing through that insulation.
Why can’t you have a vented attic with the HVAC up there? The HVAC company I used moved my HVAC to the attic instead of garage, said so it was more centrally located
Awesome video, great tips! I redid a 60's attic a while ago and sucked out all the old stuff + droppings. new vents, radiant barrier roof, it was a lot of work but worth it. On my new builds I'm going with conditions attics and try to get to awesome! I also painted the old brick white, which rejects a lot of the Texas heat, brick went from scolding hot in the afternoon to warm to the touch. but I didn't achieve much for house seal. I did foam up all the cable penetrations and gaps I could see attic to ceiling-wise. That R-50 roof is genius, best way to go for Texas. I saw another youtube builder doing something similar but the nailed the eaves to the siding which I felt was structurally weak and will sag eventually. Thanks again!
Thanks Matt! I've watched most (if not all) of your Rebuild series. Did I miss how you handled the plumbing vents and such that would normally penetrate the roof?
Love this. I always wonder why the biggest investment we ever make pays for typically pretty shoddy work. I'm in a 70s era house in TX and it was built probably pretty well. Not great, but *definitely* better than some of the mass-produced houses built these days. I've got the "crappy" attic. Definitely want the awesome one. I nerd out over quality stuff like this. Not sure how feasible it would be to tell a builder, "Hey I've been watching youtube and here's what I want..." Not sure I'll ever be building, though :)
Houses are already expensive enough. If you implement everything Matt talks about, then you're going to double the cost per sqft to build a home. Houses are already too expensive and we're not making them fast enough. A lot of the "improvements" he talks about will never pay for themselves with energy savings. Things like 2x6 construction on exterior walls and increased insulation will take 15-20 years to justify the added expense. Most people stay in their home for 7-10 years. The people paying for the home will never recoup the investment.
Great video! I live in a suburb of Chicago, yes I have ranch home with a full basement and an attached three car garage (this is my second home with a three car garage). I do have a play room in the basement along with a full shower bath and a combo furnace/workshop/storage room. My home has lots of closet space, including a mud room with storage. My home was built with engineered walls and trusses built off site. I have a pull down ladder in the garage to access my attic space. The attic is blow in fiberglass insulation, but not over the garage. The home has 9’ ceilings and a a lofted ceiling that goes up to 14’ in the family room and entryway. Because of the 9’ ceilings, the garage ceiling is 10 1/2’ high. This allowed me to do perimeter shelving, 34” below the ceiling, in the garage for more storage. PS: Storage seems to be sought after down south, why don’t you build larger and taller garages for the extra storage space needed? PPS: My current home has lots of storage space and then some, I haven’t used up my storage space, and probably never will.
Now that you've been in your new house for a while, can you compare your energy usage for the new high performance house versus your old house across the street? Think it would be really interesting to see the details since it's the same family living in both places should be fairly apples to apples
Matt, Any contractors in Austin that do attic make overs? Remove blown in insulation, add rockwool, put subfloor down, and tidy up all the ductwork etc. Maybe even hang the HVAC systems etc.
When we bought our first house and I decided I wanted to store a lot of stuff in the attic, so I thought I’d do major cleaning. I didn’t know any better and vacuumed up all that insulation. Our house was built in the late 70’s. I didn’t know what it was, I assumed it was the mess the builders left behind many years ago. Boy did my hubby yell at me when he found out. And I felt like an idiot woman 😢
You actually did a good thing. Houses built in the 1970's had lots of air leaks from poorly fitted dry wall, holes for wiring, plumbing, and vent pipes. After you vacuumed all the insulation out, your husband should have gone all over the attic floor with spray foam to seal all those air leaks. Then you needed to put the insulation back in of course. Or he could have had spray foam installed between the roof rafters and floored the attic for lots of good storage space.
I watched this video when it came out. Just wanted you to know that I wish I had an instructor like you when I was working in the trades. Thinking ahead and planning were always discouraged by my teacher, boss, father. I wound up learning by learning what not to do ex post facto...I hope many eager builders find your site and their instructors imitate your presence, forethought, ability to explain, and pride in your work. Well Done. God bless you. o/
The better video is how to take it from crappy to better? We’ve got a Lennar house, one year in, and I would love to improve my attic space but we couldn’t afford a spec house when it came to our first house.
I live in Wisconsin, my old house (story and a half with a fairly steep pitch) had the attic spray foamed by previous owner through focus on energy. They didn't use proper vent between the rafters before foaming. The roof sheeting was horizontal dimensional lumber with gaps because the original shingles years ago were cedar wood (tore off) They used OSB sheeting over the dimensional lumber so the asphalt shingles would lay flat and not sag into the gaps. With the asphalt shingles and spray foam, the temperature changes would cause condensation to form between the tar paper/shingle layer and the OSB. The OSB soaked up the condensation and couldn't dry out because of the foam and no air circulation under the decking, causing it to rot. I ended up tearing off the entire second story and rebuilding do to condensation damage.
Hi Matt. I have a quasi crappy attic with HVAC in attic but I have put attention in air sealing any holes in the ceiling, mastic ducts, and ensure no holes for animal entry. Moving the air barrier to the attic ceiling seems scientifically to make sense but is this cost effective. I am going to guess the cost of spray foam will take too many years to make a return on investment via lower energy bills. I also don’t think you can raise the value in the house by such an investment on resale because few people value high end attics. I also wonder what happens when a leak occurs in the roof. It won’t be detected as the water gets trapped between the spray foam and roof. By the time to find out it’s leaking, the roof is rotted. Abu comments or suggestions?
Don't do it! Remodeling an attic is a senseless thing to do, and it's a waste of money. This is something that celebrities who're rich and famous would do because they like flushing thousands of dollars down the drain just because they can afford it. They go and buy those multi-million-dollar mansions, and nine times out of ten they're not even at home to enjoy it because they always traveling, staying in hotels across the country.
Great content. Living in Texas my whole life (5th Generation Texan 🙂) and getting ready to build our forever home in the Texas hill county this was great info. Thanks for sharing
this is great and all. but it still makes it hard for me to decide how to retro fit something like this into my 70s style attic because the pitch of my roof is so low that my attic is a crawl space.
Probably your only reasonable and easy option is outside insulation and air sealing the next time a re-roof is warranted. Removing the sheathing and replacing with zip-r sheathing or bare minimum, sealing the existing sheathing and adding exterior insulation rigid foam.
This was the perfect video for me As I live in CENTEX about an hour north of Austin, I have an attic with the open cell foam. It's actually not bad, but it could be better. I wanted to do some improvements on the space and you threw out a lot of great ways to improve it. I also want to work on the attic space above the garage. The garage is insulated and stays fairly comfortable. The space above has no insulation and your current attic setup looks like it might work for that portion of the attic.
How well does a house built like yours hold up to settling? Do the tighter tolerances present challenges? ie- if the base of the house is settling, does the taped (butted up wall to roof-line) corner hold up since everything is cinched together or will it "tear" creating a hole?
Settling is less common/severe when done on a good slab.The tighter tolerances also resist setting from the frame level a bit more due to less range of motion between materials. Following this with the tape and line seals then helps counter any minor settling that can happen by providing an additional barrier.
You should drywall that attic, exposed rockwool or fiberglass insulation is a known carcinogen, little glass fibers get in your lungs and stay there shredding them up. fiberglass makes an incredible amount of glass fiber dust, i only happened to notice with a low setting sun shining on it and a handled the material, dust flying out like crazy. Its the new asbestos and I think we will learn the hard way.
very informative, definitely need to use this info on my home...built in '99 it has the crappy attic. We closed in the garage space, insulated with blow in, in the walls and attic, we've updated our HVAC system too...having the new info will be helpful
I built houses, and the sad part this type of construction pushes the price into top 10% earner price range, often times pushing over half a million dollars and more, making it impossible to buy by 90% of americans/canadians. I think Matt is extremely out of touch with what is affordable to an average joe and why we still have "crappy" build techniques in new houses.
@@IAmTheRealBill fringe 1% of homes is not "changing building industry". 99% of new, 2023 built homes use like 10% of those materials and technologies.
If simple changes as this is out of touch than my space as an European is equivalent to nasa. Having multiple pest issues per street is not sustainable. I clicked on this video to figure out why Americans have those horrible, embarrassing attics. I have AC, poe speakers and so on in my ceiling and I didn't pay to much for the initial house in comparison to other homeowners in my area (not comparable building codes compared to america i know).
American houses could have better build quality in exchange for smaller size and other compromises, leaving the total price not much higher. But that would require buyers prioritize efficiency, durability and low maintenance vs. McMansion features.
I live just outside of Austin and I just bought a house we’re remodeling and Gonzales on the river and I’m going to use your techniques in that space. I really appreciate us some great ideas good work.
Good work, but wonder how this will work in a more 'temperate' area, like in the northern North America,, in northern Europe, etc, where A/C is not that prevalent, nor needed, and sealing up the outside can lead to moisture getting trapped inside the building envelope and condensate on the colder exterior surface. BTW, did notice you added a foam layer on the outside of the air/moisture barrier, but is that enough when temps drop to -20C or lower?
This is something that drove me crazy through my career. Building attics with tons of space without any type of walk way or storage. I have seen attics with 20 feet of space (because of a 10/12 pitched roof) with dormer windows that go to nothing. And no thought process about usable space up there.
I was hoping to see how those of us that are currently with a crappy attic insulation situation could make it better or at least decent as a diy or contractor needed job. Just really looking for ways to make attic better with insulation since fans are not actually a way to help with keeping the temp down in a Texas attic.
Thank you!! Appreciate all the walk throughs & detail work. This is where spending a little more can get you eons different after product. You don't always get that everywhere. This was a great video. Thanks brother!
As an old time plasterer I am amazed by all of this! Descent attics should be standard. I can't believe all I learned from you. Nice to see there are great builders out there that are always trying to make things better. Seems like the money being saved over the years would be tremendous. Thanks for the knowledge, keep up the great work!
@@ykciRI don't think in his case was the budget ;), I would not use spray foam even if I could afford it and will not use it with my build in Chicago, for sure ;)) ? (mineral wool is the way to do it ;))
@@27photogger Fire, toxic smoke if burning, outgassing, if not concerned about that then it can separate from the structure over time if the wood shrinks or house settles since it is rigid and will break providing gaps for air instead of conforming to any movement.
21:36 you should be aware that close cell spray foam in attics has caused some serious issues here in the gulf south. We found a 5 year old home with close cell caused the rafters to dry and crumble. This was identified when the inspector walked on the roof and found soft spots. When they removed the close cell foam they found no water damage but the lumber was dried out so much you could crush the 2x6 by hand. The lumber here in the gulf south must maintain some level of moisture. The spray foam solution in the gulf south is open cell and if its done right your attic space will only be 2 degrees different from the house.
Nice presentation. Being from Ontario, I knew most of this stuff. Air tightness, HRV, hot waste water heat recovery is very much coded here in new builds. 32:25 "I can't fathom why we are not doing it...." It's because it's not sexy and readily visible / hidden. So they are reluctant to sink in time / effort /or $ for things like comfort and future ROI pay back. A lot of people only stay in a house +/- 10 years, so many will not see the ROI.
I had a crappy attic. Insulation batts seemingly just thrown everywhere, rat and bat droppings, etc. I used a half-face respirator while moving all the insulation to one side and vacuuming up all the dust and crap, then laid out the insulation between the 2x4s. Then i floored it with 2x6 (where i worked, we routinely got pallets made of them, so all free wood!) Then i put more insulation under the roof, and covered the entire underside with plastic (to keep down fiberglass dust and help with moisture.) Added light fixtures, and now it's a decent storage area! Access still sucks, though. One small access hole in an upstairs bathroom.
Great video, lots of good information. Re: sealed attics, this is a complicated topic because it's counter-intuitive and it's very seldom explained well. As you say in the video, different climates have different challenges. In hot and humid climates, in a house with AC, you have to think more about humid outside air getting into the attic and then being sucked into the ducting and condensing. You may not have as many problems with water vapor from inside the house rising up into the attic, because the air-conditioned, colder interior air is more dry than the outdoor air, but I'm not sure about that. I can explain the cold climate issues a little better, because I live in a cold climate (IECC zone 5, western PA) and I've been trying to figure this out for my own house. The "what" of it is: In cold weather zones, water vapor comes from inside the house and will naturally rise into the attic. The water vapor will either exhaust through vents in a vented attic, or get trapped in a sealed attic and eventually condense and cause mold issues. If you want to seal your attic then you have to plan for clearing out that water vapor, whether that's a dehumidifier or a return air duct or whatever. (One common approach is to clear out any attic floor insulation and hope that natural air exchange between the attic and the floor below will clear out the water vapor). The "why" of it is: 1. Water vapor is molecularly lighter than air, so it rises like helium. 2. In cold weather, water vapor is mainly coming from inside the home. We think of cold weather as wet weather, but that's because the cold causes the moisture to condense and end up on the ground, so you're left with wet (or snow covered) ground and dry air. Inside the house the air is warmer and relatively more humid. 3. In houses with traditional vented attics, the water vapor rises up into the attic and then out through the vents. 4. In houses with sealed attics, you have to plan for what happens to that water vapor, i.e. make sure that it will get cleared out of the attic. This topic is complicated by the fact that every house's structure and family's usage patterns are different, so an approach that can work fine for one house/family may cause problems for another. For example, my parents house has had fiberglass insulation against the roof deck for 42 years and it's still fine. But somebody else might not have the same results. Also, I think part of the counter-intuitiveness is that people think of the attic as being part of the inside of the house, but it wasn't originally meant to be. The cubic volume of the attic is "accidental space". It's not there as part of the house interior but rather because it's really, really hard to make a waterproof roof without taking advantage of gravity.
Of all the comments to this video, yours is the one that is the most spot on--a true "emperor has no clothes" insight. You have stated the obvious, but most overlooked. The cost to create a conditioned space in the attic creates two issues: the cost to seal and insulate at the roof vs. at the ceiling and the cost to now cool and heat that space. As you stated, the best solution is to avoid having the HVAC system and ducts in the attic. Just look at how all the multistory condos and hotels install the mechanicals and ducts using closets and soffits and dropped ceilings. I live in hot northern LA county (more than one hundred 90-110 degree days) with a 15 year old 5 k photovoltaic system that provides for all the energy needs with 5 mini-split heat pumps (installed at less than half the cost of replacing a central air system) in my 1800 sq. ft 1950's house. My "crappy" ventilated attic has blown-in insulation with no perforations except for bath and kitchen exhaust fans that vent at the roof. The conditioned attic is nice if you need the space for storage, but it is a very expensive storage space. It is far more cost effective to focus on reducing the need to store crap than to not have a "crappy" attic.
@@froger580 No, the comment is deliberately ignoring key points made in the video such as how in Texas basements are rare due to the solid rock we tend to sit on making basements incredible expensive to build. If you don't have a basement and don't want to put it in the attic you either need very thick walls or you have to build a crawlspace on top of the slap to run ducts under there, which increases the cost dramatically as well. If your PV cells are on the roof, that is a major factor in reducing the temp of the attic as it creates an additional barrier to the roof. In the portion where he talks about his house you can see that he essentially does much of the same effect by making it really two roofs with insulation between. Rephrasing what was said in the video is not insightful, nor pointing out something allegedly "overlooked."
I love your Rockwool attic. I've got a 1935 Hyde Park bungalow in the North Loop area. I've had several people say I should spray foam the roof to make an envelope but the problem is that it is an older metal roof with screws on the flats and they start to leak after a few years as the sun kills the gasket and expansion works them back out. But what you've done to encapsulate the whole house with zip and then put iso on top and build out the roof another 4" is interesting. I am taking off my teardrop wood siding later this year to put sheathing on the outside and to better seal my new windows. I'll have to consider what I want to do for the roof at that point. Love your videos!
I feel like people still build crappy attics because people that buy houses don't know the difference. They cost more but usually don't sell any better. The people that DO know build all their own stuff. So why would someone spend a Lil more money on a home attic if it doesn't really benefit them? I may just be ignorant, but I learn a lot from you. And I think it's absolutely amazing you throw all this information from your years of experience out there for everyone to see for free. This knowledge is a goldmine. It will help build my dream home, and hopefully I can spread knowledge and help bring everyone forward one day Like you have.
He kept saying, it’s not that much more expensive, but I have no concept of how much is not much. I agree we’re going to have to force people to spend more per sq ft, but how much more does this add. How many more people are out of the market because increased built in costs keep them out. I personally like the idea a lot and have added it to my list of wants on the next house, but I hesitate to have govt mandate it like the state of CA where I’m told it’s now mandatory to have sprinklers and solar panels in residential construction.
Insulating the roof would be pretty much all that is needed. I am guessing that spray foam on the underside would cost 10 to 15 thousand dollars for a 1500sf house. Another option would be to use SIP's for the roof. The builder could offer an option at a specific upcharge and the government could provide a tax reduction or percentage rebate to the buyer. The government has to help in some way or it is just not going to happen. We may be moving to a point when only the affluent can afford single family homes and the rest of us will settle for multi family housing.@@matthewbono3273
@@Armand9100 You complain about making homes more expensive in the same paragraph as mandating them to be more expensive. That isn't a solution. Besides, as someone with decades of experience with government mandated technology all you wind up doing is stifling innovation and keeping it more expensive because functionally it becomes the government selecting a "winner" and literally excluding other options. Over time this compounds into a nasty effect. For example, consider how much Faxes are still required in almost anything government involved and how that has slowed the progression of major industries such as healthcare to adopt more modern data interchange. Because back in the '80s faxes became a mandate - and now its been an uphill battle to migrate things to digital systems that are far faster, more flexible, and all around better but because the mandate is "facsimile machine" aren't allowed to be used.
The rise in housing prices is due to general economic conditions such as inflation and supply and demand. This type of increase cannot be recouped. Although insulating a roof increases the up front cost it provides savings for the life of the house. Also reduced energy consumption benefits the entire population. If it were mandated building and insulation contractors would be scrambling to innovate and compete.@@IAmTheRealBill
The great thing about this vid is that it helps get the building community off auto pilot for attic/roof/ceiling construction. I'm 500 miles north of you, so we get the heat/cool cycles. The big difference, as you have pointed out, is that most of our heating equipment is somewhere in the living space. With that, 99% of homes here have ducts draped all over the attic. Personally, i have searched but have never seen a study done on the "vs" of spraying closed cell directly on the ceiling joists vs closed cell on the roof rafters. If we spray the roof rafters, there is an element of cost associated with heating/cooling that attic space. I have never seen exactly what that is. So, our method is to stop the cycle of heat exchange at the ceiling level and insulate the heck out of any ducts up in the attic. Someday, it would be be good to see the cost-benefits of going this route vs the conditioned attic.
I have thought it was crazy for years why attics were not conditioned just like the rest of the house. The air quality is so much better in addition to not working the air conditioner as hard. You said it in the video but it really is lika a basement that just happens to be up top. Great video and explanation.
At least half of the houses I've built.. I convinced the owners to add rooms upstairs and add a stairway, etc.. and get a lot more footage out of the house. Which forced them to think about what attic is left and optimize it for all the mechanical stuff. Even if they didn't fully finish those rooms, it sure made a better house because it forced them to insulate the rafters (like you're showing). So I agree, help push the owners to maximize their attic and basement areas and you'll have happy customers in the end.
This is an excellent video. I like the concept of a cmanopoly house. who is curious how you get the rock wool to stay when normally it is stapled in place. It was clear to me that the zips sheathing wouldn't grip staples. I noticed the black straps bridging the joist, apparently holding the rockwool in place. It was big on your house, but they were smaller on the other house.
Coming From a non construction background (IT guy myself) but hands on hand guy that I am, When I First moved to the U.S. 24 years ago, I always found very strange the way ATTICs are constructed.. My critical thinking always agreed with your awesome ATTIC way.. And All my thoughts during all these years proved to be right by watching this video.. I was Right all along, even though I had to Fight with Building Inspectors about my detached garage I built completely air tight attic because they want to see Roof ventilation by their city code ...
Being a 63 year Florida resident and owning my own HVAC company having almost 45 years in the trade there are a few things I wished you would have touched on . Although a tight structure is awesome remember all the chemicals from pest control to everyday products emit fumes that cannot escape and build up , I would recommend some type of an air exchange system for a healthy home. After being in attics that were over the 130 degrees I can tell you how much happier your system would be in a conditioned space and for the person doing maintenance it’s definitely a plus. That being said trying to talk the builder into the upgrade is not an easy task.
You know as a AC tech I’m always happy when I get to go in an attic and I can comfortably work on AC units also installing or troubleshooting and I’ve also have had days where I have to craw to the unit full of fiberglass and that sir is a really crappy day for me..
OTOH I love this content, it's very smart and well presented, and tooooo easy for me to binge; OTOH we have an older home and watching this late at night results in a very sleep deprived me. Gotta start watching it first thing in the morning...
I find it rather wild that houses are actually built with the HVAC in the attic. Owned multiple houses in Louisiana, Texas, and Florida which have all used a closet HVAC which places it within the controlled space. The best one, in central Texas, had ceramic coated hard ducting and a (older) Carrier control system you would find in a commercial building with sensors in each room, dynamic airflow balancing, etc which even included the walk in closets. Massive overkill but apparently the guy who built the house designed HVAC systems for big commercial buildings and it was his retirement home. Bought it as an estate sale and didn't realize what I got until the home inspector freaked a little while checking out the attic.
In Australia it is beyond crappy. 70% are tiled roofs without any house wrap at all, just bare tiles. I’m genuinely amazed by US and Canadian house tech that appears to be years ahead in HVAC technology.
Biggest thing about last attic imo... is making sure that the unit can actually fit in up those stairs... experience tells me taking off those stairs are gonna have to go to get a replacement unit up in the attic that could be a all-day job... But could get blessed if you can just remove the railings and the unit fits...
The American methods of construction were designed to be as cheap and quick as possible. If you stop to actually think about what you're doing, you can compare your house to a water reservoir. If you're building a water reservoir, you want to ensure that all joints and seams are welded together, to keep the water in. A house, principally, is the exact same thing except that it keeps water(and wind) out. If you build a house without windows or doors, you should be able to pressurize it. If you can't pressurize it, then you've built a faulty house. The same can be said for basements/foundations where we know that concrete has a certain amount of permeability, we either need to erect an additional water barrier or irrigate around it in such a way as to prevent water from reaching the concrete.
I definitely would be interested in a video showing how to take crappy to good or great. Lots of people have an existing crappy attic.
I second that 👍🏼
What about asphalt roof can you spray foam that and still have it vented ?
Would be good. I live in Western Australia. What you are showing as 70’s in Texas is what is in new right now for us in WA.
None of it is good but it’s all we have to work with.
How can we make it better? Where to start?
He has a video doing this (somewhat) I believe it's titled Insulation 2.0. They suck out all the insulation. They seal every on the attic floor like between the joists/drywall, can lights, etc.
why no absement sin texas?
This is a good book. Does provide a step by step introduction to how to build things ruclips.net/user/postUgkxhgbP-6hUnXu_QRaoHgLztgsI0YF3HqR0 , also does offer some steps. Includes pictures to give you ideas for layouts and such. If you are looking for a guide, this is not exactly what you want. But if you are trying to familiarize yourself with the way that pole barn building and other out buildings, are made, then this will work just as you need it to. A few things in this book are a barn (of course), detached garage, storage building, and coops.
This could be an entire series. How to turn a crappy attic into a good and great attic in every climate zone from paper/concept to completion and the common pitfalls people run into during the process and how to avoid and/or overcome them
What about attic humidity with the spray foam: ruclips.net/video/_GStKHVCWWw/видео.html
Climate would not matter. You would just go for a texas attic with or without a basement. Then have your basement be open for whatever you want instead of noisy hvac. The texas attic make sense for any attic because the space is otherwise unused.
@@aussie2uGA This is a complicated topic because it's counter-intuitive and it's very seldom explained well. Also, as he says in the video, different regions/climates have different issues. I'll try to write a longer comment above to explain this, but the short version is that:
In cold weather zones, water vapor comes from inside the house and will naturally rise into the attic and either exhaust through vents in a vented attic, or get trapped in a sealed attic and eventually condense and cause mold issues. If you want to seal your attic then you have to plan for clearing out that water vapor, whether that's a dehumidifier or a return air duct or whatever. (One common approach is to clear out any attic floor insulation and hope that natural air exchange between the attic and the floor below will clear out the water vapor. Note I said "hope"...)
In warm, humid weather zones, you worry more about pulling outside air in, which is warm and humid. It hits the AC in the attic* and either condenses on the exterior of the AC machinery (which is pretty cool) or worse gets sucked into leaky ducting and condenses inside, leading to some of the problems shown in the video.
(* Warm weather zone houses tend to have ACs in the attic, because they don't have basements, because houses in those zones don't need to worry about frost heave and don't have a frost line, and also often have a near-surface water table.)
In every climate zone... that's beyond the scope of this channel.
Yea, but he get's no ad rev for it. you lose your ad rev when you swear in the first 2 minutes of the video now, I think. This was a good potential series about addicts.
Important tip, watch your duct work install, those guys often want to take the shortest path (makes sense) but will also eat up all your attic space putting duct work out in the middle of what could be very accessible storage. You can tell he either monitored the install, or had guys who knew what he wanted, given how the ducting is all secured to the ceiling rather then being strung all over itself on the decking. Very nicely done.
Well, it was his house, so he got what he wanted lol... Agree though... every thing in my attic is strung in the worst, laziest way possible and though its big, it is 0% usable.
I would be more worried about flex duct. Never run more than 7-8 feet of flex duct per run because it is so restrictive to airflow
I had a duct guy run duct in my attic and he was great. Ran that ductwork around the perimeter of the finished attic to give me maximum storage space. So they're not all bad.
The HVAC system should not be in the attic to begin with. So "finishin" the attic is a $30k mistake on top of a mistake,
@@M13x13M Well, No basements here, so options are limited, especially when you are trying to optimize living area not storage area.
It would be AWESOME if you did a budget remodel of a house, like you were originally planning to do with your house. A lot of us are wanting to see that whole process you teased us with.
There’s not much money in budget projects, unfortunately. I would like to see that too though
dong a 'budget' remodel implies less than best practices. not necessarily bad, but more 'good better best'. matt sometimes does 'good better best' but not usually.
@stevecrawford6958 nah it just implies not buying overpriced shitt u don't need
it's impossible to do a budget remodel when all these companies send you free shit
It will never happen. The problem with a lot of his content is that the building techniques just aren't economically viable. The only people using his techniques are the ultrawealthy who have more money than sense.
The concept of clipped rafters and extending the house wrap up and over the roof is pretty easy to understand. What I didn't quite catch was how you then built the deck on top of that to re-extend the eaves. Would love to see more detail about that aspect of the build. Great vid! Thanks!
27:50 covers it somewhat. He may have other videos on it. Basically they're 2x4 sized LVL beams (engineered lumber) fastened to the roof framing on top of the main roof rafters. They extend up the roof 2 to 3 times the length of the overhang to give proper cantilever support. Then the 2 layers of rigid insulation is placed on top of the original ZIP system roof deck, and cut around those secondary "rafter" tails.
I didn’t get it either. however, the picture shows a grid, so it must be something like 2 x 4 on edge filled in with insulation. But it seems like he also said that those rafters don’t extend all the way to the top of the roof, so maybe only the two by fours run horizontal full length, and as far as the pit goes, little pony raptors extend up the roof pitch, maybe 2 feet or 4 feet past the wall.
@@Patrick94GSR: OK that’s what I thought I saw, thank you for confirming, also wise choice to use LVL.
It probably was a ringtail (Bassariscus astutus) not a lemur (Lemuroidea family) in your attic. Ringtails are found all through out Texas, lemurs only in Madagascar. Still cool because (1) ringtails are awesome and (2) they are not really all that common.
The way he casually said lemurs...
@@slickmcCool Twice! Like a boss!
I’m from the north and I’ve been trying to research what he meant by “lemurs”. Thank you for the info
I just posted a comment asking about why he said lemur. I was huh? No lemurs wild in the U.S. I like your explanation. Thank you.
I bet he calls a bison a buffalo.
For your house, I'd love to see how you handled the exhaust issues for appliances like microwaves and ESPECIALLY dryers.
Microwaves don't require exhaust and he installed a heat pump dryer which also does not require exhaust.
The only things that need exhaust is the ERV and the Kitchen vent.
I was having a house built, 11course walk-out basement, 9’ 1st floor ceilings, 2nd story with 3rd floor walk-up attic - I requested that the 3rd floor be constructed using a truss design that would offer the largest open spaces - my request was received by the custom home builder as if I insulted his honor and integrity… we ended up hiring an architect to design what we wanted and he recommended a custom builder that could/would do the job…
Live and learn
Wow, what an attitude from the builder. You're literally paying for him to build it to your requirements! 🤷🤦
Attic space should not be wasted just cause the builder can't plan properly.
The 1925 American foursquare I grew up in had an actual staircase heading to the attic. I dont think anyone does that anymore. I dont know why not.
If you want open attic space skip the trusses. Roof rafters work perfectly fine.
Make an attic…but also make a second (3rd American) floor.
@@kurtvonfricken6829 the house my dad is renovating has one too. it was made in 1906. its a double.
"Thought and care ahead of time" = design.
One of the things I love about your videos is their focus on sunbelt homes. I built an icf/sips house by Mueller about a decade ago and during my research realized that most energy efficiency info out there was about snow belt homes.
Great shots of the SIP house you built. I would love to hear more about what you think of SIPs.
Attic access: In the future use a raised heal roof which you build 2 foot to 4 foot walls along the sides so the roof height is raised. This also makes it a lot easier to run duct work along the sides of the attic leaving more space in the center available for storage or just maintenance access.
This is actually quite common practice in Europe. We recently built a house and we did the same, the attic space is living space with attic windows and raised heal roof
Amen! Love how he built his own home. I just had my ductwork caulked and re insulated attic to r 60 in south Texas, did the best as could be done on a 25 year old stilt home next to the bay. I can’t help thinking about a radiant barrier as well inside attic roof. New roof has ridge vents put in, I need to put sensor back up there to monitor how hot it gets and put in a gable end vent fan. It was getting up to 120 Fahrenheit up there last summer. I do notice my a/c is not cycling on as much so I’m hoping it will make a difference on my power bill. Heat index has been 115 down here in south Texas, power went out early this morning until 12 pm, house stayed cool until it came back on. I wish all builders were like him!
I have a barn shape with space on the sides but I am going to add drywall so I'll be closing off the sides: foamed roof deck to the eaves, and the knee walls will have two layers 5/8" + insulation for soundproofing. Am I running a high risk of mildew or issues? I wonder if the solution is as easy as running to/from 4" flex ducts so I can hook up a dehumidifier at some point?
@@GregoryGuay Depends on multiple factors: is there eaves vents, how humid is your area. Typically interior moisture moves up into the attic, and condenses on the colder roof sheathing. In a vented attic airflow prevents any significant condensation. If your installing drywall the the condensed moisture can become trapped and accumulate. An attic dehumidifer would definitely help, but may not guarantee you don't have issues. I would install a drain line for the dehumidifier, since odds are some one is going to forget to empty the bin. Perhaps get the dehumidified running and see if it can maintain RH below 60% before installing drywall.
Generally finished attics need to be apart of the building HVAC envelope to reduce condensate build up.
@@guytech7310 Eaves were sealed off with spray foam w/ the roof deck. Charleston, SC is very humid. I currently have a dehumidifier, small cheap one, in the approximate 1,000 sq foot attic space. No AC up there, but the lower level of course travels up through the ceiling. The dehumidifier is connected to HVAC drain so I could continue that...
I kind of miss my mom and dads house. Yet it was built in 1920, but it was the first and only time I have ever experienced a full set of steps from my old bedroom that went up to the attic. It was frickin awesome. It’s a shame we never finished it.
This is a great video! As an electrician and electrical contractor, for decades, I've been preaching this for many many years. I agree, why are houses still being built the OLD way?
There are hundreds of houses being built in my area the old way with such poor quality that they don't even meet standards of the 1960s ugh!
The customer just doesn't realize what they're getting and what it's costing them in the long run. Let's step into the current century and make some changes.
I would love a video on a retrofit attic for the north. Two topics you don't normally cover, but I'd love to see it.
Matt I am curious if you or one of the Build Show contributors might have some suggestions on retrofitting an old unconditioned attic and making it an improved attic.
I lived in a 2 family 1930's house in Boston which was build by National Lumber, the attic was beautiful. I can't imagine not having an attic and a basement, or all the wonderful wood work.
I cant imagine not having my basement (An extra kitchen, 2 bedrooms/office, media room and 1500 sq ft of wood shop). My attic still needs some love but flooring options are really slim
I agree with you Ms Heart.
I designed and built my own house out here in California with the weather similar to that of the southeast, except not so humid.
I have NO Attic. All of the interior space is living space including lofts and lofted ceilings. Therefore no upper space is wasted. My cottage is magnificent, and I have a very thick roof with proper ventilation and insulation.
I also have a basement. Very very rarely are basements ever built in California, even millionaires and billionaires don’t do it much. What a missed opportunity!
My basement covers 1/2 as much as the upper floor space and has a storage area and a studio apartment.
Not trying to take the side of women, because I’m a guy, but there are not enough women involved in house design, and if there were we would have a lot better houses. I work in building, almost always the women have better ideas than men. It is a stark reality.
@@steveperreira5850 False, you are spreading misinformation. "there are not enough women involved in house design, and if there were we would have a lot better houses. I work in building, almost always the women have better ideas than men. It is a stark reality." Its not reality, cut the misandry.
It would be so cool to see you compile a list of like minded builders around the States & Canada that are like minded to your processes. That way those of us who arent in the South US or local to Texas can find builders like you when we need them or want them. I wouldnt know where to begin finding a custom builder, let alone vetting them to see if they're knowledgeable like you.
As an HVAC pro who does remods on many problem duct systems, a home can either positive or negative or neutral depending on quantity and location (supply or return) of the duct leakage. I had a return knocked of the boot in my attic by some storage mishap and it made the house very humid and 2.3pascals positive!
Great videos Matt! Love your work!
My house was built in 56. I have lived here for 27+ yrs and just this week went in my attic for the first time. Original insulation, so none by todays standards. I have learned so much by just watching this video on how to go from CRAPY to AWESOME.
Dude has an OSHA compliant access to his own attic. A true professional.
Nah, a guy with money. Employers make money by exploiting workers for profit, which, in any other universe, would be theft.
@@ProleDaddy Me thinks you're replying to the wrong comment.
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872lol 😂😂😂😂😂
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872he's got a point, we live where the boss of the company lives in a nice suburban homes and his workers making the money are struggling with money and addictions. Not a single boss I worked for gave a fuck about the employees, they all had "you should be thankfully you're working" mentality
@@MadLadCustoms Ok. But it's still wildly off-topic for what he's replying to. It doesn't matter if he's right or wrong. The topic at hand is a guardrail and he's off in left field talking about Marxism.
I really appreciate this video. I had my house built in 1993, moved in the very last week of. It was (and still is) my first house. I accumulated pages of “wants” for a number of years as I had anticipated this being my only house, I envisioned starting my career and retiring from it all walking in the same front door. This did happen, I’m 5 years into retirement! Needless to say some details/wants do get missed for the list. One major disappointment was why the heating/cooling/duct system was in my crappy attic! The system has four thermostatically controlled zones with hyperbaric bypasses etc. The zoning computer and duct damper motors being in the attic under the worst possible conditions in the summer and winter simply didn’t make sense, so after much consternation I dreamed up ways to create a conditioned space for the HVAC and duct controls. I came very close to installing insulation bats under the roof myself but oh what a job I figured it would be with my higher pitched roof. In the mean time I kept on replacing the controls since the plastics (housings/gears/etc) would become brittle and break about every 8 years. I worked on ideas for years until 2010 when I ran across a company at a builder’s convention who demonstrated their closed-cell spray foam installation system. I asked if this cold be applied to an already built home and they said yes. I asked if all the blown-in fiberglass insulation would be vacuumed out, they said yes. I asked what would be done with the turtle vents (attic ventilation) near the roof peaks, they would be blocked off but one or two would have to remain if I had a gas furnace. At the time I didn’t. I built my house with the intent of being all-electric but still had it plumbed for gas everywhere as a possible convenience for future equipment possibilities. I told them I would soon be replacing the all-electric heat-pump (w/30 kW back-up heat strip air handler) with gas just before the system turns 20 years old, so they said two vents would have to remain open. My house with 3300 sq ft under a 7/12 pitch roof would run about $10,000 to perform all this work. They came out June of 2010, did the work and I couldn’t be happier. The fellows who did the re-insulation work were absolute troopers. It certainly helped with my roof pitch being 7/12, meaning they were able to get almost everywhere by standing upright. The downside is more surface to foam than a lower pitch but this project was so darn worth every penny because of the performance to date, even with the requirement to have two of the attic vents remaining unblocked because of gas being plumbed/used in the attic. Made a HUGE difference in my utility bill, plus I can be in my attic any time of the year and be quite comfortable. The best part is the plastics in any piece of equipment no longer exhibit accelerated aging from the extreme seasonal temperature swings in Amarillo, TX. I had the HVAC totally replaced in 2012, employing a variable speed 23 SEER condenser and a gas furnace/air handler. The contractor for this bit said the best thing I had ever done to prepare him for this job was the spray foam under the roof, so much so, he was able to design a lower capacity system than what I had previously.
paragraph breaks, my man. i wanna read this but there's no way to keep my place in a wall of text.
@@lurklingXCapital letters, my man. The irony is thick.
You are describing my house! Zoned HVAC. Crappy attic insulation on attic floor. I’m replacing all electric HVAC system in a couple of years with gas heat. The unit in the attic looks like crap. Built in 2009. I bought 12/22 due to my home being destroyed. Didn’t choose to rebuild due to many factors. I always read to use open cell insulation in the southern states. Now you all say closed cell. So, closed cell it is between rafters. Once that is done, do I need to pull out rolled insulation between floor joists? Or will company doing blown in cell remove it? Thank you all very much! S. Hall (this is my son’s RUclips account)
@@Xrager101x When I asked the fellows about vacuuming out the attic floor insulation they said it actually was a recommendation of their’s to aid in passively conditioning the attic. Temp swings in the attic would sharply reduce (they certainly have!) and benefit the operation and longevity of the HVAC equipment and duct work suspended from under the roof.
We’ve had many weeks this past summer in the low 100’s. Though my attic was warm it was not hot, no where near enough to chase me out while routing new CAT6 cables among drops to various rooms, though my shirt eventually got wet in the usual places. It was actually workable whereas before the environment was quite unbearable even with summer temps in the 90’s.
We get well below freezing (teens, single digits) for extended periods in the winter, sometimes below 0. Before, I could put an ice tray of water on the insulation covering the attic floor and it would readily freeze. The attic now, though cooler than in the house is still quite bearable.
The system no longer has to work so hard to overcome extreme heat to cool the house, nor quite the opposite in the winter.
I grew up in a builder’s home, it was the best house in the neighborhood in weird ways. It had 3 foot overhangs double the closet space, a fully decked attic, two drains in the toe kick in the kitchen, double hurricane straps, plantation shutters throughout and 4 1/2 bathrooms in a 4 bedroom house. All one level and tight as a drum. He had planned to retire in that home but then someone built 3 story apartments directly behind the property so he moved. If you know, you know, but the builder was Pat Miramon in southern Louisiana.
😣
I find most homes are built as cheap as possible.... very sad
@@Turri_Moreira Housing costs are already skyrocketing. Building the way Matt does would only increase those costs. There are plenty of well built homes out there if you are willing to pay through the nose or hire a custom homebuilder to make it for you. We have a huge shortage of cheap housing right now. If we doubled the number of houses we built every year, it would still take us a decade to satistify the current demand for housing. Interest rates have tripled in the last two years and housing prices have only increased because there just isn't enough supply.
The house next door to me is a builder's home, kind of a grand showcase home in a large HOA neighborhood, and it's probably 50% larger than any others here - at least 6500sqft. 3-story columns on the front of the house, three stories of covered porches in the back, a cedar master closet, and so on. The builder also never lived there. And every family that moves in (there have been 4 since I've been here) uncovers another terrible construction fiasco under the surface. Radon problems, mold, bad foundation, an arched window that cut through a load-bearing ceiling joist, an unsealed attic full of rodents, missing insulation, poorly installed windows, the entire third story (and stairs) built on particle board and MDF. Quite the money pit.
@@brooke510 He probably didn’t treat his subs right and they screwed him over knowing he was going to be living in the home 😂
On a serious note, it’s hard to make the economics work on a house that’s so much better than the neighborhood it’s in. The people who can afford to live in a house like that don’t want to live around people who are so much worse off than them. The decreased demand ends up pushing the value of the home down.
Matt love your channel, I wish you can do more videos on attic remodels. You did one on your house before you decided to start from the ground up. I'm not a contractor just a home owner that has a 1986 home that needs an upgrade to the attic and AC system. The summers in Vegas NV are getting more and more brutal.
My wife and I, and a friend Insulated our entire garage; applied vapor barrier then we hung drywall. It took the three of us quite a long to complete this project, but I was determined for us to get this project done, and done correctly and properly. My wife and I paid someone else to mud the seams; tape the seams; then paint our entire garage. Our garage looks and functions very well.
You did an amazing job in you garage with insulation; vapor barrier, then hanging OSB on the walls and ceilings!
I liked your techniques with straightforward solutions to challenging situations whilst working alone in your garage!
I cannot wait to see what you do next in your garage,
Well done, Sir!
I am not a builder but this vid is super insightful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and the detailed explanations from the concept, to materials to building it out. Cheers!
I have experience as an instructor.
The gentleman is an awesome instructor, only 35 minutes in, very easy to learn from.
Hey Matt, I love the scientific mindset that you bring to building, especially with regard to the air-tightness of the structure, since that should always be the first line of defense in keeping indoor from outdoor. Only then can you make decisions about whether or not you even need a furnace, and instead just a heat pump. A friend of mine just built a new house well above code and discovered after an air leakage test that between the r-55 attic and r-40 walls, she didn't need a furnace. The kicker .... she lives in southern Ontario, Canada. I wish the North American building codes would get with the rest of the world and upgrade their requirements - Europe is about 20 years ahead.
Yeah, let’s encourage the government to enact more
regulation because freedom is overrated. Geez
@@jphickory522 If the builders were more scientifically minded, and did it themselves, then there'd be no reason to ever get the government involved. Like Mr. Matt here. He even says that you don't necessarily need to increase the price by a boatload to do it.
@@jphickory522 You've got a choice. Either businesses can be free to sell you shoddy unsafe houses and fill your food with poison, or you as the actual citizen can be free to know that your house is wholesome to live in and your food is wholesome to eat.
Pick one.
Sealed, insulated saltbox with an "overroof". That's *exactly* what I did for my major remodel in 2017 for the exact same reasons: maximizing continuity of the insulation and barrier. Very unusual, but I'm quite happy with the resulting look and thermal performance. Super cool to see others trying this approach.
When I was a kid, my family built a house in northern BC so I got to see the insulation and windows as they went in. I now live in Houston and am horrified at the shoddy methods used. Insulation and air seal are basically mocked, in favor of putting in a huge A/C. I'm hoping to build in a couple of years and will definitely follow some of the recommendations you make here. I'm curious to hear what your thoughts on the bardominium style house that I learned about after moving here.
Not interested in spray foam (doing Rockwool), but my real struggle with a sealed attic, is the risk of condensation when a traditional roof is installed (asphalt shingle and tar paper on sheathing).
yes, you have a problem. cheapest solution is 4” of spray foam to resolve your venting issue, then the rest with your rockwool though you would be better off spending the cash an filling the cavity with closed cell spray in. The combination of 2 insulation types reduces the up front cost and allows for an unvented roof.
Spray foam is terrible in southeast US. It's a textbook perfect environment for termites flying and ground. You can't even inspect the wood. Don't fall for this fad. Or else your home will be held up by foam alone.
The one thing you missed, is actually drywalling. Your attic can actually be a completely functional usable space and this is actually very common in Europe.
It’s such a waste to throw away what is essentially an entire free floor (if you’re insulating on the roof side) it also means it’s much easier to keep clean no dust collecting in your Rockwool, no critters. Makes it much easier to keep it a tidy space.
he didn't miss it, the way the HVAC is setup it's in the free space. drywalling it wouldn't have made an appreciable different to making it a usable space, as all that equipment would still be in the open space.
Making it usable space would increase the home square footage and in turn the property taxes.😮
@@allent555 not unless it’s taller than 6’. Everything less than 6’ isn’t taxable
He discusses drywall at 29:30
@@allent555 only after you sell. And only the parts that are tall enough.
The "umbrella" approach to your roof is genius. I will have to do some cost analysis to determine the additional costs, but it is something we will consider for our new build. Thanks!
Thanks Matt
You've really motivated me to do better on my next house build. Really enjoying your content.
Great video and info on this one Matt! For remodels, especially of historic homes where we can't change the roof profile and don't want to introduce spray foam to the roof deck, I have been toying with the idea of building a conditioned and insulated box around the HVAC equipment in a vented attic, and then doing a "flash and fill" on the attic side of the ceiling with closed cell to seal it and loose fill for the rest of the R value, with the ducts buried in the loose fill instead of hanging in the air.
Absolutely amazing video! You blew my mind with the concept of sealing the attic space into the living space. I know you film for builders. But my mind is reeling with ideas on how to renovate my house which has a basement and a crappy attic. 😅
Every time i watch one of these videos I get excited about building technology. I'm almost 50 and these videos make me wonder why I never got into this trade. Matt you do great work! I've learned so much from these videos and I've only scratched the surface of your content.
Took a break from playing Starfield so I could eat some lunch, clicked on this video since it was recommended, and came away with an overwhelming desire to insulate my attic better.
Yes nothing says good living like fiberglass fibers and particles everywhere
@@Meekseek so....sarcasm aside can you clarify your comment without the insulting behavior? Until this video I had no opinion on the subject apparently you do have one. What is it and why?
@@vulpinemachine Spray foam is terrible for wooden structures and was meant for all metal buildings. It's a textbook perfect environment for termites flying and ground. You can't even inspect the wood. Don't fall for this fad. Or else your home will be held up by foam alone. This guy is spreading terrible advice. This video is full of stupidity
This is fantastic! I live in a New Orleans, 2 story house built in 1945. The attic is massive and when we bought it, completely uninsulated. We added 2-3’ of blown insulation which helped but if you’ve lived in Louisiana, you know how hot and humid it can get.
Anyway, this video helped me to rethink how to go from crappy to average. The attic will never be awesome, but hopefully we can improve our cooling.
Subscribed for your upcoming videos!
Same here in Iowa, but I added enough blown-in on top of what was there to bring it up to about R100
@@HobbyOrganistdid you have to air seal your attic to do that?
I’ve put a plywood floor in several attics to make it into a light storage space. Easy to insulate-add lighting-add shelving- beef up the joists and add sum 3/4” subfloor decking-
Properly done, the ventilated attic is the highest and best design for cost vs. efficiency that there is. The only real restriction is that you can't have your HVAC up there. That's it. As long as any penetrations from below are well-sealed and its got a good vent ratio and is protected from wind-washing with a good R-60 or so in the "bathtub," it will be _very_ hard to compete with long-term.
What do you mean by “bathtub”?
@@kc9scott A friend of mine is the OP above. He told me that he has answered you twice but both posts have been immediately removed though they had no links or anything else unusual about them. So I am going to attempt to post his reply in different language and see if it gets through whatever is happening on YT or with this channel. Your question is best answered by Joe Lstiburek, a building envelope engineer. If you do a search for -- building science insights to vent or not to -- it should come up. (My reference is missing normal punctuation in case that has something to do with the problem, maybe referring to the work of someone else.)
@@mpenner2124 OK, thanks, I checked it out. For others casually reading here, the “bathtub” is the attic floor (really the ceiling of the level below), along with any vertical barriers needed along the outer edge to hold in loose-fill insulation, and to stop air from blowing through that insulation.
Why can’t you have a vented attic with the HVAC up there? The HVAC company I used moved my HVAC to the attic instead of garage, said so it was more centrally located
@@27photogger Did you watch this video? Or the other one my friend referred to above? They explain why. It’s about a 25% energy loss.
Awesome video, great tips! I redid a 60's attic a while ago and sucked out all the old stuff + droppings. new vents, radiant barrier roof, it was a lot of work but worth it. On my new builds I'm going with conditions attics and try to get to awesome! I also painted the old brick white, which rejects a lot of the Texas heat, brick went from scolding hot in the afternoon to warm to the touch. but I didn't achieve much for house seal. I did foam up all the cable penetrations and gaps I could see attic to ceiling-wise.
That R-50 roof is genius, best way to go for Texas. I saw another youtube builder doing something similar but the nailed the eaves to the siding which I felt was structurally weak and will sag eventually.
Thanks again!
Thanks Matt! I've watched most (if not all) of your Rebuild series. Did I miss how you handled the plumbing vents and such that would normally penetrate the roof?
Love this. I always wonder why the biggest investment we ever make pays for typically pretty shoddy work. I'm in a 70s era house in TX and it was built probably pretty well. Not great, but *definitely* better than some of the mass-produced houses built these days. I've got the "crappy" attic. Definitely want the awesome one. I nerd out over quality stuff like this. Not sure how feasible it would be to tell a builder, "Hey I've been watching youtube and here's what I want..." Not sure I'll ever be building, though :)
Houses are already expensive enough. If you implement everything Matt talks about, then you're going to double the cost per sqft to build a home. Houses are already too expensive and we're not making them fast enough. A lot of the "improvements" he talks about will never pay for themselves with energy savings. Things like 2x6 construction on exterior walls and increased insulation will take 15-20 years to justify the added expense. Most people stay in their home for 7-10 years. The people paying for the home will never recoup the investment.
I wish I could find a good builder like you in my area to build my house.
Great video! I live in a suburb of Chicago, yes I have ranch home with a full basement and an attached three car garage (this is my second home with a three car garage). I do have a play room in the basement along with a full shower bath and a combo furnace/workshop/storage room. My home has lots of closet space, including a mud room with storage. My home was built with engineered walls and trusses built off site. I have a pull down ladder in the garage to access my attic space. The attic is blow in fiberglass insulation, but not over the garage. The home has 9’ ceilings and a a lofted ceiling that goes up to 14’ in the family room and entryway. Because of the 9’ ceilings, the garage ceiling is 10 1/2’ high. This allowed me to do perimeter shelving, 34” below the ceiling, in the garage for more storage.
PS: Storage seems to be sought after down south, why don’t you build larger and taller garages for the extra storage space needed?
PPS: My current home has lots of storage space and then some, I haven’t used up my storage space, and probably never will.
Now that you've been in your new house for a while, can you compare your energy usage for the new high performance house versus your old house across the street? Think it would be really interesting to see the details since it's the same family living in both places should be fairly apples to apples
Matt, Any contractors in Austin that do attic make overs? Remove blown in insulation, add rockwool, put subfloor down, and tidy up all the ductwork etc. Maybe even hang the HVAC systems etc.
When we bought our first house and I decided I wanted to store a lot of stuff in the attic, so I thought I’d do major cleaning. I didn’t know any better and vacuumed up all that insulation. Our house was built in the late 70’s.
I didn’t know what it was, I assumed it was the mess the builders left behind many years ago. Boy did my hubby yell at me when he found out. And I felt like an idiot woman 😢
You actually did a good thing. Houses built in the 1970's had lots of air leaks from poorly fitted dry wall, holes for wiring, plumbing, and vent pipes. After you vacuumed all the insulation out, your husband should have gone all over the attic floor with spray foam to seal all those air leaks. Then you needed to put the insulation back in of course. Or he could have had spray foam installed between the roof rafters and floored the attic for lots of good storage space.
Dang, that is a loooot of vacuuming. Though, to be fair, the insulation probably wasn’t doing much at that point.
I watched this video when it came out. Just wanted you to know that I wish I had an instructor like you when I was working in the trades. Thinking ahead and planning were always discouraged by my teacher, boss, father. I wound up learning by learning what not to do ex post facto...I hope many eager builders find your site and their instructors imitate your presence, forethought, ability to explain, and pride in your work. Well Done. God bless you. o/
The better video is how to take it from crappy to better? We’ve got a Lennar house, one year in, and I would love to improve my attic space but we couldn’t afford a spec house when it came to our first house.
He has the insulation 1.5 / 2.0 videos that at least help with that
I live in Wisconsin, my old house (story and a half with a fairly steep pitch) had the attic spray foamed by previous owner through focus on energy. They didn't use proper vent between the rafters before foaming. The roof sheeting was horizontal dimensional lumber with gaps because the original shingles years ago were cedar wood (tore off) They used OSB sheeting over the dimensional lumber so the asphalt shingles would lay flat and not sag into the gaps. With the asphalt shingles and spray foam, the temperature changes would cause condensation to form between the tar paper/shingle layer and the OSB. The OSB soaked up the condensation and couldn't dry out because of the foam and no air circulation under the decking, causing it to rot. I ended up tearing off the entire second story and rebuilding do to condensation damage.
Hi Matt. I have a quasi crappy attic with HVAC in attic but I have put attention in air sealing any holes in the ceiling, mastic ducts, and ensure no holes for animal entry. Moving the air barrier to the attic ceiling seems scientifically to make sense but is this cost effective. I am going to guess the cost of spray foam will take too many years to make a return on investment via lower energy bills. I also don’t think you can raise the value in the house by such an investment on resale because few people value high end attics. I also wonder what happens when a leak occurs in the roof. It won’t be detected as the water gets trapped between the spray foam and roof. By the time to find out it’s leaking, the roof is rotted. Abu comments or suggestions?
Don't do it! Remodeling an attic is a senseless thing to do, and it's a waste of money. This is something that celebrities who're rich and famous would do because they like flushing thousands of dollars down the drain just because they can afford it. They go and buy those multi-million-dollar mansions, and nine times out of ten they're not even at home to enjoy it because they always traveling, staying in hotels across the country.
Great content. Living in Texas my whole life (5th Generation Texan 🙂) and getting ready to build our forever home in the Texas hill county this was great info. Thanks for sharing
this is great and all. but it still makes it hard for me to decide how to retro fit something like this into my 70s style attic because the pitch of my roof is so low that my attic is a crawl space.
I’ve been slowly redoing my attic and yeah it sure does suck basically crawling through it.
@@chadhowell1328 i'd do it if i had more access. i'm not exactly skinny and even a skinny person would struggle with this.
Probably your only reasonable and easy option is outside insulation and air sealing the next time a re-roof is warranted. Removing the sheathing and replacing with zip-r sheathing or bare minimum, sealing the existing sheathing and adding exterior insulation rigid foam.
This was the perfect video for me As I live in CENTEX about an hour north of Austin, I have an attic with the open cell foam. It's actually not bad, but it could be better. I wanted to do some improvements on the space and you threw out a lot of great ways to improve it. I also want to work on the attic space above the garage. The garage is insulated and stays fairly comfortable. The space above has no insulation and your current attic setup looks like it might work for that portion of the attic.
How well does a house built like yours hold up to settling? Do the tighter tolerances present challenges? ie- if the base of the house is settling, does the taped (butted up wall to roof-line) corner hold up since everything is cinched together or will it "tear" creating a hole?
Settling is less common/severe when done on a good slab.The tighter tolerances also resist setting from the frame level a bit more due to less range of motion between materials. Following this with the tape and line seals then helps counter any minor settling that can happen by providing an additional barrier.
You should drywall that attic, exposed rockwool or fiberglass insulation is a known carcinogen, little glass fibers get in your lungs and stay there shredding them up.
fiberglass makes an incredible amount of glass fiber dust, i only happened to notice with a low setting sun shining on it and a handled the material, dust flying out like crazy. Its the new asbestos and I think we will learn the hard way.
I agree. I absolutely do not understand why fiberglass insulation is not enclosed in plastic or paper, in anything but loose.
@@Meekseekmodern fiberglass insulation is not harmful whatsoever do some research
very informative, definitely need to use this info on my home...built in '99 it has the crappy attic. We closed in the garage space, insulated with blow in, in the walls and attic, we've updated our HVAC system too...having the new info will be helpful
I built houses, and the sad part this type of construction pushes the price into top 10% earner price range, often times pushing over half a million dollars and more, making it impossible to buy by 90% of americans/canadians. I think Matt is extremely out of touch with what is affordable to an average joe and why we still have "crappy" build techniques in new houses.
To be fair, it isn't a show aimed at budget homebuyers, but a show about how the build industry is changing.
@@IAmTheRealBill fringe 1% of homes is not "changing building industry". 99% of new, 2023 built homes use like 10% of those materials and technologies.
If simple changes as this is out of touch than my space as an European is equivalent to nasa. Having multiple pest issues per street is not sustainable. I clicked on this video to figure out why Americans have those horrible, embarrassing attics. I have AC, poe speakers and so on in my ceiling and I didn't pay to much for the initial house in comparison to other homeowners in my area (not comparable building codes compared to america i know).
Tbh, he's not out of touch, he's speaking honestly about what he knows
American houses could have better build quality in exchange for smaller size and other compromises, leaving the total price not much higher. But that would require buyers prioritize efficiency, durability and low maintenance vs. McMansion features.
I live just outside of Austin and I just bought a house we’re remodeling and Gonzales on the river and I’m going to use your techniques in that space. I really appreciate us some great ideas good work.
Good work, but wonder how this will work in a more 'temperate' area, like in the northern North America,, in northern Europe, etc, where A/C is not that prevalent, nor needed, and sealing up the outside can lead to moisture getting trapped inside the building envelope and condensate on the colder exterior surface. BTW, did notice you added a foam layer on the outside of the air/moisture barrier, but is that enough when temps drop to -20C or lower?
This is something that drove me crazy through my career. Building attics with tons of space without any type of walk way or storage. I have seen attics with 20 feet of space (because of a 10/12 pitched roof) with dormer windows that go to nothing. And no thought process about usable space up there.
I was hoping to see how those of us that are currently with a crappy attic insulation situation could make it better or at least decent as a diy or contractor needed job. Just really looking for ways to make attic better with insulation since fans are not actually a way to help with keeping the temp down in a Texas attic.
The dude is just selling. Lol.
Thank you!! Appreciate all the walk throughs & detail work. This is where spending a little more can get you eons different after product. You don't always get that everywhere. This was a great video. Thanks brother!
As an old time plasterer I am amazed by all of this! Descent attics should be standard. I can't believe all I learned from you. Nice to see there are great builders out there that are always trying to make things better. Seems like the money being saved over the years would be tremendous. Thanks for the knowledge, keep up the great work!
You tongue-in-cheek call it nerdy building science, I call it a thing of beauty! Well done!
QUESTION:
Hey Matt - Why did you go with Rockwool in your house instead of polyurethane foam? Is it a longevity thing? Cost? Performace?
I’m guessing it’s the budget. 95% of Customers have a budget that can’t afford spray foam. Spray foam is way more expensive than rock wool.
@@ykciRI don't think in his case was the budget ;), I would not use spray foam even if I could afford it and will not use it with my build in Chicago, for sure ;)) ? (mineral wool is the way to do it ;))
No fire risk would be my answer. Most foams burn readily, and any inadvertent insect access to it can threaten to fill it with holes or removal, also.
@@piotrek4302 but why? What’s the logic behind that preference
@@27photogger Fire, toxic smoke if burning, outgassing, if not concerned about that then it can separate from the structure over time if the wood shrinks or house settles since it is rigid and will break providing gaps for air instead of conforming to any movement.
21:36 you should be aware that close cell spray foam in attics has caused some serious issues here in the gulf south. We found a 5 year old home with close cell caused the rafters to dry and crumble. This was identified when the inspector walked on the roof and found soft spots. When they removed the close cell foam they found no water damage but the lumber was dried out so much you could crush the 2x6 by hand. The lumber here in the gulf south must maintain some level of moisture. The spray foam solution in the gulf south is open cell and if its done right your attic space will only be 2 degrees different from the house.
How would you convert a vented attic with soffit vents and ridge vent to aa Awesome attic?
You build a new house. Matt’s house showcases as much, his reno turned to gutting the majority and starting new
That routed HVAC is amazing! Also, if you have issues with your HVAC, it'll be easy to repair.
Lemurs were in your attic?!? I sure hope you meant ringtails!
Had to mean raccoons or squirrels here in Texas. 🤠
Nice presentation. Being from Ontario, I knew most of this stuff. Air tightness, HRV, hot waste water heat recovery is very much coded here in new builds.
32:25 "I can't fathom why we are not doing it...." It's because it's not sexy and readily visible / hidden. So they are reluctant to sink in time / effort /or $ for things like comfort and future ROI pay back. A lot of people only stay in a house +/- 10 years, so many will not see the ROI.
I’m attempting to change my new (90s custom built) crappy attic to decent. Finding contractors that think this way is so tough
I had a crappy attic. Insulation batts seemingly just thrown everywhere, rat and bat droppings, etc.
I used a half-face respirator while moving all the insulation to one side and vacuuming up all the dust and crap, then laid out the insulation between the 2x4s.
Then i floored it with 2x6 (where i worked, we routinely got pallets made of them, so all free wood!)
Then i put more insulation under the roof, and covered the entire underside with plastic (to keep down fiberglass dust and help with moisture.)
Added light fixtures, and now it's a decent storage area!
Access still sucks, though. One small access hole in an upstairs bathroom.
He says "I had a family of lemurs get in my attic." like that's a normal thing. When they say "Keep Austin weird" they mean it.
Great video, lots of good information.
Re: sealed attics, this is a complicated topic because it's counter-intuitive and it's very seldom explained well.
As you say in the video, different climates have different challenges. In hot and humid climates, in a house with AC, you have to think more about humid outside air getting into the attic and then being sucked into the ducting and condensing. You may not have as many problems with water vapor from inside the house rising up into the attic, because the air-conditioned, colder interior air is more dry than the outdoor air, but I'm not sure about that. I can explain the cold climate issues a little better, because I live in a cold climate (IECC zone 5, western PA) and I've been trying to figure this out for my own house.
The "what" of it is:
In cold weather zones, water vapor comes from inside the house and will naturally rise into the attic. The water vapor will either exhaust through vents in a vented attic, or get trapped in a sealed attic and eventually condense and cause mold issues. If you want to seal your attic then you have to plan for clearing out that water vapor, whether that's a dehumidifier or a return air duct or whatever. (One common approach is to clear out any attic floor insulation and hope that natural air exchange between the attic and the floor below will clear out the water vapor).
The "why" of it is:
1. Water vapor is molecularly lighter than air, so it rises like helium.
2. In cold weather, water vapor is mainly coming from inside the home. We think of cold weather as wet weather, but that's because the cold causes the moisture to condense and end up on the ground, so you're left with wet (or snow covered) ground and dry air. Inside the house the air is warmer and relatively more humid.
3. In houses with traditional vented attics, the water vapor rises up into the attic and then out through the vents.
4. In houses with sealed attics, you have to plan for what happens to that water vapor, i.e. make sure that it will get cleared out of the attic.
This topic is complicated by the fact that every house's structure and family's usage patterns are different, so an approach that can work fine for one house/family may cause problems for another. For example, my parents house has had fiberglass insulation against the roof deck for 42 years and it's still fine. But somebody else might not have the same results.
Also, I think part of the counter-intuitiveness is that people think of the attic as being part of the inside of the house, but it wasn't originally meant to be. The cubic volume of the attic is "accidental space". It's not there as part of the house interior but rather because it's really, really hard to make a waterproof roof without taking advantage of gravity.
The crappy attic is awesome if you just don't put mechanicals in it. Smaller area to air seal and insulate with cheap cellulose.
True.
Of all the comments to this video, yours is the one that is the most spot on--a true "emperor has no clothes" insight. You have stated the obvious, but most overlooked. The cost to create a conditioned space in the attic creates two issues: the cost to seal and insulate at the roof vs. at the ceiling and the cost to now cool and heat that space. As you stated, the best solution is to avoid having the HVAC system and ducts in the attic. Just look at how all the multistory condos and hotels install the mechanicals and ducts using closets and soffits and dropped ceilings. I live in hot northern LA county (more than one hundred 90-110 degree days) with a 15 year old 5 k photovoltaic system that provides for all the energy needs with 5 mini-split heat pumps (installed at less than half the cost of replacing a central air system) in my 1800 sq. ft 1950's house. My "crappy" ventilated attic has blown-in insulation with no perforations except for bath and kitchen exhaust fans that vent at the roof. The conditioned attic is nice if you need the space for storage, but it is a very expensive storage space. It is far more cost effective to focus on reducing the need to store crap than to not have a "crappy" attic.
@@froger580 No, the comment is deliberately ignoring key points made in the video such as how in Texas basements are rare due to the solid rock we tend to sit on making basements incredible expensive to build. If you don't have a basement and don't want to put it in the attic you either need very thick walls or you have to build a crawlspace on top of the slap to run ducts under there, which increases the cost dramatically as well. If your PV cells are on the roof, that is a major factor in reducing the temp of the attic as it creates an additional barrier to the roof. In the portion where he talks about his house you can see that he essentially does much of the same effect by making it really two roofs with insulation between. Rephrasing what was said in the video is not insightful, nor pointing out something allegedly "overlooked."
I love your Rockwool attic. I've got a 1935 Hyde Park bungalow in the North Loop area. I've had several people say I should spray foam the roof to make an envelope but the problem is that it is an older metal roof with screws on the flats and they start to leak after a few years as the sun kills the gasket and expansion works them back out. But what you've done to encapsulate the whole house with zip and then put iso on top and build out the roof another 4" is interesting. I am taking off my teardrop wood siding later this year to put sheathing on the outside and to better seal my new windows. I'll have to consider what I want to do for the roof at that point. Love your videos!
Lemurs? Your house is in Costa Rica?
I looked it up, there are ringtail "lemurs" found in Texas. They aren't actually lemurs. They are members of the raccoon family.
Awesome
I feel like people still build crappy attics because people that buy houses don't know the difference. They cost more but usually don't sell any better. The people that DO know build all their own stuff. So why would someone spend a Lil more money on a home attic if it doesn't really benefit them? I may just be ignorant, but I learn a lot from you. And I think it's absolutely amazing you throw all this information from your years of experience out there for everyone to see for free. This knowledge is a goldmine. It will help build my dream home, and hopefully I can spread knowledge and help bring everyone forward one day Like you have.
Conditioned attics need to be required by code otherwise they will continue to be a small minority.
He kept saying, it’s not that much more expensive, but I have no concept of how much is not much. I agree we’re going to have to force people to spend more per sq ft, but how much more does this add. How many more people are out of the market because increased built in costs keep them out. I personally like the idea a lot and have added it to my list of wants on the next house, but I hesitate to have govt mandate it like the state of CA where I’m told it’s now mandatory to have sprinklers and solar panels in residential construction.
Insulating the roof would be pretty much all that is needed. I am guessing that spray foam on the underside would cost 10 to 15 thousand dollars for a 1500sf house. Another option would be to use SIP's for the roof. The builder could offer an option at a specific upcharge and the government could provide a tax reduction or percentage rebate to the buyer. The government has to help in some way or it is just not going to happen. We may be moving to a point when only the affluent can afford single family homes and the rest of us will settle for multi family housing.@@matthewbono3273
@@Armand9100 You complain about making homes more expensive in the same paragraph as mandating them to be more expensive. That isn't a solution. Besides, as someone with decades of experience with government mandated technology all you wind up doing is stifling innovation and keeping it more expensive because functionally it becomes the government selecting a "winner" and literally excluding other options. Over time this compounds into a nasty effect.
For example, consider how much Faxes are still required in almost anything government involved and how that has slowed the progression of major industries such as healthcare to adopt more modern data interchange. Because back in the '80s faxes became a mandate - and now its been an uphill battle to migrate things to digital systems that are far faster, more flexible, and all around better but because the mandate is "facsimile machine" aren't allowed to be used.
The rise in housing prices is due to general economic conditions such as inflation and supply and demand. This type of increase cannot be recouped. Although insulating a roof increases the up front cost it provides savings for the life of the house. Also reduced energy consumption benefits the entire population. If it were mandated building and insulation contractors would be scrambling to innovate and compete.@@IAmTheRealBill
This was actually a good video that I think all builders can relate to. Thank you. Looking forward to Building 101 videos.
The great thing about this vid is that it helps get the building community off auto pilot for attic/roof/ceiling construction. I'm 500 miles north of you, so we get the heat/cool cycles. The big difference, as you have pointed out, is that most of our heating equipment is somewhere in the living space. With that, 99% of homes here have ducts draped all over the attic. Personally, i have searched but have never seen a study done on the "vs" of spraying closed cell directly on the ceiling joists vs closed cell on the roof rafters. If we spray the roof rafters, there is an element of cost associated with heating/cooling that attic space. I have never seen exactly what that is. So, our method is to stop the cycle of heat exchange at the ceiling level and insulate the heck out of any ducts up in the attic. Someday, it would be be good to see the cost-benefits of going this route vs the conditioned attic.
I have thought it was crazy for years why attics were not conditioned just like the rest of the house. The air quality is so much better in addition to not working the air conditioner as hard. You said it in the video but it really is lika a basement that just happens to be up top. Great video and explanation.
Appreciate the drawing/lining of the photos that way I know what to look for!
This is awesome. I'm just starting to plan my own house, and these concepts are very useful. Thank you.
At least half of the houses I've built.. I convinced the owners to add rooms upstairs and add a stairway, etc.. and get a lot more footage out of the house. Which forced them to think about what attic is left and optimize it for all the mechanical stuff. Even if they didn't fully finish those rooms, it sure made a better house because it forced them to insulate the rafters (like you're showing). So I agree, help push the owners to maximize their attic and basement areas and you'll have happy customers in the end.
This is an excellent video. I like the concept of a cmanopoly house. who is curious how you get the rock wool to stay when normally it is stapled in place. It was clear to me that the zips sheathing wouldn't grip staples. I noticed the black straps bridging the joist, apparently holding the rockwool in place. It was big on your house, but they were smaller on the other house.
Coming From a non construction background (IT guy myself) but hands on hand guy that I am, When I First moved to the U.S. 24 years ago, I always found very strange the way ATTICs are constructed.. My critical thinking always agreed with your awesome ATTIC way.. And All my thoughts during all these years proved to be right by watching this video.. I was Right all along, even though I had to Fight with Building Inspectors about my detached garage I built completely air tight attic because they want to see Roof ventilation by their city code ...
Being a 63 year Florida resident and owning my own HVAC company having almost 45 years in the trade there are a few things I wished you would have touched on . Although a tight structure is awesome remember all the chemicals from pest control to everyday products emit fumes that cannot escape and build up , I would recommend some type of an air exchange system for a healthy home. After being in attics that were over the 130 degrees I can tell you how much happier your system would be in a conditioned space and for the person doing maintenance it’s definitely a plus. That being said trying to talk the builder into the upgrade is not an easy task.
Had spray foam applied 4 years ago. Fantastic. I still lament the wasted space due to lousy/lazy build- cheaper obviously.
You know as a AC tech I’m always happy when I get to go in an attic and I can comfortably work on AC units also installing or troubleshooting and I’ve also have had days where I have to craw to the unit full of fiberglass and that sir is a really crappy day for me..
This was a great in-depth video I want to make the attic over my corner store an apartment and you covered all bases
OTOH I love this content, it's very smart and well presented, and tooooo easy for me to binge; OTOH we have an older home and watching this late at night results in a very sleep deprived me. Gotta start watching it first thing in the morning...
I find it rather wild that houses are actually built with the HVAC in the attic. Owned multiple houses in Louisiana, Texas, and Florida which have all used a closet HVAC which places it within the controlled space. The best one, in central Texas, had ceramic coated hard ducting and a (older) Carrier control system you would find in a commercial building with sensors in each room, dynamic airflow balancing, etc which even included the walk in closets. Massive overkill but apparently the guy who built the house designed HVAC systems for big commercial buildings and it was his retirement home. Bought it as an estate sale and didn't realize what I got until the home inspector freaked a little while checking out the attic.
You really opened my eyes on attics. I guess we don’t have to put up typical attics. Thanks for the info!
In Australia it is beyond crappy. 70% are tiled roofs without any house wrap at all, just bare tiles. I’m genuinely amazed by US and Canadian house tech that appears to be years ahead in HVAC technology.
Biggest thing about last attic imo... is making sure that the unit can actually fit in up those stairs... experience tells me taking off those stairs are gonna have to go to get a replacement unit up in the attic that could be a all-day job... But could get blessed if you can just remove the railings and the unit fits...
The American methods of construction were designed to be as cheap and quick as possible. If you stop to actually think about what you're doing, you can compare your house to a water reservoir. If you're building a water reservoir, you want to ensure that all joints and seams are welded together, to keep the water in. A house, principally, is the exact same thing except that it keeps water(and wind) out. If you build a house without windows or doors, you should be able to pressurize it. If you can't pressurize it, then you've built a faulty house.
The same can be said for basements/foundations where we know that concrete has a certain amount of permeability, we either need to erect an additional water barrier or irrigate around it in such a way as to prevent water from reaching the concrete.
UniFi AP in the attic. Not my ideal placement choice but I appreciate the fact that you considered data a utility like water/power/gas/sewer. Thanks!