What's In Your Attic?

How many times a year do you climb into your attic? Probably not often, and that's exactly the problem. Your attic should be visually inspected at least once a year. It's a vital part of your home that tends to go overlooked, but it can tell you a lot about the overall health of your house: whether the roof is leaking, whether animals have moved in, and whether the heating and cooling you pay for is staying in the rooms below.

Here is a checklist for that once-a-year look, built around the problems we find most often when we get up into attics in Cary, Raleigh and across the Triangle.

Before You Go Up

• Step only on the framing. The ceiling below is drywall, and it will not hold your weight between the joists.
• Pick a cool morning. Attics here get dangerously hot on a summer afternoon.
• Bring a good flashlight, gloves and a dust mask. Insulation fibers and attic dust are irritating.
• Leave wiring alone. Don't dig through insulation around junction boxes or wires with your hands.
• Don't disturb loose, pebble-like gray-brown insulation. Some older vermiculite insulation contains asbestos and should be tested before anyone works around it.

1. Insulation: Is There Enough, and Is It Even?

Many homes simply don't have enough attic insulation, especially older ones. It shows up as rooms that are too hot in summer or too cold in winter, an air conditioner that runs hard, and a house that heats up quickly after the AC cycles off.

• Depth. Look across the attic floor. If you can see the tops of the ceiling joists, the insulation is almost certainly too thin. Check it with a ruler in several places, because it is often much thinner in some areas than others.
• Coverage. Look for bare patches, especially at the edges of the attic, around the hatch, and anywhere a contractor has worked since the house was built.
• Compression. Insulation crushed by storage boxes or foot traffic has lost much of its R-value.
• Moisture and contamination. Wet, stained or rodent-soiled insulation needs to come out, not be covered over.

The age of the house is a useful first clue. Homes built before the mid-1980s are most likely well below current minimum standards, and those built through the mid-1990s are often somewhat below as well. The Triangle falls in the U.S. Department of Energy's Zone 4, and the DOE recommends insulation levels above the minimum building code for most homes in our climate.

Bringing an under-insulated attic up to a proper level is one of the more practical ways to make a home more comfortable and to reduce the work your heating and cooling system does. It only performs as rated, though, if the air leaks underneath it are sealed first. Blowing insulation over gaps around lights, bath fans, plumbing and wiring buries those leaks instead of closing them, which is why our attic insulation work starts with air sealing.

2. Ventilation: Is Air Moving?

Attic ventilation is one of the most commonly overlooked parts of a home. Without balanced intake and exhaust airflow, heat and moisture build up under the roof. Over time that can shorten the life of your shingles, warp roof decking, and add enough moisture to encourage mold on framing and insulation.

• Soffit vents at the eaves should be clear. Insulation pushed tight to the edge of the roof blocks them; baffles hold that channel open.
• Exhaust vents at the ridge or high on the roof should be unobstructed.
• Bathroom exhaust fans should be ducted all the way outside, not into the attic. A bath fan blowing into the attic is a common cause of attic mold.
• Dryer vents should never end in the attic.
• Frost or condensation on the underside of the roof deck on a cold morning means warm, damp household air is getting into the attic and condensing there.

3. Roof Leaks

The attic is where a roof leak shows up first, often long before it reaches a ceiling. On a bright day, switch off your flashlight for a moment and look for daylight where there shouldn't be any. Then look for:

• Water stains or dark discoloration on the roof decking or rafters
• Staining around chimneys, plumbing vents, skylights, and anywhere two roof planes meet
• Damp, matted or stained patches of insulation
• Rusty nail tips poking through the decking, which can point to a leak or to condensation from poor ventilation

A fresh stain in one spot after a storm usually means a roof repair. Dampness spread across the whole underside of the roof, with no single leak to blame, usually points back to ventilation.

4. Pests and Animals

Squirrels, raccoons, mice, bats, birds and insects all find their way into attics through gaps around vents, soffits and rooflines. Signs to look for:

• Droppings, nesting material, or tunnels through the insulation
• Chewed wiring, which is a fire risk as well as a nuisance
• Torn vent screens and gaps at the eaves or where the roof meets a wall
• Scratching or movement overhead, especially around dawn and dusk

Getting the animals out is a job for a wildlife or pest control professional. After that, the entry points need sealing, and insulation contaminated by droppings or nesting needs to be removed and replaced rather than topped up.

5. Ductwork and the Attic Hatch

• The attic access door or hatch. An uninsulated, unsealed hatch is a hole in the ceiling's insulation, and conditioned air escapes through the gaps around it. An insulated cover over the opening, sometimes called an attic tent, closes it off.
• HVAC ductwork. Ducts in the attic that are disconnected, crushed or poorly insulated leak conditioned air before it ever reaches your rooms.

When to Call

If your attic has thin or uneven insulation, signs of moisture, or evidence of animals, Triangle Reconstruction can inspect it and tell you what it actually needs. We have been working in attics and crawl spaces across Wake and Durham counties and every county bordering them since 2012. Call (919) 924-7600.