Attic Bonus Room Insulation

Bonus rooms are often the least comfortable room in a house and the main reason is that they are the most flawed part of the building envelope especially the attic kneewalls.

Attic bonus room insulation.

When building my current home i was faced with a dilemma on how to insulate a bonus room that would be upstairs. Knee walls are common in homes that have an upstairs bonus room. Depending on the room s exact location commonly in an attic or basement and sometimes over the garage there s likely some. The best way to insulate the finished room over the garage is going to be just like any other room in your house insulate the exterior walls the ceiling or attic and the floor.

This is a small unconditioned area that usually runs along one or two sides of the bonus room. In the photo at left the kneewall is the short wall with the door in it. The airflow in the ducts suffers from friction losses and the air loses heat to the cold attic space as it makes its way to the room. With this comes how to properly insulate an attic bonus room.

Many new homes now include an unfinished room above the garage called a bonus room. There are more than a few challenges when it comes to utilization of attic space for a bonus room. The problem with many kneewalls is that they have fiberglass batt insulation with nothing. This helps keep the supply air coming into the room nice and warm.

A bonus room isn t such a bonus when it lacks insulation. So after we seal up the insulated air barrier for the bonus room knee wall we install a thick blanket of cellulose insulation around the duct. Often the r value of fiberglass insulation is too low and requires the rafters to be retrofitted making foam board a better choice. Bonus room knee wall insulation considerations.

To fix these issues let s take a look at the best way to insulate a bonus room above a garage. Best way to insulate a bonus room over a garage. Since the walls would be adjacent to the attic space i wanted to make sure that i could properly.