Attic Access | Heat Loss

If you have an attic access hatch or a set of pull down attic stairs chances are good that you also have a tremendous amount of heat loss through that opening. We all know that heat rises and we all know that any opening to the outside will allow warm air to escape and cold air to enter our homes. Most people never think to check that old dusty attic access to see if it is properly insulated. In fact, most access hatches are located in a closet or out of site so we naturally forget about them.

Typically there are two types of hatches. One would be some type of plat panel door resting on top of trim or moulding. To access the attic you push the plat panel up into the attic. Therefore this type of panel rests on top of the moulding. The second most common type is a set of pull/fold down stairs. The “door” for this type of access is spring loaded and closes from the finished side up against the trim of the stairs.

Both of these can be insulated and sealed in similar ways. First off both types should be sealed with some type of gasket. The easiest way to do this is to buy some self adhesive foam weatherstripping. You can buy this stuff at any hardware store and it comes in many widths and thicknesses. There are a couple of types, typically high density and low density. If you have a pretty constant gap then go with the high density type. Just peel off the protective coating and apply the weather stripping to the side of the panel door that comes in contact with the moulding.

Once the weather stripping is installed, close the door and make sure there is good contact around the entire perimeter, if not you may need to install some type of latch system to pull the door tight.

Now that the hatch is sealed, the door should have some insulation. If you have just a door, then you can either attach a piece of fiberglass or rigid foam insulation. The easiest way to attach it is to use some adhesive on the back of the door panel. If you have pull down stairs you can either attach some rigid insulation between the stairs or some home improvement stores sell manufactured insulating “blankets”.

Taking these easy steps should help reduce the significant heat loss through your attic access hatch.

winterize attic
improve heating
home improvement
seal attic access

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