Quick pointers of the Radiant Barrier insulation

[miketonon]

I want to put this on an attic floor before the floor is installed, then put firring strip down where the joists are and then the subfloor. The floor area already has insulation. Will this work? I was also thinking about doing the roof area, but don't want to install insulation in the roof area. My reasons for this is to keep the attic cooler in the summer because its used as a storage and I can't have it get hot enough to damage what I store. Even though the attic is vented, is it worth it?

[raintogreen]

@miketonon It depends how hot your attic already gets. Our garage/attic would get upwards of 120 degrees, or more. Even with the garage vents and radiant barrier it's still upwards of 90-100 degrees in there. For us that 20-30 degree difference was worth it, I think it drastically reduced the heat that bleeds into the house too. If what you want to store can handle that kind of heat, I say it's worth it. The radiant barrier isn't very expensive anyway.

[miketonon]

@raintogreen, Its a colonial with a ridge vent and two windows, one at each end that stay open. I'd imagine that 120 degrees could cause a fire.

[AtticFoil]

Nice job on the the installation.

[raintogreen]

Yes we sure did. It still got hot in the garage, but not burning hot. We didn't insulate the side walls which also bring in some major heat. But I would say it kept it at least 20-30 degrees cooler. The garage used to be like an oven, but now it was just hotter than the house! Worth the effort, I'd say.

[Jazzeerun]

Nice job but did you really feel a difference?