Hello,
We have lived in our “new” house (18 years old) for about 1 year now and one of the upstairs bedrooms is colder than the rest. I am pretty sure the culprit is an uninsulated or very poorly insulated closet area (it is noticeably cooler in there). This room has two closets side-by-side. The house is a dutch colonial type and the closets are on the side of the house with the sloping roof line that cuts into them. The room is over a heated room below. How can I easily determine what insulation, if any, is present and how best do I insulate this area (all behind drywall as you can imagine) to provide the necessary protection we need?
I suppose I could just drill holes inbetween the studs and blow insulation in there but what puzzles me is that given the age of the house I would assume that it would be properly insulated. So why the cold room? Is that type of area difficult to insulate? The other two bedrooms on that side of the house do not pose any issues. Thanks.
Edited 1/9/2007 8:51 am ET by clouts69
Replies
I'd cut a small hole between the studs to see what there is in the way of insulation. Also, cut into the slanted roof area. You may find that there is not much insulation in that area.
Since you are dealing with the inside of a closet you can remove the drywall and redo the wall as necessary. Adding a half inch of foam board doesn't add much R value but I've found that the thermal break seems to make a bigger difference than you would expect from the added R value.
what type of heat do you have? if forced hot air, is the flow through the vents as strong as other rooms?
Heat is forced hot air and that is not an issue.
How's the room heated?
The room is heated by a baseboard heater.
Where is the heat register in the room? Ideally, it should be near an exterior wall and as far from the door as possible. If it's too close to the door, the heated air gets pulled out of the room before it can circulate throughout the room. I've seen similar problems fixed by relocating the heat registers.
Closets which include one or more exterior walls can be a real pain. The doors are closed most of the time and there's very little opportunity for the heated air to circulate into the closet. If the closet is big enough, I suppose that you could add a small heat register inside the closet, but you may still have circulation problems unless you leave the door open.
Where is the heat register in the room? Ideally, it should be near an exterior wall and as far from the door as possible. If it's too close to the door, the heated air gets pulled out of the room before it can circulate throughout the room. I've seen similar problems fixed by relocating the heat registers.Closets which include one or more exterior walls can be a real pain. The doors are closed most of the time and there's very little opportunity for the heated air to circulate into the closet. If the closet is big enough, I suppose that you could add a small heat register inside the closet, but you may still have circulation problems unless you leave the door open.The heat register is located along an exterior wall on the opposite side to the closet.What I have found is that if you rub your hand along teh drywall from top to bottom it gets warmer as you reach the bottom. Could that mean insulation has settled? Does that happen?
Blown in insulation can settle if it wasn't packed really tight when it went in. Batts can settle too if they weren't stapled right.
Another thing to check is the air flow and temperature at that bedroom register when the furnace is running. A partially obstructed duct, an unsealed duct, or a register at the end of a run may be causing a poor air flow condition.
Before you rip into the closet I'd highly recommend looking at the space above. Even if the closet is a cold spot, beefing up the insulation above can help to mitigate the problem. It's increasing the average R-value of the room.
How much? We add enough for R-60. If that doesn't solve the problem then dig into the walls.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
I did think about doing that anyway, regardless of the closet issue. However, the attic is not too bad in the winter.
If it turns out to be as much of a circulation problem as anything, and you have easy access to the attic, you may use a bathroom ventilation fan with remote motor to pull air from one central room that stays warm and into the cold one.
The Fantec fans are about $100 and are quite close to being noiseless with a decent amount of insulated ducting on each end. The small vents are adjustable for flow and aren't bad looking.
We don't use the fan option on anything that can be properly insulated, but for oddball spaces it can be the difference between cold/drafty feeling and quite comfortable.
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Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Borrow an infrared imager from a local Fire Department and just look. Power co. might have one too.
Forrest
Thank you all--great suggestions!!