Hot air, I tell you. And that’s how we like it.
I spent a very chilly saturday afternoon following the sage advice of my carpenter friend. On more than one occasion he pointed out what a big heat-suck my pull-down attic door is. Not only am i dealing with an old mechanism that is slightly misaligned (read: not a tight seal), but also a thing piece of plywood with folding stairs attched to it, and above that….. open attic space. Yes boys & girls, after all of that time reinsulating the place, there was basically an uninsulated hole in my cieling.
“Oh my!” I exclaimed, “what can i do?”
“Build a box, grasshopper,” spoke the master.
So build i did. And after much mucking about with trying to cut clean lines in inch thick styrofoam (SO glad i didn’t go with thicker stuff) and going through enough duct tape to make MacGyver wince, here are the fruits of my labor:
I installed shown box above the attic stairs and the result was actually quite remarkable. I installed it at about 10pm yesterday (it was about 12degrees F outside/in my attic) and once i set the box in place (myself at the top of the attic ladder, door fully open) i was actually warm. Closing it all back up there is now a marked difference in temperature (warmer) near the attic door. woohoo!