![]() ![]() Whether the ceiling is flat or cathedral, if there is no air barrier behind the planks (which is typical), the hundreds of lineal feet of cracks in even a small room can add up to a big leak. Another potential air-leakage disaster is a wooden tongue-and-groove ceiling. ![]() ![]() It’s best to remove the suspended ceiling and install new drywall. This is a huge air leak: neither the insulation nor the suspended ceiling is an air barrier. Sometimes a suspended ceiling hides open framing that is insulated with only faced fiberglass batts. There may be large holes in the ceiling or high on the walls that are hidden by the dropped ceiling. In older houses, such ceilings are often installed to hide deteriorating plaster. Suspended ceilings can hide tremendous leakage areas, particularly if they have attic spaces above. Sometimes an addition, dormer, or ell may have a separate attic that you can’t see, because the new roof was built right over the first roof. To properly stop this problem, these spaces need to be sealed off, or the roof sealed and insulated to bring the entire kneewall attic inside the heated space.Īttic air-sealing is complicated by the fact that there are so many types of houses, but there are some fairly common situations. The floor framing is often open into the attic space, leading to sometimes massive leakage and often contributing to ice dams. If you have a cape-style house, there is typically a huge leak hidden behind the “kneewall” in the second floor. Top plates and exterior walls may have significant openings into the attic from below (G, H, and I in illustration).These stud spaces are bypasses, as are the large openings that may occur near the stairs (A in illustration). Tri-level homes often have open cavities that extend from the lower level into the attic, along the wall between the levels.Chimney chases often run all the way to the basement of a house (C in illustration).Plumbing chases (D in illustration) can be much larger than the pipes that run through them.Dropped, or soffited, ceilings are common in kitchens above cabinets, in bathrooms over showers or vanities, and sometimes over stairways (A in illustration).Although there are many variations, here are some common attic bypass situations: ![]()
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