Soffit Vent Question (Radiant Barrier Topic)

You can’t have enough

quote:

---

My main concern was putting that radiant barrier on the south side, which is the largest expanse of roof and also with the most sun exposure, but no cool air being sucked up into the "channels" the radiant barrier would create.

---

Understood. Go ahead and add some additional soffit vents to the front southern exposure to alleviate your concern, I don’t see any downside and certainly easy to do.

Can I hose these things off when I'm cleaning the house? I'm always paranoid that I'll do damage with too much water getting in the attic.

quote:

---

ETA: You decide on a radiant barrier material? I ordered some samples from atticfoil.com. That product looks to be durable.

---

Just a brief update on this. I bought a 1000' roll of this Radiant barrier off of Amazon. Radiant Barrier by Q-LAM

I spent a big chunk of Sunday up in the attic with my pneumatic stapler, a box cutter and a little radio. I can't complain about the quality of the product. You definitely want something durable, and this stuff was tough but easy to cut with the blade. I ordered another roll, but I wanted to start with a single roll and see how far it went. I was able to triage my attic space and cover all of the south facing (highest sun exposure) and probably half of my western exposure with the roll.

The process is somewhere between ultimate twister and gift wrapping a box from the inside. Not difficult but I still felt like I had been beaten with a baseball bat yesterday.

There was a few tricky areas that I wasn't quite sure how to handle. I have your typical acadian/french provincial style house you find in South Louisiana. Several of the smaller roof exposures do not vent all the way up to the top. Those smaller areas with valleys tend to just terminate where it meets the larger roof structure. So I left the top portion of those areas open so that hot air doesn't simply trap in them. These were at least half way up the overall height.

For the top, I have webs and beams that flatten out about 85% of the way up. I ran up to that point and stapled leaving a nice big gap for airflow.

I'm looking forward to my second roll arriving.

quote:

---

What type pneumatic type stapler did you use?
I used this. Surebonder Staple Gun I have owned it for years and use it for upholstery projects. It shoots your standard staple gun staples with no effort. I drug my little compressor and 100' hose up in the attic to power it.


Did you lay strips plywood across attic joists to make it easier to move walk across them as you rolled out and stapled the radiant barrier to the roof rafters?
No. I did it the old fashioned way. I did have to drag an old boxy coffee table up to an area to reach high enough by spanning the joists. I'm pretty comfortable spanning joists as I walk, never really had an issue other than it hurts when you are kneeling or laying across them to reach in tight areas.

Did you roll out long lengths of barrier and then cut them when you reached transition areas or cut shorter lengths as you spanned roof rafters to make it easier to work with.
I used a large uninsulated area above my front porch as a working area. I left the roll on the plywood sub-ceiling between the joists and pulled out 14-20' spans to work with and cut them with the utility knife. I roughly laid it out in the area I wanted, started it one corner and got it stapled, then went a few rafters over and pulled it tight. Then I would work my way up the 4' span. Once you get a few rafters started and have established your run, the rest is move...pull...staple. There are wrinkles and a few folds. I'm not winning any beauty awards, but I have good clean coverage and a clear path for the air to rise. I overlapped layers by 4-6". Then I'd trim off excess when I hit a corner.


Keep updating us as you find/learn new tricks that make the job easier, or activities to avoid as you progress through the job.
Will do. I can film Missy Elliot videos up there for a side hustle now. The funny thing is how much brighter that half of my attic is. The more you put up the better lit everything becomes.

Looks like the barrier you ordered is about $30 per 1000 ft roll cheaper than the atticfoil.com material.
I'd have a hard time believing there is a huge difference between the materials. You can feel the perforations on this one, but I didn't see any light through the pinholes. I tried really hard to balance full coverage without creating heat traps.

---

Glad to help.

Same. Mine is pretty trampled. Just years of projects and storage. I hope to lift, add more blown insulation and deck a bit more space.