Full Hard Covering Of An Attic Floor

This job experience was imagined as content in Fine Homebuilding Magazine. Subject: the protection of insulation integrity and value, by complete air-barrier hard covering. The inspiration? Suggestion by writer Martin Holladay, that complete hard covering should apply to skylights. Great idea, I say, but it is simple logical extension then, all of an attic floor should be covered too. The example which follows is quite fully doocumented in a job photo album at Google My Drive: Woodstock Attic, Challenged Roof Joists.pdf  . 

 And, it turns out that another writer is not much wanted, at Fine Homebuilding Magazine.

I have many similar jobs with substantial floor decking, upon strong supports, found by picking blog Label: Strong Attic Floors , here, or at the right. A unique feature of this job is use of attic floor supports to keep attic weight from loading very-long 2x4 roof joists. Second floor walls do not directly support the roof, here, and fairly often. Include label: Roof Strength for this post. Try that to find more-complete discussion.

This graphic shows structures in overlay upon a satellite photo, drawn in Adobe FrameMaker.

At 6/26/2026, observe this sign of public interest:

A genuine reader, in Argentina! This inspires me to revisit and update this post. 

Full Hard Covering Of An Attic Floor

An attic floor over composite beams does much more than the protection and enhancement of insulation value. Flooring is imperative as flanging of the composite beams. Anywhere, well-attached facing of a beam adds stability and strength far better than lumber blocking between beams. It is weird that we commonly block floor joists over a basement or crawl space, rather than applying an underside covering of modestly-thick plywood that encapsulates a full filling of insulation. The excuse is in wanting readily-accessible space for wiring and plumbing, but that is not compelling reason. Any attached flanging or webbing of a beam is interruptible with affordable penalty in strength. Absent flanging at both edges of a beam, compressive loads in a beam tend readily to cause rotation and buckling, dumping transverse loads.

Focus now on the job at-hand where roof 2x4@16 framing is extremely long. Expand an offered insight upon what is achieved in roof joist 2x4s where the attic floor is strengthened by composite beams:

This is the composite-beam floor thickening and strengthening that evolved, over North and South bedrooms. 2x4 floor joists, some twisted, some bowing downward, are locked by the beam plywood. 2x4 nailers, ten ft length, are bound too, to the roof joists. A short couple in each beam line acts against bowing of roof joists, none yet detectable. Surely, added deck structures are helpful, not detrimental, and all work in the widespread construction of composite beams, stabilized by attic flooring, is justified. 

New insulation is in three layers of unfaced batts: upper and lower R19, and wider R11 batts  filling 2x spaces, in between. I don't apply flooring out to the difficult edges. Consider covering the periphery instead, with heavy cotton throws. Those throws would collect dust carried up into the attic through the heat engine of roof/ ceiling slopes. The throws could be laundered in periodic attic maintenance that includes vacuuming of roof vent screens, reducing need of a respirator in-attic.

Always add as much insulation as space allows.












The total of insulation everywhere is R49, in a depth 9.25" where compressed under decking. I think the air barrier and the added boundaries of conductive layers is good compensation for the small batt compression. This attic is improved from R4, to better than R38. 






None of this is for storage, though the space is now usable.

A possibility not taken, was in the early discussion. Slope ceilings are very badly insulated, and room usefulness would be little-diminished, if slope ceilings were rebuilt much-strengthened, with the composite beam method. The entire envelope over first-floor rooms could be raised to R49 super-insulation levels.

In most bungalow situations, knee walls perhaps-needed, interfere with possibilities of demolition to enable insulation.

How Long Will The So-Cheap Natural Gas Last?

We all need to know natural gas made cheap by evil fracking is of very short duration. Here is one reference for that, published in respected Slate Magazine.

An optimistic "proved" total of 273 tcf would last eleven years at current pace, and the price would rise strongly, much sooner. Six years from now seems consistent with the chart.

Get to know Chris Nelder, who spoke the six-year fracked-gas number, in a radio interview that inspires this post. I listened to the interview again now for post diligence, and didn't hear the six number. It is there. Chris Nelder's analysis stands on its own, in this presentation:
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/the-take/peak-oil-isnt-dead-it-just-smells-that-way/ 
There, read this prediction of grave happenings in only a couple of years.

"I expect world oil production to rise, weakly, for another two years or so, as America falls into a deeper slumber believing that fracking has cured everything. The media will reinforce that belief. And when it comes, the wake-up call is going to be harsh. In the meantime we’re just going to be waiting for the punchline.

So to those who can grasp the data, here’s my final thought: How will you prepare yourself for The Great Contraction? You've got perhaps two good years left of business as usual, and maybe another three or four after that before things really get difficult. I encourage you to use them well, and do what you can to make yourself resilient and self-sufficient. What will you do 10 years from now if the price of gasoline is $10 a gallon?"

Here is another reference in this, author Richard Heinberg. His book is a really easy read, in Kindle. No one can contradict the truth that fuel prices misleading planners, will turn in the next several years. Planners of weatherization must act now, to accelerate action by more than an order of magnitude. In Portland, Oregon, those who brag of weatherizing 3,200 homes under fat-laden $20,000 HPwES scams, in five years, will face humiliation. The need in this period was of progress by times-fifty, in work done honestly, perhaps in sacrifice for our common cause.