LESLIE: Alright. Next up, we’ve got Andy from South Carolina on the line who’s dealing with a storage and let’s call it an organizing issue. What’s going on, Andy?
ANDY: Well, it’s not a boat in the basement but the stuff in an attic.
LESLIE: OK. OK.
ANDY: And the question is – the stuff is mostly at the end of the house, directly above a two-car garage. The good news is the two-car garage is away from the street. And I would like to, in some way, be able to remove the stuff out of the attic. And I’m thinking that the louvered vent – it’s at the peak of the roof, on that end of the house or something – that either I can hinge or I could take out completely and reinstall it or put a new one in.
TOM: Oh, you mean to get the stuff out, as an easy way out? Is that what you’re thinking?
ANDY: To get the stuff out, because I’ve got lots of stuff.
TOM: I see.
ANDY: Most of it is way too big.
TOM: How big of a vent do you have there?
ANDY: It’s a better part of 5 feet tall and about close to …
TOM: Oh, it’s a big vent. OK. Well, then I think that’s probably a reasonable solution that’s a pretty quick way to get all the stuff out of the attic. And then next time, don’t fill it up so much.
ANDY: Well, it was filled up a piece at a time through the years.
TOM: Yeah, I know. Not all at once, right? Yeah.
ANDY: It’s kind of like that boat in the basement thing but it’s stuff in the attic. And my wife said I would not bring it down through the house.
TOM: Yeah. Well, I think it’s a reasonable solution if you have a vent that is that big. If it’s 5 feet wide, you’ve already got the structural hole in the attic. And if you can take it apart and get all that stuff out, put it back together, it might not be that big of a deal.
Once you get that out and the space is now empty, it’s a good opportunity for you to also reinsulate in that area. Does it have a floor on it?
ANDY: It does.
TOM: Alright. So, you might want to think about checking under those floor boards, seeing what kind of insulation you have. If it’s filled up, you could actually add some additional insulation on top of the floor. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to re-store things there because what you really want in your part of the country is about 16 to 18 inches of insulation. That will really keep those air-conditioning bills down, as well as the heating bills if it gets chilly.
ANDY: Well, I recently had the house reroofed and I put in a nice, new, high-end ridge vent when we did all of that.
TOM: Well, that was smart.
ANDY: And we also went back with these power turbines.
TOM: Well, that wasn’t smart.
ANDY: Power turbines weren’t smart?
TOM: No. If you put a ridge vent in and you matched those with soffit vents, that’s really all you need. You don’t need an attic fan, you don’t need these spinning vents. They’re not as effective as continuous ridge and soffit vents.
So, get the stuff out of the attic, improve the insulation, improve the ventilation and you will be good to go.
ANDY: Sounds good.
TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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