LESLIE: Vicki in Texas is having a hard time keeping the attic cool. Tell us what’s going on up there.
VICKI: Well, we added a room. We had enough space to put a 22 by about 17-inch room. It’s got a half-bath and a closet. And we’ve got six inches of insulation, batting, (inaudible at 0:04:05.0)-based, on all of the exterior walls.
TOM: OK.
VICKI: But we have a metal roof and it’s about six inches from that metal roof. And we’ve only got maybe a couple of inches left in between the joists to put anything further to help insulate that room, because it is very hot in the summer. Is there anything, any product that we could use that is out there that would work to fill that tiny space that would be effective?
LESLIE: And you’re using that space as living space?
VICKI: Yes, it is a bedroom.
LESLIE: It’s a bedroom and it’s 8,000 degrees up there.
VICKI: You know, it’s got air conditioning and we know we’re paying for it in electricity and so we’d like to bring our utility cost down.
LESLIE: There is a paint additive product. You’re going to have to search for it online; it’s something called Insuladd.
VICKI: OK.
LESLIE: I-n-s-u-l-a-d-d. And it was developed from NASA and it’s a coating that they use on the ceramic tiles that surround the space shuttle so when it enters the atmosphere and it gets crazy hot, those sort of reflect …
VICKI: I have heard of it.
LESLIE: Well, they’ve marketed now to the public and it’s sort of just on its way up. I mean the research is behind it; it’s very scientific. It’s just having a hard time breaking through to the home ownership. But what it does is, whether you’re trying to heat or cool that space, it’s an additive you put in paint and you paint all the walls, the ceiling, everything with this. So it helps to either keep the heat in or it helps to keep the coolness in the room by sort of creating a barrier from that exterior.
VICKI: OK.
LESLIE: I mean it’s worth a shot.
TOM: The website is Insuladd.com, so it’s I-n-s-u-l-a-d-d.com and I think you can order the product right online.
And you know, I’ll also point out that metal roofs today, the newer metal roofs, are being coated with a low-e paint …
LESLIE: To reflect everything away.
TOM: … which solves this problem by reflecting some of the heat of the sun out. So the concept of adding a paint that’s going to reflect some of that heat is definitely a good part of the solution here because you can’t work it from the underside, which is the way you would normally handle it, because you have such little space to work in.
VICKI: Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you very, very, very much. We will definitely look into that and try that. Because it’s just been – it’s just such a pain. (Leslie chuckles) So, it’s certainly worth it. Thank you so much.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT and good luck with that project.
Leave a Reply