Attic Access Panels- The next project is fairly easy but does take some time. We will be addressing non-insulated and unsealed attic access panels. In my home we have two horizontal (ceiling) access panels to the attic and on the second floor of our home we have a vertical (side wall) access panel to the attic area beside our attic room in our truss system. The total effect of the cumulative area of all three panels is about the same as a normal exterior door to the outside standing wide open. In other words with no insulation or air sealing I have a door standing open to unconditioned air at all times! It does not look like it because there is a visual barrier but this is a huge energy breech.
Most homes have access panels made of 3/8” plywood or even a piece of ½” gypsum board supported on ceiling mounted window casing that provides a lip for the panel to rest upon. Our goal will be to insulate the panels and to air seal them from the unconditioned spaces. I purchased a piece of 4’x8’ x2” thick DOW insulation foam board and cut it into pieces that would exactly match the size of my three panels. I cut 6 pieces and made two foam panels for each plywood panel. The R value of each panel is R10 so my new access panels will be insulated to a value of R20.
It is easy to cut the sheet of foam with a utility knife, a “hole” saw, a hand saw, a table saw, or even a skill saw. You can purchase special (caulking tube) of Foam (make sure it is for foam)adhesive from your local home improvement stores. You simply cut the appropriate sizes and glue them to the access panel you have. In my case I chose to glue two pieces to each panel.
I also chose a simple foam weather strip with a sticky backing to place on my ceiling access opening trim to provide the seal that I needed. To help handle the panel and place it in the opening I attached two sash handles to help “seat” the panel to the weather strip as I was exiting the attic area.
Side wall access panel with insulation and rubber air sealing
I bought some rubber weather strip seals to install on my wall access panel to seal that opening. The ceiling panels were just a gravity seal, but the wall panel is screwed shut with 4 long wood screws into the wood framing. This makes a nice excellent air seal for this panel.
After all of this work was done in about 5 hours, I had closed a huge energy leak from my unconditioned space to the house. This was a huge savings of energy for such a small investment of time.
Insulated panel with wetherstrip on top of casing lip
Access panel in ceiling with sash lift hardware in place to "seat" panel to weather strips
2" thick DOW foam with special foam adhesive
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