Introduction
Are you finishing your attic? Here's how to save the most headroom when installing insulation.Knowing how to insulate an attic while leaving adequate clearance can be tricky. That’s because insulating it to the proper R-value can cause a dramatic loss of headroom if you limit yourself to fiberglass batts. To maximize headroom, while properly insulating your attic and ventilating the roof, use a combination of dense batt insulation, rigid foam sheeting and air chutes.
Family Handyman
Most building codes require a specified minimum amount of headroom. It’s often tough to meet this requirement when insulating a finished attic, especially since most codes require insulation equal to R-38 or more. However, most inspectors I’ve spoken with will lower the insulation requirement if it means that the finished attic will have the required headroom. To get the most R-value with the least thickness, use batt insulation with higher R-value per inch in combination with rigid foam insulation. Rigid foam sheeting has an R-value ranging from R-5 to R-10 per inch of thickness. This means you can have a combined R-value ranging from R-23 to R-31 with only 5-1/2 inches of combined fiberglass and foam insulation.
