Insulating attic?

[BottomPounder]

I live in a story and 1/2 built in 1964 and was wondering about insulation in the attic. We have a problem with keeping it cool on the second floor in the summer. It has bat insulation in the 2by6's and was wondering if it would be better to put more bat insulation in or blown insulation. Thank in advance to all that replie.

[Surface Tension]

When you say story and 1/2 in that year I picture a knee wall rafters and then collar ties forming a flat ceiling. You can add insulation to the horizontal ceiling, knee wall, and outer wall.

You really can't add insulation to the rafters. What little air space that is there now is for ventilation. Which brings up, are your soffits vented. Your right around the time when no homes with that type construction were vented. Your rafters and or roof deck may not have held up because of that. Sagging roof and rotted roof deck would be worst case. Some homes have been around for a lot longer then yours and haven't suffered from not being vented. Adding a roof vent and venting the soffits would be recommended but in some cases I think it could create a problem where there wasn't.

If you want to add insulation to the rafters best thing would be to remove the sheetrock, fir out the rafters and add pink foam, a vapor barrier and re-rock it.

[2448]

It is not a good idea to double up bat insulation because you are making a double vapor barrier. That sometimes makes a problome with mositure building up.

[reddog]

Not all batt insulation has kraft facing.

Friction fit, has no facing at all and is the recommended insulation for a retrofit.

ST brings up some good points about available space and ventilation, things that only you can answer.

Its very common to add more insulation to an attic, and the easiest is to blow in on top of the existing batts.

Keep your ventilation channels open.

[Tom7227]

You may be better off spending time looking at adjusting the air flow in the duct work so that more occurs in the upstairs. There may be baffles in the basement that you can adjust to limit in one area and open up in another. If you get it figured out you should label each so you know where to move it to for summer or winter.

A cheap solution may also be a ceiling fan.

[BehindtheHead]

me and my uncles have been working on remodling my aunts 1940's or earlier house

we had space to put in 2 air returns to the second floor.

that solved her problem of keeping the up stairs cool in the summer.

also the extirior walls and rim joist were spray foamed. like fish house spray foam. that cut her heating bill in half last winter. only time will tell what it will do in the summer.