Taking steps to prevent air infiltration helps your energy bills -- and home comfort. But when you’re undertaking this kind of project, if you neglect to address your home’s attic hatch, you’ll likely counteract any measures that you take to keep heated air inside of your home.When sealing air leaks in your home, it’s important to evaluate the outer perimeter of your home, such as its walls, an area where air typically enters the home. You can use caulk to seal areas around window frames, doors, electrical outlets and plumbing protrusions.However, one of the main ways that homes lose conditioned air is through the attic, or crawl space, so you’ll also want to pay attention to these spaces. Seal air leaks that exist in the attic where walls abut other walls, the ceiling and floor. Pay close attention to plumbing and electrical elements that penetrate the attic floor. Canned lights are a huge area where improvements can be made.If your home has an attic hatch, efforts to seal this access point will pay off. An attic hatch is generally constructed from a flat piece of plywood, which doesn’t offer much by way of protection.Here’s what you can do to prevent air infiltration into the attic via the attic hatch:
Apply insulation to the door. Make sure it adheres by using duct or foam tape.
The ideal insulation material to use is something durable and rigid, since you’ll be accessing the attic through the hatch. Rigid foam insulation works well.
Seal air leaks that may occur around the frame of the attic itself.
If your home has stairs that you can pull down from the attic, you can purchase an attic tent to do seal off the space, generally installed on the attic side of the home.Ensure that your home can resist the movement of heated air out of your home, and be sure to pay attention to your attic hatch as well. For help with this project, or any other heating and cooling needs, contact Air Assurance Heating, Cooling & Air Quality -- serving homeowners in the Greater Broken Arrow area for more than 30 years.Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Air Assurance services Tulsa, Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our current promotions and get started today!