[DanielGH]

The house has a Cape Cod roof without any gables in the bedrooms. There are two bedrooms and a bath on the top floor in the back half of the house. The roof angles (45 degrees) down to the front of the house just above the middle floor.

In front of each of the bedrooms, there is a crawl space (storage space) that has end vents on both of the sides of the space.

That gives me a not-so-standard attic space. There is blown in insulation on the flat part of the attic (above the bedrooms) but it's settled to a couple inches below the 2X4 or 2X6s that make up the ceiling of the bedrooms. I will blow in more insulation but that's not really the problem I cannot wrap myself around.

At the front of the house there are channels running about 3'-4' from the front storage area to the actual attic where the 2X6s that make up the A frame of the house touch the ceiling of the bedroom. The previous owner and/or builder of the house filled those spaces with fiberglass insulation with the vapor barrier paper against the bottom wood of the channel. I cannot see where this is a good thing as that means there is no air flowing up that channel at all.

Still in the storage space, the spaces between the rafters is filled with fiberglass insulation with the silver backing. The silver backing (radiant barrier) is facing the storage space. This one I can understand more but it still does not allow air to flow against the bottom of the roof.

The vertical wall between the storage space and the bedrooms has unfaced fiberglass insulation the whole way across between the 2X4 wall studs.

___________________________

On to my plan is and my questions:

Put screening at the top of the channels in the front of the house and blow in cellulose all over the flat part of the attic's floor.

Rip out the fiberglass insulation from each of the channels so the attic fan can pull air from the storage space as well.

Cover the underside of the rafter studs with the silver radiant barrier and leave about 1' on the top of each of the inclines so air can come out there to be sucked out by the attic fan.

Cover the unfaced insulation on the vertical walls of the storage space with a breathing material. I have cats who like the crawl space and don't like the idea of fiberglass in their fur.

I don't know what to do with the roof portion of the crawl space. Pull out the fiberglass insulation there and just put a radiant barrier stapled to the rafters?

What do I do with the channels? They're large enough that I've considered getting the plastic venting things from Lowe's and putting radiant barrier stuff on one side and sliding them into the channels so I at least have something there but that leaves most of them open for ventilation still. Could I put those vents in there like that and fill the bottom of the opening left by the vent with loose fill and leave the part that is near the roof open for ventiliation? Which side should I put the radiant barrier on then?

Help? If it were a straight A frame attic, it would be easier.

[DanielGH]

I ended up ripping out the insulation in the channels and replacing it with R-13, which leaves about 1-1/2" of air between the insulation and the bottom of the roof deck. Holy COW did that make a difference already. I'm used to the house being 77 degrees after a sunny day in the summer and the bedroom being so warm you cannot have even a sheet over you without sweating to death.

I got home to find the house at 75 degrees and the bedroom was cool enough to take a nap with a sheet and bedspread on top of me.

Here's a picture:
http://www.ankylosaur.com/images/housetopfloor.jpg

A) The triangular, unheated, space in front of the bedroom.

B) the "channels" The top of the 2X6 is the roof decking and the bottom of the 2X6 is where the bedroom's ceiling is nailed. These channels are about 5' long from the storage space to the attic, proper.

C) the standard attic (yes, the ceiling of the bedroom has a down slope in the back of the room)

D) the bedroom, heated in winter, cooled in summer.

[labman]

It really sounds like you are going in the right direction. Ventilation is very important. After I tightened up my side walls, I had a terrible condensation problem and had to add more attic vents.

[DanielGH]

More pictures. I hope they'll help.

Here is a pic of one of the channels from the bottom. I've taken the insulation out so air can move up through it:
http://www.ankylosaur.com/images/Att...icpict1240.jpg

This is what one of them looks like with all insulation intact. The fiberglass at the bottom of the pic completely blocks any airflow up the channel:
http://www.ankylosaur.com/images/Att...icpict1238.jpg

This is what the bottom of the roof deck looks like. Those insulation strips are flat against the roof deck in between the rafter joists.
http://www.ankylosaur.com/images/Att...icpict1237.jpg

This is what I've done with the other side's channels. I've taken out the insulation against the roof deck and put radient barrier across the rafters:
http://www.ankylosaur.com/images/Att...icpict1243.jpg

This is inside the channel. R-13 and about 1-1/2" air space above it.
http://www.ankylosaur.com/images/Att...icpict1244.jpg

This is a sideways pic right inside the access door pointing to the side of the house:
http://www.ankylosaur.com/images/Att...icpict1241.jpg