Air Seal Top Plates In Attic

Find the lighting electrical box for each room and cover it with a dose of spray foam.

Air seal top plates in attic. These are often found in the top plate drop soffits and chases and the volume of conditioned air that escapes through them is equivalent to leaving a window wide open the year round. Air sealing the wall plate around the perimeter of your attic blocks air from escaping around the outer edges of your home. Install drywall then seal the seam from the attic side with caulk foam or drywall adhesive but not other construction adhesives. The photo at left shows a typical one flush drywall on one side and a big gap on the other.

Find electrical wires that are penetrating the ceiling. The room most likely has drywall walls and ceiling that meet flush together. Stick the spray foam nozzle in the hole with it and give it a quick squirt. It s usually the hardest place to air seal because the cramped space underneath the eaves where the roof rafters rest on the outer wall makes it hard to move your hands and head.

To fix it you just fill the gap with caulk or spray foam. Install continuous top plates or blocking at the tops of walls adjacent to unconditioned space to minimize air leakage. Before installing drywall install caulk or other sealant or a foam gasket to the face of the top plate then install the drywall. Air seal drywall to top plates at all attic wall interfaces to minimize air leakage.

Think about the rooms right below the attic. But sealing indirect air leaks is always a lot more difficult because there are multiple routes the air can take to reach each leak point in the attic. If your home has this kind of air leakage it s easy to find. Air sealing the attic perimeter.

You are not trying to shove foam down the wall but rather make an air tight cap on top. Top plates are a focal point in almost every energy audit and air sealing job we perform. What does air sealing top plates in an attic mean. Just go up in the attic pull back the insulation and find the top plates.

Check out this short energy saving tip with stuart keith from today s home remodeler and brian auman from. Air sealing these holes and gaps will greatly reduce the expensive flow of conditioned air from inside your home to outside. Top plates are where a variety of building materials come together. For instance a leak along the top plate of a wall or through holes in the plate may originate at many spots far away at gaps in electric outlets gaps between the drywall and bottom plate of the wall and through the gap at the baseboard wire and pipe holes through bottom plates into the floor cavity between first and second floor and so on.