Battic Door Attic Stair Cover

Industry Experts

Weatherization experts agree – it is vitally important to reduce air leakage into your attic. Air leakage takes heat and moisture with it – wasting energy and leading to potentially serious moisture problems.

“An airtight building assembly is a prerequisite for energy savings, pressure control, and ventilation effectiveness. Improved airtightness can be achieved through the use of the Battic(c) Door Attic Stair Cover, The Fireplace Draftstopper, and the Dryer Vent Seal.”

Energy Codes in force across North America require that attic access openings be caulked, gasketed, weatherstripped, or otherwise sealed to limit infiltration and exfiltration. This is because air leakage through cracks can result in higher energy use for home heating and cooling than necessary.

Below are quotes from numerous published articles, documents, fact sheets, and websites.

From U.S. Dep’t. of Energy (DOE) Office of Building Technology – Fact Sheet – ATTIC ACCESS

“DON’T LEAVE A HOLE IN THE CEILING – A home’s attic access, such as an attic hatch, pull-down stairs, or knee-wall door, often goes uninsulated, representing one of the biggest deficiencies in the thermal barrier between the attic and conditioned space. This gap in the attic insulation increases heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer, and makes indoor living areas uncomfortable. Such accesses are often not sealed properly. A ¼-inch gap around the perimeter of an attic access can potentially leak the same amount of air supplied by a typical bedroom heating duct (~100 CFM). Unsealed, the attic access in a home leaks energy dollars and causes the house to be less comfortable.”
“An attic access is a big hole.”

“ATTIC STAIRS – Pull-down stairs are another common type of attic access. The frame for the stairs fits in a rough opening and leaves a gap, much like that for a door or window, which must be sealed.”

“To insulate attic stairs access, a lightweight, moveable box can be constructed to fit over the stairs from the attic side. Insulating kits are also available through weatherization suppliers or from local hardware stores.”

From ZERODRAFT Professional Weatherization Materials and Canam Building Envelope Specialists Inc.: Homeowners – Thinking about a new roof?

“Have you got a wet attic? More and more homeowners are discovering mould, rotten wood, ice damming, buckled shingles and premature roof failures. Sometimes these problems lead to interior damage. These problems happen because of uncontrolled air leakage.

Here’s how air leakage causes such serious problems: Warm air in the house rises through leaks in the ceiling and walls and enters the attic. As the warm damp air gets into the cooler attic during the winter, it condenses on the wooden beams. The wood expands. When the attic gets warm in spring and summer, the wood dries and contracts. This constant process can loosen nails and cause shingles to buckle.

1. Ice damming leads to serious damage.
   Melting snow on the roof refreezes at roof edges and forms ice dams. These cause further melting snow to back up under shingles and enter the attic where it leads to moisture damage to ceilings and walls. Melting is caused by warm air rising from the interior of the house and also within poorly insulated and/or poorly sealed ducts located in the attic.
   
   
2. Mold is very unhealthy. It’s associated with respiratory problems and allergies.
   Mold is something you don’t find out about until you’re thinking about a new roof — after all, how many people ever go up in their attic?
3. Glass and mineral fiber insulation materials not only fail to solve these problems, they can actually make them worse.
   Most contractors put in insulation plus ventilation with little thought to air leakage, moisture, condensation.
4. If you want to sell your house and the prospective buyer asks for a home inspection, you could be in for a major bill.

What are the real causes and solutions?

The traditional belief is that roof ventilation is a cure-all. It isn’t. It can make the problem worse. Here’s why: Passive ventilation doesn’t move much air through the attic. In winter, outside air has little ability to pick up moisture in an attic. CMHC research shows this. Active ventilation tends to draw more warm moist air into the attic. This air may not leave the attic at all; it often stays behind and condenses on the wood — leading to mildew, mold and rot.

How do you prevent these problems?

Ensure that warmth and warm air containing moisture in the living space cannot get into the non-conditioned space in the attic. Keep the attic sealed off from the living area below (using air leakage control measures to seal holes, cracks, gaps). Not by adding insulation on its own.”