Building An Attic Hatch

We recently finished building a custom house for a client who had requested that the house be especially airtight for the sake of conserving energy and providing increased comfort.

Building an attic hatch.

Frame the attic opening with playwood to a height above the attic insulation and drywalling the ceiling to the edge of the plywood opening as usual. How to open up access into your attic space for inspection and or insulation. Simple attic hatch i d like to comment on the attic hatch discussion. Air leaks around attic hatches drastically reduce the effectiveness of the building s insulation layer cause cold spots and lead to condensation when warm humid air from the building meets.

Moreover when it comes to attic hatches they can impact the overall proper operation of a building and space when not fully insulated or cared for. An attic hatch can often be found in walk in closets or hallways but wherever it is situated it still functions to allow one access to attic space. Like the standard airtight attic hatch. The last few attic hatches i have installed were the simplest most cost efficient and effective.

This model has 96mm of insulation on the door. The florida building code fbc and international residential code irc both require a minimum of one attic access opening for homes with combustible such as wood roof construction if the attic space meets these two criteria. Build your own airtight attic access hatch. In days long gone such openings.

A wellhöfer attic hatch provides access to the roof space or loft without compromising airtightness or the effectiveness of the building s insulation. This is a typical goal of ours anyway but because the client had made a special request and because the house was a. The most common of these is the push up type panel that is simply drywall or plywood held in place by simple wood trims. Call it a scuttle trap door or attic hatch every attic needs an entrance and often it s merely a square opening in the ceiling.

The attic access door is often the name used to describe push up type access panels knee wall doors or any type of entry point into the attic space. What is the building code requirement for an attic access hatch scuttle or door. A wellhöfer attic hatch provides access to the roof space or loft without compromising airtightness or the effectiveness of the building s insulation.