Our New Radiant Barrier

In the summer our top floor gets amazingly hot, mainly because of the fact that the attic gets even more amazingly hot. The floor of the attic is insulated but the surfaces get so hot that there is not much it can do. I did some research and found out that a "radiant barrier" might give us some relief. Basically, this is aluminium insulation, stapled to the underside of the roof, intended to reduce the radiant heat transfer between the roof and the rest of the house.

I went to the hardware store with Fiona to get the stuff, figuring that 6 25' x 4' rolls is what I needed. This proved to be JUST enough to make it REALLY awkward to get it out of the store. I was pushing it across the road towards my car when I realized I did not have my wallet. Not being sure if I left it while checking out or dropped it, I tried to go back quickly and of course the insulation was falling all over the place. So I was trying to keep everything in place, pick up the dropped insulation, get back into the store AND stop Fiona from being hit by a car! Eventually I managed to get back and was told that it was in the lost-and-found at he front desk. A nice relief - everything was still there and so we could then get on our way.

I then had to install the stuff. Of course, we have an amazing amount of junk in the attic and so the task was made much more difficult as a result. Also, even though it was not too hot today, the attic was already quite hot. Throw in the dirt / dust in the floor and it was a messy job. The actual installaton was not too bad. Cut to size and staple with a staple gun. However, having to get down low meant getting into the dirt and dust and getting completely filthy. I think by the end, I was getting the attic more dirty when I would sit down. About 5 hours later and I pretty much had finished. I need to swap out one roll for a smaller roll tomorrow and then have probably 30 minutes more work to get it all done. I then had a shower, then a bath, then another shower but now feel human again.

Hopefully it will help. The weather this weekend will test it out - I think we are going straight from winter to summer again. Cricket will be a challenge tomorrow I think...