Found out my attic insulation was basically doing nothing after 20 years

I was looking into why my heating bill jumped last January and dug out the original inspection report from when I bought the place in 2017. Turns out the previous owner blew in R12 fiberglass in the attic, which is basically useless for Edmonton winters where you need at least R50. I went up there with a tape measure and confirmed it, barely 6 inches deep in some spots. Has anyone else discovered their home was built to a lower standard than expected and had to rip things out?

2 comments

2 Comments

amyr5717d ago

And they charged you a solid price for that R12 too, I bet. I had a similar moment of clarity when I pulled back the baseboards in my 1950s bungalow and found actual newspaper stuffed in the gaps as insulation. Not even shredded paper, just full sections of the Edmonton Journal from 1954 shoved in there like a desperate band-aid. Makes you wonder what other secrets these houses are hiding behind the drywall that we'll only discover when something else fails.

paige_west16d ago

Did you keep any of those newspapers?