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what about insulating the walls in the attic instead of the floor? so that you dont damage it with things you put on the floor?
i know a bit about construction, and what i do know is that you are suppose to insulate the warm side of your vabour barrier. (or a 1/3 2/3 rule at least). so i am not sure if once you insulated if you will have moisture problems in your attic or not... since i am assuming that your vapour barrier and normal insulation are between your joists/rafter?

i dont know anything about weather in carolina.

haha am i helping at all?!

The folks at This Old House insulate an attic using a R-38 unfaced fiberglass insulation:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20051865,00.html

Hope this helps!

Spray foam is somewhat pricey, but works pretty well:
(http://www.icynene.com/). You can also rent a machine from Home Depot and spray cellulose insulation in yourselves.

Otherwise, maybe lay the pink stuff everywhere and use plyboard sheets over the sections you'll use for storage.

Yes, you should insulate the walls in the attic, not the floor. If you have the money you should hire someone reputable who will conduct a house diagnostic test and tell you where the drafts are coming from (this costs typically $75/hr). If you are doing the job yourself, this is a link you might want to read that tells you the different types of insulation available and what you should look for http://mycozyhome.org/energysmartbooklet.pdf

Adding insulation to the floor is a good idea, but it only helps if you do all of it. This article, while not exciting, is useful: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs walls/facts/RetrofitBestPractices/homeownerguide15b1.pdf

And there's other good stuff here:
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs walls/

Your taxes have paid for this research - might as well make the most of it!

sorry about those links... the first one I guess you'll have to cut and paste, and the second one should have a plus sign between "roofs" and "walls"...

Ok Here goes. I renovate for a living, and there are important things to do. First know the width of your joists. For example you want the thickest insulation you can get, but need a certain amount of inches to be able to fit it in. In new construction perhaps 12 inch beams, but older construction might be less. First measure and then ask at the home store what will fit. Insulation needs to be at full expansion to do the best job, smooshed insulation would be useless! Next will these wall ever be finished with sheetrock? If yes then you need the plastick baffles. This allows for airflow and proper ventilation so no moisture happens. So lets say it will never be finished Then get the thickest KRAFT FACED fiberglass insulation you can fit based on your beams width.. It's very easy to staple to the beams, and fits right in. ONE CAUTION IS fiberglass can kill you if you breath it in.. If you do this you need to get a full respirator, and suite (white ones like Hazmat) and wear it at all times and gloves. You need to shower and get any fiberglass off you, or you will itch to death...It's not hard to do just know the pitfalls. Try and get at least r38 in your ceilings if it will fit.
best of luck - Stephanie
Hope this helps

Off topic, but....what a waste of space!

If you really need the storage, you can store it so much more efficiently than that. And if you don't (as in, you finally purge all of that clutter), you could turn that into another room—if not a bedroom or a family room or a play room, etc, then a multi-use room. I.e., gift storage/gift wrapping station/off season clothes closet/off season decor storage/reading nook or library/etc.

You're lucky enough to have a great looking attic that you can actually stand up in. Make use of it!

GIFT STORAGE? Wow, I wish I had enough gifts to necesstate an entire room!

Anyways, your best bet, and most efficient way to deal with this is to tear down your plaster on the walls/ceiling. Chances are, if this is an old house, you probably don't have ANY insulation worth keeping.
Tear it out and replace with the highest R-value you can fit between your rafters.
Install a poly vapour barrier to the inside (ensure that you seal all overlaps and joints), and put up drywall.

The cold will come from air leakage as well as lack of insulation. If you insulate the floor, the space above (that you are using for storage) will freeze and you might as well just store your things outside in the garage.

Call in a pro if this is totally new to you. Better off to do it the right way first than to screw up your home's heating and possibly cause moisture problems.

I agree with Stephanie-Parrishnut. Assuming you are installing insulation on the attic "floor", you should get the highest R-value insulation that will fit in between your attic floor joists (ceiling joists in the room below). In addition, as you are installing the insulation, make sure you don't block the soffit vents to the outside. These vents are located along the sides of the attic where the roof joins the top of the house walls, and permit outdoor air to circulate through and exit your attic vents. If you block these soffit vents you will quickly get water damage to your newly installed insulation and room ceilings from moisture condensation.

As you're installing the additional insulation, make sure you don't jam it into the roof/floor junction. Start your insulation bats 6-12 inches back from that junction laying it in between the floor joists. You may wish to consider styrofoam, plastic or other baffles that can be inserted in the junction to prevent blockage of the vents.

I have a friend who is a head of the company making new "green" insulating and fire protecting products. But I guess, one house is too little for the order, because of the shipping costs.

here's a link to a fabulous attic make-over, showing insulation...your local power company may give you a credit or rebate, also.

http://morewaystowastetime.blogspot.com/2008/06/house-in-progress-attic-to-aerie.html

Mrs.Mack - you do realize that this photo is not from the person who asked the questions, right...

[photo above the jump from the Washington Post series "Attic Organization."]

it says that right above the name of the person who posted the article.

AT uses random photos all the time that pertain to the post of right have more visual interest. A lot of questions don't come with photos, and one of my questions they even changed the photo.

I just find it crazy how many people go off topic on something in a photo in these posts, when it says right on them that the photo isn't even from this...

Beware of creating a moisture issue which could necessitate replacing the roof or generating ice dams (Moisture and Ice Dams). In other words, if you want to insulate and control the temp in the attic, hire pro's. I f all you want to do is to save on heating and cooling and don't mind everything in the attic getting very cold or very hot, then getting a sealed, insulated attic entry cover is by far the cheapest, most efficient route (Attic door insulator).

There is a company called Johns Mansville that makes formaldehyde-free insulation batts. It's available at Rona here in Canada, and seems like a major brand. It is not itchy and will not kill you to inhale.

Mrs. Mack,

I'm sure it would cost MUCH more to renovate an entire attic than it would to insulate it. There's flooring, drywall, heating and air, electricity (since most attics are not wired like the rest of the home) and possibly adding a window . There's more to using attic space than being able to stand in it.

In summer, it's excruciating just to climb up to the attic to get something down because of the heat, and I'm sure in other places it's just as bad in winter. That doesn't exactly make it the kind of place one wants to hang out. And a lot of houses have pull down ladders (usually in inconvenient places) or mini doors to access attic space- who wants to deal with that all the time to get to the "new room" if you can afford to convert the attic?

We use our attic for our big, fake Christmas tree and all our holiday decorations and ornaments, kids toys and books we want to pass down, and various other things we don't have space for in the rest of the house, no matter how efficiently we store things. And I'm sure her attic, once insulated, will serve just fine for storage of all the things you mentioned without converting it into an actual room.

First of all, I didn't mean a whole room devoted to storing gifts (while that would be awesome, it's not realistic). I mean that would be a good out-of-the-way place to have a gift "zone" to store a box of last minute gifts and have a table ready for wrapping and stuff.

Second, nope, didn't see that this was not the original poster's pic. Sorry about that. I usually catch that but missed it here.

please consider using an environmentally friendly (sorry, hate that phrase), insulation.

I highly recommend you go the green route by using recycled denim. You can do it yourself without gloves or mask, and it's awesome stuff. Here's a how to article.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2021527_insulate-denim.html

Here's a few places to read the product itself.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/03/ultratouch_recy.php
http://www.bondedlogic.com/

Habitat for Humanity actually uses denim in their houses now. I wrote about it last month.
http://www.declutteryou.com/2008/08/old-denim-put-it-to-use-for-habitat/

Hope that's helpful.

Scott Roewer aka declutteryou.com