I had some leftover window/door rubber seal strips that I cut to length and put on the frame for the hatch to rest on. This will prevent air flowing between the house and attic. Maybe foam would’ve been better as a “soft landing” but figured it was best to use what I already had

By the way, if you’re interested in one of these, they’re available for $200 USD but they’re OS-specific. The iOS variant won’t work with Android and vice-versa.

I bought the iOS USB-C variant and tried to use it with a Lightning-to-USB-C adapter on my iPhone 13 which didn’t work. People say the Lightning model works fine with an adapter on a USB-C iPhone but I guess the USB-C model isn’t happy with a Lightning iPhone. I decided it was time to upgrade my phone anyways and it worked like a charm on the USB-C iPhone.

It’s really the only downside of this particular model. The price is great but make certain you’re not going to change between iOS and Android anytime soon!

Damn, I’m jealous yours has one to loan out. Can I ask what brand and model it was?

Seems here in the northeastern states it’s normal to do blow-in insulation as cold is more problematic than heat. Using spray-foam insulation would result in wasted heat by radiating through the ceiling into the attic where nobody is at during the winter.

I’ve finished assembling a stacked block of insulating foam and adhering it to the back of the hatch door. We’ll see tomorrow how it measures with the thermal camera, but forecast shows we probably won’t exceed 80° which will make it difficult to see how effective it is.

Of course! Sorry for not responding to you directly

I’ll have to look at those tents sometime to see what would work well with what we’ve got going on up there. I wish they had a “landing pad” around the hatch so you could stand/sit or place tools while you work up there. There’s just so much blow-in insulation though that I don’t think I could make one without severely reducing the amount of insulation.

There are two vents, one on each side opposite of each other. No fans.

I’m used to Texas where they’re vertically mounted with a fan. So I don’t know yet what is “proper” for the northeast region

Especially if the space is cramped and humid. That area can really roast you fast during the summer!

We don’t have a truck so I bought narrow R-7.5 boards which happen to be a good fit width-wise by cutting them in half. They didn’t have enough of those, sadly, so I had to resort to a kit similar to this which has a lower R-value. I’m using some construction adhesive to get them to stick together. The foam may not fit tight against the 2x8” walls but it should significantly reduce thermal conductivity.

At the very least, I’ll be putting adhesive rubber sealing strips along the opening to block air.

That would be a great piece to the full solution. I’m trying to get the R-value to at least 25 (40 being ideal), and the reflective stuff on top or bottom would probably help slow down thermal transfer.

Unfortunately the hatch isn’t a pull-down. I have to push the board all the way up to get it out of the way. There’s not enough room to install a foldable ladder solution either since it’s at the end of the hall and doesn’t align with the doorways.

It’s frustrating since the solution you posted would be the ideal thing to install.

Yup, FLIR One. Kinda neat seeing the thermal outlines of where the exterior wall studs are