SmartATTIC - ATTIC ACCESS DOOR INSULATION TENT KIT, ATTIC STAIRS COVER R-15

I LOVE this attic cover. So easy to install , only took me a 15 min to complete the job. I was surprised by the great quality and the price was a lot cheaper then others companys who makes a similar products. I will recommend this product to my friends.

Easy to install!

Husband installed this quickly. We needed it fast as we started to get attic frost and realized our attic was not properly insulated. Works great!

Really notice the warm air hanging around the upstairs

Should have purchased this a long time ago. Really notice the warm air hanging around the upstairs now that it's not exiting through the attic pull-down stairs. Installation was not as easy as I expected but it wasn't all that hard either. I opted to use a more permanent way to attach the tent to the attic floor(screws and washers) rather than struggle with the two-sided tape.

Attic Access Works Great!

I had solar installed on my home and the package included a solar vent fan. Thankfully the installer recommend I seal up the attic access ladder since the fan was sucking my cool air thru the attic. I did some online research and discovered this product, ordered it and installed it over the attic access. It took about 45 minutes and I recommend you have somebody (wife) on the bottom side to keep in in line while you secure it. I did a little extra on sealing it to the attic floor and when I zipped it up, there was no cool air escaping into the attic. Mission accomplished. One thing I recommend, especially after reading the reviews and a couple of complaints about the zipper, I added some dry graphite to the zipper and worked it a couple of times. No issues with my zipper. I would recommend this product to seal up your attic access.

Nicely made insulation tent

Nicely made insulation tent. Easy to install and use in my attic to prevent cold/heat release into the rest of the house.

Good attic hatch cover. Made a big difference in my house.

Had an energy audit and he found that a ton of my energy losses were going through my attic hatch. A product like this is what he prescribed, but it was a lot cheaper to buy on amazon and install myself.

I'm pretty happy with this product. It has these flaps that lay on wooden deck around the top of your attic door. You can staple them down and caulk them and you get a decent seal. In my case the deck wasn't flat and it was too much work to fix it, so I ended up folding them in and affixing them inside the opening for the hatch. That worked well also. I put down some caulk. placed this product where I wanted it, and stapled all over the place. I came back the next day and caulked all around the edges. There were some places around the hatch opening that also required the application of insulating spray foam, and I was done. The only hitch was that I got a little bit of spray foam on the zipper in one location. Makes it a lot harder to zip and unzip. My bad.

OK, so how is the product? Well, it's nice, thick, strong reflective bubble wrap insulation. I'm sure it's great against radiant heat and has some kind of insulating ability for conductive heat. My energy auditor suggested that the main advantage of this is that it cuts down on the flow of air from the house into the attic or vice versa. I'm certain it does cut down on the flow, but it doesn't stop it altogether. It isn't airtight. I guess no zipper is. It's just a regular plastic zipper on regular cloth. Nothing special. No doubt in my mind it significantly increases the resistance to air flow, but it doesn't stop it altogether.

Of course, when you look at the competitors to this product you realize just how good it is. Most other products just sit there and don't attach to the decking or the hatch opening, so they can't stop the air flow. I suppose there are some that do better in terms of conductive insulation. I've actually thought about building something out of XPS to go over this. I guess insulation and energy saving can become a bit of a hobby. Anyway, this type of product does seem to be the best of what I have seen out there, and it's definitely functional.

Between the increased resistance to flow, the radiant barrier (keeping the door less hot), and whatever conductive insulation it provides, it does seem to make a significant difference in my attic hatch. I have an IR camera and there's been a noticeable difference. I also installed an inch thick piece of extruded polystyrene between the hatch and the ladder and sealed it down. That also makes a very noticeable difference on the IR monitor. You can also tell it's working because when you pull the ladder down, it's no longer a zillion degrees or whatever the attic is (I live in Texas and my attic is extremely hot). It's a warm temperature but closer to the temperature of the house than of the attic.

This hatch is reasonably easy to open and close. It's simple to install and can be installed either with the flaps out on the decking or inside the hatch opening. The construction is as robust as expected. No regrets whatsoever. Just don't spill any spray foam on the zipper!