Insulating an attic hatch door

[woodchick]

We have an attic hatch door that is located in a corner of our small kitchen. The door is always freezing and I would like to insulate it in an attempt to keep the house a little warmer.

Google brings up lots of 'professional' solutions- none of which we have the money for.

My best idea has been to find an old, wool 'Army Blanket' to cover the door from the attic side, and have it over lap the edges. It's not a clean cut solution, though, because I can't be sure that it is laying properly once the door is in place.

Any other great, low cost, do-it-yourself options out there? We only use the door occasionally, but do need to keep access to the attic open.

TIA!

[CarrieMF]

How well is the rest of the attic insulated?

You can buy rolls of silver insulation. It's quite thin & not messy like pink insulation is. You'd be able to cut it to fit the size of the door & attach it to the door from the attic side, then not have to worry about it.

[woodchick]

The rest of the attic is pretty well insulated. There's loose stuff between the floor joists and pink rolls on the ceiling. It's just the little, 2x3 foot push-up hatch in the floor that is leaking cold air...

I'd hate to buy a whole roll of insulation for a tiny little area.

[SleeplessMommy]

I suggest extruded polystyrene (XPS or "blue board") found at Lowes, Home Depot, etc. Bring an appropriate cutting tool with you, as it comes in 4x8' sheets for about $28. (thicker size) Or you could use several layers of a thinner size XPS.

Once you have the blue board installed, it is very important that you weatherstrip the hatch - you don't want heated air escaping into your attic!

The reflective shiny stuff is also nice, but you get the highest "R" value from the XPS.

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