Now That It's Fall My Closet Is Getting Cold Again

"This is our second year in the house, and now that it's fall my closet is getting cold again."

Do you have rooms in your house that are hot or cold?  There is a reason for that!  And the reason is because that room has an insufficient thermal barrier!

In order to be effective insulation has to be complete. 

It must completely fill a given space, with the called-for thermal barrier (R-value).
It must completely touch what it is supposed to insulate.
It must completely control temperature migration on all needed sides.

Looking at the closet in question, from its underside in the garage, it is evident that the rim joist on both exterior sides and the entirety of the floor underneath were never insulated!

Who knows why.

Cold air has its sway, entering from both sides.  When it's really cold outdoors, it will be really cold inside the closet!

Part way up a side wall is similarly without insulation, visible from the garage.

The area in question represents about half of the closet!

While there, and looking around further, I found two other things.

When in a house it is fun sometimes to sweep the camera around.

Since I am there, why not look around on the client's behalf?

So I do.

Often I find problems they did not know they had!

Such was the case here.

On the left is under the master bathroom.

The outside rim joist was not insulated, which is under the master bath tub.

On the left is a long chase that spans the entirety of the garage.

This is where the master bath drain line is run, the HVAC servicing the room, and likely electrical. 

Nothing of that space is insulated.

I asked if the bathroom was cold too, and yes, it was. 

In particular, the water in the bath tub gets cold quickly.

On the right is also seen from the garage.  It is the underside of the exercise room.  It is cold now that they think of it, but they never noticed as much as the closet because when they go in there they are dressed and ready to exercise!

Rooms over a garage seem to have the most complaints about hot and cold environments.  Why they are so poorly insulated is unknown, but it is NOT uncommon!

When we moved into our house the room above the garage was totally freezing the first winter.  I called the insulating company and when he saw the house he admitted to not insulating the ceiling of the garage because, "they were using your garage to store stuff for the other houses, and we couldn't get our equipment in here."

SO IT WENT UNINSULATED!

My recommendation:  pre-drywall inspections look at the insulation in a house.  And when I look at it anyway, I am looking for particular things, like whether it is crushed, or staped properly or the proper R-value.  If it is not properly placed or installed the influence in the house is permanent, unless something more is done at a later date.  If you feel a room to be too hot or cold, there is a reason, and thermal imaging is the easiest, and most definitive, way of finding out why!