Attic Radiant Barrier Installation Update

I spent 6 hours in my attic getting a full-body workout, and learning a few things.

God is very kind to have provided a cool, breezy day for me to do the work

Working in a prefab truss type attic over high vaulted ceilings pretty much sucks. There is NO room to maneuver in some places, much less do any work. Photos will be coming soon

The guys who do this for a job EARN their money.

The heavyweight/high strength atticfoil barrier material is SUPER easy to work with. You are NOT going to rip this stuff putting it up. I pulled the weave apart a little bit when one staple was supporting 20 feet of foil under pretty strong "get it all tight" tension. Otherwise, it holds up like a champ.

I spent 6 hours up there and only got half of what will get done, done. It's a third of the original intention, but there's a third of the roof I just can't get to without laying down in a way that would prevent working. I did plenty of laying, sitting, and squatting on 2x4s but the corners are just too narrow. Fortunately I was able to reach the parts that matter most: the southern exposure and the side parts that catch the most sun.

Also . . .

I have a BROKEN stud in one of the roof trusses. I'm pretty sure it's not under any stress, because the ends are pulled apart by ~3mm. That needs a bit of reinforcing eventually.

My roof trusses (made by Timber Tech in 1986) are, almost 100% of them, VERY ugly pieces of lumber. If there is a whole truss made of grade A 2x4s I'd be surprised. Fastening is staples in stud plates. Badly-installed staples, very many of them.

The previous owners got robbed when they paid someone to replace the old 80's grey plastic a/c ducting with the new sort with radiant barrier on the outside. The 2x hardest-to-access ducts were still there, and the plastic is split and the insulation fallen-away. Bare thin plastic ducting carrying climate control air. Gee, I wonder why that side of the house didn't heat/cool properly? I put some insulation on top of the ducts and (for now) laid some scrap atticfoil over the ducts. It's not leakproof, but at least it'll be better.

A long time ago, there was a minor carpenter ant infestation. The tunneling I found in (only, thankfully) one piece of wood was full of dust and fiberglass. Of course, in light of the quality of the rest of the lumber up there, it could have been like that when they installed it. :(

Man, if I did this for a living I'd be hard as a rock. As it is, tomorrow I'll be sore as a . . . thing that's really sore.