Insulating and sealing open pit in attic above the stairs

[SIM]

We recently insulated a home from the 1950s. It had an open floor in the attic above the ceiling (the space above the ceiling of the stairway leading to the downstairs). This was a common way to skimp and save some plastering when the house was built, but with high energy costs it is amazing that everybody doesn't find these attic air infiltration problems and repair them.

In this case there was a huge draft in the kitchen because the kitchen was separated from the basement stairway buy a pocket door. The pocket door went right into this empty space in the attic - you can even see the corner of it in the video. Imagine all that heated air flying out of the kitchen and right up through the attic roof vents.

[focusonenergy]

This type of construction was pretty common back then and is evidence that energy costs were not on anybody's radar screen.