Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - Cold Floors on second story!

Hello All;

I am having a problem on the 2nd floor of my house where certain sections of my floors (over cantileverrs) are freezing cold and radiating 'cold' into the house. Is this a problem with all cantilevers? Or, is this something i can fix?

Thanks for your help!

Sounds like they didn't insulate correctly. If you can access it from outside (may have to take off sheathing), bet you find little to no insulation and no vapor barrier either.

Pictures of the areas from the outside would probably bring better suggestions from the experts on here.

Two things come to mind.
1) Your builder missed insulation all together at the cantilevers. This is doubtful if this cantilever is long and not just a bay window for example.
2) It may have been filled too much. It should only be insulated at bottom and end of the joist space. There should b e a small air space on the conditioned side left uninsulated. Remember insulation is not a heat source. Simply filling the a cold side space without providing a heated side, will feel cold. In other words, some heat radiating from your warm ceiling needs to be able to get into the cantilever above the insulation. No other heat source is available.

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks for the responses.

In some other conversations I have been told that "that's just the way cantilevers are". From what I am hearing here, that isn't the case?

I'll try to take some pictures and post them. There are definitely soffits on the bottom side of the cantilevers. should i try opening them up to see what is going on?

Yes, do it!! I've seen this condition exactly as you describe it. Once you remove a soffit panel or two, don't just check to see if it is insulated. check to see if there is an airspace above the insulation that connects to the rest of your ceiling. Some cantilevers may have solid blocking between the joists on top of the wall preventing warm air from flowing into the cantilever. Or as I said previously, there may be just too much insulation in the cantilever or none at all.

Cantilever's will always be colder than non-cantilevered areas but, you can make an substantial improvement.

Good luck