Thanks for the feedback. Worthy, We'll ask the insulation company to remove the foam that could possibly be affected by the chimney heat. Even though we don't use the fireplaces we want to keep the option open. Energy rater, I should have been more specific in my posting. The foam was just used for air sealing the leaky areas and not the entire attic. Also, the foam was applied only to the perimeter of the housing of the recessed can(may be about 1/2 inch think) and not completely over the housing. The reason for foaming around the cans was because there was a possibility that the holes cut for the cans were slightly larger than the cans. I am assuming that this shouldn't cause problems with the holes in the housing. Please correct me if I am wrong. My only concern was if the housing will get hot enough to make the foam on perimeter burn. BTW, we use CFL bulbs. You are right about the flue vents, For the gas furnace and water heater. We asked the guy doing the air sealing to remove the foam around them. Should we be concerned about the dryer vent though? Other than the chimneys, flue pipes, kitchen and dryer vents we couldn't think of any other places which might get warm/hot. Should we worry about anything else?

it is expensive to hire out insulation removal. is it something that you can do yourself? personally I don't care for cellulose because the cellulose dust finds its way into the house through all the small openings between the attic floor and the living space. these installs usually leave the homeowner complaining of dust..but that is just my experience. what you do want to do is to create an air barrier between the attic and livng space. it will be easier to do if the old insulation is removed, and can be done from in the attic and from inside the house. from the attic air seal any large openings..around stove vents,vent bath fans from the interior caulk around light fixtures and crown moldings. do any additional work in attic like sealing ducts with mastics, supporting the ducts. seal supply boxes to attic floor. Install the radiant barrier single sided foil installed with foil facing into the attic space. I use button cap nails and attach rb to underside of rafters. you should also use rb on gable end west walls. florida solar energy center has good info on rb then insulate. I like batts..easy to move and work..easy to put back in place. just split the batts around wires and fit tightly in joist bay. (again personal prefrence) I don't mix ventilation strategies.. gable end venting is a stand alone soffit and ridge vents as next option and lastly wind turbines..not pav's but in fla you wouldn't want turbines. that the first thing we lose in hurricanes! if you do remove insulation leave the lights on in the house and go into the attic..loof for light from the living space below. seal these areas. if light can get in air can move..hot humid attic air is a bad thing in our climate. best of luck.

Attics should always be vented. The purpose of the ventilation is allow moisture to escape. If moisture is trapped you could have a mold problem. Since you have the soffit vents, a roof contractor may be able to add a ridge vent. If that is not possible then adding so other types of vents should not be difficult. The soffit vents take in the air, but you need vents near to the peak allow the air to exhaust. You want the attic to be as cold as possible. This will prevent ice damming in the winter. The insulation on the floor is what keeps the house warm and cool, not the roof deck. The insulation should be at least R30, and preferably R38. More is always better, but you don't have to get carried away. You quickly hit the law of diminishing returns. Sealing is good, but I am not sure how much of a pay back it brings. Air can still flow through the loose insulation so adding more on top does nothing for sealing. I don't see the need to wait. You have about an R-13 to R-19 insulation rating now. I suggest getting some quotes and having it done in the fall when temperatures are mild.

I'm glad to come across this thread because I'm also trying to figure out whether/how to add blown-in insulation to our attic, and possibly radiant foil. I hope I'm not derailing the thread by tacking on. Our home is a roughly 120 year old Victorian, and it also has a sprinkling of old insulation in the (sealed) attic, but nothing more. And when I say attic, I should clarify--we actually have a finished attic/third floor but the very peak of the attic, above the ceiling of the finished area, is unfinished. It's like a capital A, where the lower half is the finished portion and the upper half is unfinished. I'm sure there's proper terminology for that but I don't know what it's correctly called. We use the finished portion regularly, or at least we would if it didn't get very hot up there in both the winter and the summer. In the winter, we can counteract this by closing the HVAC vents so the attic is only heated by the hot air rising through the house, and that works well enough. But in the summer, we add two window units in addition to the house AC (to cool a space that's probably 400 sqft)--the window units are kind of a mixed bag because with the way they're installed, they let in a good portion of hot outside air around them through the window. We're contemplating replacing the window units with a minisplit system in the attic alone, but I feel like it's worth exploring all the various possible ideas to try to keep summer heat out of the finished portion of the attic before installing a whole new additional system. Any thoughts or ideas for me?