Check out US Department of Energy recommendations by zip codehere. (Click first link.) Dr. Lstiburek of Building Science recommends min R60. If you have the space, I'd suggest doing the work in this order: 1) Seal all air gaps between the attic and interior. In the '50s, there was virtually no attention paid to this. 2) If there is a coat of oil paint on the ceiling, you may forego a vapour barrier in the attic. 3) Provide sufficient roof and soffit vents. 4) Provide that the air route to the soffits remains clear. Use, for instance, pre-made styrofoam baffles. 5) Insulate with blown-in cellulose to a minimum of R 40.

tomnewengland: I am afraid I may have completely misled you with my previous post. Not so long ago the basic concept for dealing with crawl space insulation was to seal and insulate the area above the space and provide lots of ventilation below. Thus my post of a way to do that as a retrofit. I find, however, that the latest recommendations are to treat the entire crawl space as a part of the living area. This would mean sealing and insulating the walls enclosing the crawl space, no ventilation, etc. There are any number of online resources detailing how to do this. This will be much more difficult to do as a retrofit of an existing structure, for sure. There's also the possibility that 5 years from now recommendations will shift back to the original ways of dealing with crawl spaces. I'm also not sure that the current recommendations would apply to a space where there is, if I understand correctly, only 1 foot of clearance between the bottom of the floor joists and the ground. All in all, i think you would be well served by having an estimate or two done by professional insulation companies or a good general contractor. Even with taking on the project yourself, you'd have some better guidance than mine in how to go about it.

If I could provide negative stars regarding Thermasteel Inc, I would. This firm can not read or implement structural nor architectural plans. Customer service is not existant, they do not stand behind their product, and will not correct blatant errors from design mistakes. They changed rough openings to actuals after a contract was signed and delivered every panel with the wrong size opening so no doors or windows fit. They missed an entire window from the plans, made an incorrect pitch on the rear of the home including sending the wrong sized corner panel, and the response was to disassemble the half built structure and send it back to them on our dime to see if something was wrong. Very unfortunate as I was going to market and sell homes being constructed from their panels, after this experience and lack of concern or doing the right thing, my advice is to avoid this firm like the monkeypox!

I didn't realize I was providing the information piecemeal - that wasn't my intention so apologies for that. So let me start from the beginning. The house is 22 years old. I bought the house in Jul 2016 - I'm the 5th owner. In 2012, one of the previous owners had the shingles redone - I have the receipt for that. Since owning the house I have seen brown droplets on the ceiling of the skylight opening and on the baseboard below the skylight. At first I didn't notice it, and then I ignored but when I realize that the problem wasn't going away and that there were drip stains in the skylight I inquired. I've never seen actually wet raindrops - it's always dried on the wall, ceilings and baseboard. I was told by a friend that I should speak to a roofer so I contacted the roofer who did roof in Nov 2012. The first time he came he asked who did the roof, I said you guys - he said well it should be covered under warranty. Second time he came, before even going on the roof he said I already know what the problem is - it's the flashing and shingling. He went on the roof and took those exterior pictures and confirmed what he said - that it was poorly installed. He said he would talk to his boss and see what they can do for me. Then the office manager got involved as soon as he left and started saying they didn't install the skylight - it's not their responsibility, not under warranty. I said the skylight was installed before the roof so they should have ensured it was water tight but they claimed the skylight was after they did the roof. He said "there's no way the skylight is 7 years old - it hasn't even weathered" - he was angry and rude, shouting at me. Let's call him contractor A. I asked the previous owners (who I'm friends with), if they knew anything about the skylight - they said the didn't touch while they lived in the house. So I asked contract A for proof that he skylight was installed after the roof and he got mad - I ended up hanging up on him because he was shouting at me. I figured - I was out of luck so I got a referral from a friend who is contractor and made an appointment with him - let's call him contractor B. A few days later contractor A emails asking if he can take a picture of the stamp on the window. I said sure and gave him some times when I was home - he shows up with some other guys and start showing me pics on the phone ...one day when I wasn't home, he trespassed onto my property without my permission or knowledge, and took pictures! He did apologize but how can you trust someone like that. He then proceeded to say that stamp shows 2012 and claimed that the previous owner in question must've had the skylight installed after roof "because there's no way we did that" and was talking about the size of the shingles and the condition of the flashing, etc. He also said the warranty is with the previous owner, not me. To me, it still didn't prove the skylight was installed after - why would the previous owner get a new skylight after getting the roof done a couple of weeks later, in the winter just before xmas? Anyways, he offered to fix the problem for half price (half of $800 - $400). He wanted to do it right away - the next day (Saturday). I said let me think about it (I had contractor B coming over to give me a quote later that day). Contractor B came and first looked at the interior and suggested insulating/vapour barrier. Then went outside (didn't not go on the roof - it's a very steep roof and it was raining that day) and said the flashing and shingling around the skylight needed to be fixed. He emailed me a quote $435 for the exterior work, $350 for the interior. I copied and pasted the work he detailed from the quote. So then I came on here asking is the interior work needed. That's all the information I have. I don't understand the comment about me being happy. I thought I asked a very simple question - All I was trying to find out was insulation is necessary and I still don't know the answer to that. I'm so confused and overwhelmed with all the conflicting information I have received - I don't know who to believe or what's what. If anyone has read this long posts and can help me out - it would be appreciated.