The Importance of Good Insulation + Proper Ventilation
On average, 50% to 70% of a home’s household energy goes into heating and cooling. By installing the right levels of insulation and ventilation you can expect to save money and our nation’s limited energy resources. You’ll make your home more comfortable by helping to maintain a uniform temperature throughout the house. Walls, ceilings, and floors will be warmer during the winter and cooler in summer.
Cost of Insulation + Proper Ventilation vs. No Action
By properly insulating and ventilating your home, you can expect the project to pay for itself in about 5 to 7 years by reducing your heating and cooling bills plus minimizing the ability for ice dams to form over the winter months. Proper ventilation not only improves how your home functions, but it protects your shingle warranty, too. (Across the board, shingle manufactures’ warranties become void in cases where homes have insufficient ventilation.) Better yet, the life of your roof will be extended considerably as insulation protects your roof shingles from excessive heat over time.
What is R-Value?
You may have heard the term R-value as it relates to insulation, but what does it mean? Insulation is rated in terms of thermal resistance, called R-value, which indicates the resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating effectiveness. The R-value of thermal insulation depends on the type of material, its thickness, and its density. In calculating the R-value of a multi-layered installation, the R-values of the individual layers are added. Xtreme Exteriors can inspect the R-value you currently have and make recommendations that will improve your home’s R-value.
Your Home’s Insulation Project
A well-balanced attic with equal amounts of air intake and exhaust is as important, if not more important than simply adding insulation into your home. At Xtreme Exteriors, our objective is to provide your home with the right levels of insulation coupled with a balanced attic. Shown below are our examples of expert attic insulation installation.
In many cases, insulating can be done by gaining access through the roof top while re-roofing the home. This is a more convenient option for customers — they don’t need to be at home during the insulation (or re-roofing) process.
All ducts, tubing, plumbing, and vents need proper sealing to prevent excess moisture and heat from leaking into the attic space.
Once all mechanical and electrical penetrations are sealed, fiberglass insulation is blown into the attic space to the proper R-value.
Before Beginning Your Home Insulation Project,
We Carefully Inspect for the Following:
- Ventilation: Intake venting, exhaust venting and bathroom exhaust venting.
- The current insulation depth in your home, insulation coverage, and levels of consistency.
- The conditioned space leaks into your attic from mechanical by-passes, i.e., electrical wiring, satellite wiring, plumbing, and HVAC trunks and leads.
- Framing: If you have original framing that is causing an inability to adequately insulate certain spaces in your attic.
- The elevation of your home to the sun and/or northern exposures, i.e., is your home on a hill or down in a valley; is your home located in a high-home density neighborhood. (In multi-family housing, neighbors’ thermostat settings can influence your own home’s temperature.)
- Soffit Chutes: Check their width, length and make up. (During inspections, we’ve found foam, cardboard, other materials, or none at all!)
- Other Factors: Windows, fish tanks, the use of humidifiers, and dehumidifiers.
- Trouble shooting other problems: Moisture build-up, heat and cold issues, odors, animal intrusion and the M word — mold.
What Goes into Your Home Insulation Project?
- Properly seal around elements that go through the top floor and ceiling into the attic and seal around elements on the underside of the roof deck.
- Properly seal partition walls and top plate.
- Properly install new 22” x 6’ long rigid foam soffit chutes. (Remove old soffit chutes if they are existing.)
- Install wind wash under chutes to keep new insulation out of soffits ~ this prevents wind from blowing into soffits and blowing back the new insulation.
- Carefully blow insulation into the attic (We have seen many homes that have a blow back void under soffit chutes due to excessive pressure from improper installation.)
- Insulate access hatch lid.
- Install weather-strip around access hatch frame.
Be More Comfortable In Your Home.
Have energy efficient homes year-round.