The advantages of attic insulation might change depending on the climatic zone. Attic insulation essentially prevents heat from moving from your home’s interior to the attic above. According to current efficiency requirements, your house may need to be adequately insulated if it was constructed before 1980.
However, is attic insulation really needed if you live in a hotter climate? If it’s not winter weather year-round, is attic insulation really that big of a deal? Depending on the climatic zone, upgrading to current U.S. Department of Energy standards can cut heating and cooling expenditures by up to 50%. This is especially true if air leaks are sealed before installation.
Let’s look at how beneficial insulating your attic can be, especially in summer.
Some significant benefits of attic insulation
Apart from just lowering your utility bills, attic insulation has a number of benefits. We have listed here a few of them:
Increased comfort
Attic insulation helps do much more than just keep your home healthy and stable. It decreases the sound pollution that can come into the house from the outside. Having a quieter space means thinking more clearly and having a better night’s sleep.
Apart from that, attic insulation promises to regulate the home’s internal temperature. Meaning that your home will stay colder for longer in those long, grueling months of humidity and heat.
Furthermore, Plus, let’s remember that lower attic heat means better, healthier for your home. Attic insulation really does keep your home from premature aging and only makes it get better with age.
Saving money
One of the most popular benefits of attic insulation is that it helps keep your bills at a reasonable rate. It keeps your home cooler for longer, meaning you don’t have to spend hours and hours running your AC unit. Once the whole house is at a temperature that is cold enough, you can switch off your AC and let your attic insulation keep your home cool.
In addition to this, attic insulation can also extend the life of your HVAC equipment, meaning further reductions in bills and maintenance. Once you have paid your attic insulation cost, you can then reap the benefits!
Types of insulation
Attics typically use one of two forms of insulation. For instance, we frequently advise blown-in fiberglass and radiant barrier for regions with hot climates.
Blown-in Fiberglass Insulation
One of the greenest insulation solutions is blown-in fiberglass insulation, which offers a solid, efficient barrier against heat loss. It gives a reasonable R-Value per inch, has no negative influence on the environment, and saves energy immediately. With blown-in insulation, proper installation is essential. Long-term performance requires specialized tools and safety precautions.
HeatBlock Ultra
Applying a radiant barrier to the bottom of the attic roof deck may drastically cut the radiant heat entering the building, lowering cooling needs and saving you money. Since it blocks more than 80% of the radiant heat that is attempting to enter your attic from the roof, radiant barrier attic insulation is advantageous to homeowners. Reduced cooling and heating loads increase the lifespan of HVAC equipment like furnaces and air conditioners.
An aluminum-colored, water-based, low-emissivity coating is called HeatBloc-Ultra. Radiant heat accounts for 80% of the heat gain in a southern American home throughout the summer. HeatBloc-Ultra will significantly impact the home’s performance when applied to building materials like plywood, plasterboard, or OSB. It will also block over 80% of the radiant heat that is attempting to enter your attic from the roof.
Thus,
Upgrading your attic to have it insulated can be a game changer. And now, you no longer have to worry about where you live as attic insulation will have benefits whether you live in a warmer or cold region.
If you’re interested in learning more about attic insulation and how it can be beneficial to you and your home, contact Zavza Seal LLC today. Zavza Seal LLC is one of the best attic insulation companies in Long Island on the market today, and you call in today for a free estimate!
5 Important Things to Know When Insulating Basement Walls
Installing insulation on the basement ceiling and walls is one of the most crucial phases in completing a basement. Adding insulation to basement walls keeps heat inside during the winter and keeps it out during the summer.
Consider these five crucial factors before insulating your basement walls to ensure your project runs smoothly.
Any and all moisture issues should be dealt with before insulating the basement walls.
Before adding any kind of insulation, the basement’s moisture issue needs to be resolved. If not, moisture might leak into the drywall, insulation, and other components, resulting in permanent damage. This is why you should do a straightforward wetness test by attaching a tiny piece of plastic sheeting to a concrete wall and keeping it there for around 48 hours. To determine if water leaks through the basement walls after this time, consider condensation on the plastic sheet’s inside and exterior.
You must conduct a more in-depth study to identify the source if you discover water dripping into the basement. The problem is frequently caused by the gutter system emptying too close to the house’s foundation. Additional causes can include foundation fractures, openings around pipes, conduits, vents, or local floods.
Assess the condition, take the necessary action to resolve it, and then wait until everything is dry before adding any insulation to the basement walls.
Rigid foam insulation is often the best option for DIYers
Though we don’t recommend you DIY your basement insulation in any way or form, if you’re still persistent, basement insulation in foam form is the best option for you.
For insulating basement walls, a variety of insulation materials are available. Although fiberglass insulation is frequently used in other projects, it is not ideal for insulating basement walls. It may retain moisture, resulting in rot, mold, mildew, and water damage.
Basement insulation made of spray foam can be a good choice, especially for filling small cracks and spaces around light switches. Despite the fact that spray foam is typically more expensive than other insulation options, it doesn’t retain moisture and has good sound absorption qualities. Foam insulation can be the best basement insulation when you finally get the hang of it.
Installation methods include furring strips or a standard 2×4 wall system.
There are typically two ways to place insulation on basement walls. The insulation is fastened to the wall using furring strips in the first approach, and the wall is framed over the insulation in the second. Inspect your local construction regulations to see if either option also calls for using a vapor barrier.
To prevent condensation, all gaps in the insulation should be sealed with tape, caulk, or spray foam.
Cold patches can develop along the basement wall due to minor fractures, cracks, or gaps in the insulation. Condensation can happen when warm air strikes these frigid places. While a little condensation every now and then isn’t a big deal, persistent or severe condensation can result in rot, mold development, and significant water damage.
Even basement insulation panels need help sometimes. The basement walls can be sealed and insulated to assist in lower humidity levels and heat loss while preventing moisture intrusion. It is advised to use sealing tape, caulk, or spray foam insulation to plug any cracks, gaps, or small openings that are too small for rigid foam board insulation to prevent moisture from forming in the basement.
Most building codes require a thermal barrier when insulating basement walls from the interior.
The 2021 International Residential Code states that foam plastic insulation, such as polyisocyanurate, polystyrene, and polyurethane, must be kept apart from the interiors of buildings by an authorized thermal barrier unless specifically permitted by sections R316.5 or R316.6. A typical thermal barrier is a piece of drywall, gypsum wallboard, or an equivalent 1-2 inches thick or larger material.
It is not cost-effective to dig up your foundation only to put external insulation around a subterranean basement, even if doing so can assist in minimizing the passage of heat and sound through the walls. This is particularly true given that insulation put inside or outside has a very similar impact on energy usage.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for the benefits of basement insulation or want to know more about it, contact Zavza Seal today. Theirs is one of the best basement insulation companies in Long Island at the moment. You can call them today for a free estimate.
About the author: Amina Tahir has experience in writing for over 6 years. For the past year, she has been working for Zavzaseal https://zavzaseal.com. She knows the importance of having a stable, well-cared-for home. Thus, she writes in hopes that no homeowner faces any problem they have to face on their own.
As it keeps heat from entering your house and cold air from fleeing in the summer and vice versa in the winter, blown-in attic insulation is a terrific way to make your home more heat-resistant and energy-efficient.
Although most people are unsure of what blown-in insulation is, it can be a terrific method to permanently reduce your heating and cooling costs by over 20%. You will learn the fundamentals and get the most frequently asked questions about blown insulation from this guide.
What is blown-in insulation?
Conventional insulation often comes as faced batts (foam-like boards) or unfaced rolls. Still, blown insulation is frequently a far better option if your insulation needs to be updated or you’re adding it to an older attic. Mineral fibers make up blown insulation, often known as loose-fill insulation. Nevertheless, cellulose or Styrofoam pellets are occasionally used.
Typically, non-toxic fiberglass mineral wool is used to create blown insulation. Most new homes utilize fiberglass insulation, the most prevalent type of insulation on the market.
How is blown-in insulation installed?
This insulation’s name refers to its use; it entails using your preferred loose material to cover an attic floor, fill stud or joist voids, or both. One member of a small team visiting your home uses a blower hose to spray the fluffy insulation across the floor and into cracks. At the same time, another person feeds the fiberglass mineral wool into a container that is either outside the house or under the attic.
They’ll keep applying fiberglass wool until the gaps are closed, or the attic floor is evenly covered with the material up to a specific thickness (depending on the R-Value needed). This insulation really can go anywhere. One standard method of using it is literally putting blown in insulation in walls.
Why install blown-in insulation
Regardless of how the roof was built (as long as it is waterproof), blown insulation can be put in any attic space and insulate the living area below. As long as it is sufficiently far from the living area of the house, it could be installed successfully in small and unusually shaped rooms. In many cases, blown-in attic insulation is far more affordable than facing batts; fiberglass is also non-combustible and pest-resistant. Fiberglass insulation is resistant to moisture and mildew, unlike more conventional types of insulation, and does not create a good home for mice, birds, or insects.
It also has some noise-canceling properties, which may be advantageous if you live next to a busy road, an airport, neighbors who frequently have family gatherings, or if you frequently encounter storms. The opposite is also true; whether you have noisy pets, musicians in the family, or you like to stay up late watching action movies, you may do as you want to know that your neighbors won’t be bothered. This may also assist in lessening noise from room to room within your house.
