Everything you Need to Know About Attic Insulation
Insulation is a big buzzword in the Midwest – and for good reason. With the temperatures swinging around as wildly as they do, it’s no wonder the stuff is such a hot topic around here.
Homes, in particular, make use of the stuff; With insulation’s help, exterior and interior temperatures stay where they’re supposed to, keeping you warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Insulation can be found in a variety of places in your home, but arguably the most important one is your attic.
Learn why your attic space matters when it comes to ensuring your household’s comfort and well-being, what hazards it might face, and how to know if it might be time for an upgrade.
Where Your Home Needs Insulation
As we’ve mentioned, insulation is needed in many areas of your home. Let’s first understand an insulation’s role in your home. Heat moves in several different ways. With conduction, heat moves through walls, floors, and other materials.
When heat rises, known as convection, it makes the upper level and attic of your home warmer. Heat continues to flow toward colder areas until the area is neutralized.
The goal of insulation is to limit the flow of heat from your home’s interior to exterior, preventing heat loss and keeping your home warmer. Ideally, you should have insulation in the following areas:
Under Your Floors and Basement
If the idea of walking through your home with bare feet during the winter months makes you cringe, your floors may be cold due to basement drafts. Insulating the rim joist can keep the warm air inside your home where it belongs and limit the transfer of heat.
Furthermore, mildew and mold are two of the most common basement problems for Twin Cities homeowners. Fiberglass insulation can retain moisture, leading to mold proliferation that can create health problems for your family. On the other hand, spray foam creates an airtight barrier that prevents mildew and mold growth.
Around Pipes to Prevent Freezing and Bursting
The only thing worse than a frozen pipe is a busted one. No one wants to turn on the faucet and realize their pipes have frozen. Upgrading the insulation in your basement will prevent your pipes from freezing, saving you a headache and a whole lot of cash on repairs.
Garage Doors
While a new garage door can be a sizable investment, most homeowners find insulating their existing doors to be both affordable and cost-effective.
The benefits are numerous, including eliminating excessive drafts, which will assist in keeping energy costs down, safeguarding your car’s components, and keeping air and moisture out. When a garage isn’t insulated, moisture can get in easily, leaving anything stored in your garage or attic vulnerable to moisture, rust, and mold damage
Finally, an insulated garage can create a comfortable spot to work on all of your home improvement projects. On average, an insulated garage door can translate to a 10-degree or 15-degree improvement inside a garage even when the temperature outside is below freezing!
The Unique Role of Attic Insulation
Like all insulation, attic insulation helps maintain your home’s interior temperature and ensures an efficient HVAC system. But unlike other types, like basement insulation, attic insulation plays a rather direct role in maintaining the health of your roofing – namely by preventing ice dams.
As the University of Minnesota Extension explains, ice dams are created by a complex interaction between heat loss from the attic space and your roof’s external temperature. There are a variety of causational factors, but insufficient insulation, as we detail in our roofing contractor blog, can facilitate this heat loss.
Since ice dams can result in water backing up under your shingles and working its way into your roof’s innards, it’s critical that you mind this particular part of your home’s insulation.
What Hazards Does Attic Insulation Face?
Unfortunately, attic insulation faces a fair deal more potential problems than insulation elsewhere in the home due to its location. If your roofing happens to leak, this can dampen it and prevent it from functioning as it should – not to mention create a great environment for mold.
An improperly ventilated roof can also deal with excessive condensation, which can have similar effects. On top of all of that, animals, should they find their way into your attic, also enjoy using the stuff as nesting material.
How Do I Know If My Attic Insulation Is Having Problems?
Only a roofing company can tell for certain; insulation problems have a knack for mimicking a variety of other building envelope issues. Ice dams are a fairly telltale sign, though, as well as energy bills spiking for no HVAC-related reason.
Other factors include possible pest infestation. Pests often nest in insulation and leave behind gaps after they’ve gone. Are you having drafts originating from the attic? Because heat rises, warm air may escape through the attic during the winter. If you notice a draft as the weather cools down, inspect the insulation in your attic for gaps or spaces.
If there are noticeable gaps or spaces in your attic’s insulation, call Budget Exteriors immediately. We can replace your attic’s old, worn-down insulation with high-quality Owens Corning ProCat.
Worn insulation causes your home’s heating system to work twice as hard, resulting in higher energy bills. When you notice your home has a noticeable draft, contact a reputable team of contractors to replace your home’s insulation.
Budget Exteriors offers Retrofoam, an industry-leading insulation that controls the temperature inside your home throughout every season. Spray insulation is directly injected into walls, filling the cavities that create air leaks and drafts.
From drafty conditions to unevenly distributed air throughout your home, foam insulation may be right for you. Roofing damage that’s otherwise inexplicable can also point in that direction.
Budget Exteriors: Bloomington’s Top Exterior Contractor
As our A+ BBB rating indicates, we’re Bloomington’s number-one choice for any type of home exterior remodeling. We specialize in insulation, windows, siding, and gutters. We really care about customer satisfaction.
Our mission is to provide the best products and services on the market. Read our positive insulation reviews! Reach our office today at 952-887-1613.