Insulation Info

Looking For Attic Insulation Tips?

Kenny — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:52:37 +0000

The attic is one of the most important areas in the house and therefore it should be adequately insulated to minimize heat loss. The insulation needed in the attic will of course depend on the geographic location of the structure. In both crawl and unfinished full attics, the insulation should be located in the floor (between the floor joists) and not between the roof rafters. Otherwise, heat from the rooms below will escape into the attic.

Some of the important attic insulation tips are insulation should be installed with a vapor barrier facing the heated portion of the structure and not the unfinished attic area. A vapor barrier is an aluminum foil, a plastic sheet or an asphalt-impregnated paper that prevents moisture movement from the heated portion of the house into the unfinished attic area. If the vapor barrier is incorrectly positioned (facing up into the unheated, unfinished attic), condensation problems can develop during cool weather. Moisture rising from the heated areas below condenses upon contacting the cool vapor barrier. Depending on the amount of vapor, the resulting condensation buildup can reduce the effectiveness of the insulation and cause peeling and flaking of the painted ceilings and walls in the rooms below.

If there are heating or air-conditioning ducts in the attic, check to see whether they are insulated. Metal ducts often have insulation in the inside, so tap the duct with your flashlight. If you hear a hollow sound, there is no insulation. If there is a dull thud, insulation is present. The more insulation on a duct, the less the heat loss during the winter and, in air-conditioning ducts, the less the heat gain during summer. Generally, a minimum of 3 inches of insulation wrapped around the outside of the duct will substitute for missing insulation. If the duct is used for air-conditioning, the insulation should be covered with a vapor barrier to prevent condensation from forming.

Additional attic insulation tips are especially for houses in the northern section of the country, when there is a furnace in the attic, insulation between the roof rafters as well as in the attic floor is recommended. To ensure proper ventilation and avoid condensation problems between the rafters, it is important to leave a ventilated air space between the top of the insulation and the underside of the roof deck. The insulation and the associated air space will help keep the roof deck cool. If the insulation is not between the rafters, heat from the furnace will warm the roof deck and melt the bottom layer of snow that has accumulated on the roof. This often results in an ice dam.

Others attic insulation tips that you might want to consider are adding more or additional attic insulation to bring the total insulation up to current energy standards. The attic insulation added should not have a vapor barrier if the existing insulation has one. All too often the homeowners adds insulation with a vapor barrier, which can then cause condensation problems. Look at the insulation in the floor. If there are two layers of insulation and both have vapor barriers, the upper barrier should be slit with a razor blade to allow moisture movement.

Moreover, if there is a full attic with partition walls forming rooms, the attic insulation should be located on the unfinished sides of the partition walls and on the ceilings of the rooms. Occasionally, attic insulation is placed between the roof rafters ad not between the floor joists and the partition walls. This installation is inefficient because the heat will escape into unfinished areas.

In conclusion, here are some quick recap of attic insulation tips. Remember vapor barrier should face the heated portion of the structure and not the unfinished attic area. If there are heating or air-conditioning ducts in the attic, check to see whether these ducts are insulated. Check if additional or more attic insulation is needed. Basically here are several questions that you should be asking yourself when you are purchasing a house or consider attic insulation, is the attic insulated, is additional insulation needed, does existing insulation contain a vapor barrier and is insulation properly installed.

What is Home Insulation?

Kenny — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:35:40 +0000

What is home insulation? That’s a good question to be asking if you are new to insulation. Insulation is available in a variety of forms and materials. The three most common forms are flexible insulation, loose-fill insulation, and rigid insulation. Flexible insulation is manufactured in two types, batts and blankets. Both are made of fibrous materials such as glass fibers, rock wool, wood fibers, or cotton. Organic fibers are treated chemically to make them resistant to fire and decay. Batts are precut in 4- or 8-foot lengths and are available in thicknesses between 2 and 6 inches. Blankets are furnished in continuous rolls and are available in thickness between 1½ and 3 inches. Both batts and blankets are manufactured in 15- and 23-inch widths so that they can be readily used in homes that have been constructed with joist and stud spacing of 16 or 24 inches.

Loose-fill insulation is generally made from rock wool, glass fibers, vermiculite, pearlite, cellulose, granulated cork, shredded redwood bark, sawdust or wood shavings. It is normally supplied in bags or bales and can be poured, blown, or placed by hand. Loose-fill insulation is suited for use in the sidewalls of homes that were not insulated during construction or between the floor joists of unheated attics. However, if there is no floor covering, it is not recommended for use between the floor joists when an attic fan could blow the loose material around.

Rigid insulation is generally made from extruded polystyrene, polystyrene bead board, urethane, fiberglass, or wood fiberboard. It is often used to insulate masonry walls and comes in widths of 24 and 48 inches. Most rigid insulation boards are not fire resistant and should be covered with at least ½-inch gypsum wallboard to ensure fire safety. Rigid insulation boards are also used as backer boards for aluminum and vinyl exterior siding.

Another type of insulation that was popular in the late 1970s was foamed-in-place insulation. It was made from urea formaldehyde. In many homes, the foam ingredients were improperly mixed and installed. This resulted in excessive formaldehyde vapor being released into the house, causing adverse health effects. Urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) is no longer being installed; however, many homes have UFFI in their walls. Therefore, if your house is built in the 70s, you should take note of this.

Things You Should Know Before Installing Attic Insulation

Kenny — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:21:20 +0000

Attic is probably the most important area of your house and yet it is the least inspected place. It is not uncommon for a homeowner to say that he or she has lived in his or her house for over twenty years and has never gone into the attic. Inspecting an attic can reveal problems of which most homeowners are not aware, some of which might be potentially dangerous or costly to repair. Incidentally, if the homeowner does say that he or she had never gone to the attic, you can be sure that at the very least, the attic is inadequately insulated by current energy standards.

There are basically two types of attic: full and crawl. A full attic is one in which a person can easily walk around. Usually there is a floor in this type of attic, although the walls and ceilings are unfinished. There might be partition walls forming finished rooms with sloping or horizontal ceilings. Access to a full attic is usually through a finished staircase.

In a crawl attic, which is completely unfinished, the roof is sufficiently close to the floor so that to get around it is necessary to crawl or stoop over. The crawl attic usually does not have a floor. The ceiling joists from the level below are exposed. When getting around in this type of attic, be careful to walk only on the exposed joists. If you accidentally step between the joists, you will probably frighten the pants off of anyone in the room below because your foot will go right through the ceiling. Access to a crawl attic is usually through a ceiling hatch located in a closet or hallway or through hidden folding or sliding steps.

Insulation and roof leakage are probably the only things most people consider when thinking about the attic. However, there are other items of importance and concern, such as ventilation and its associated problems, fire hazards, electrical and plumbing violations, improperly discharging vents, and open duct joists.

In conclusion, before installing any insulation at your attic, be sure to find out which attic does yours belong to, crawl or full. Also find out if there is any roof leakage, ventilation issue, fire hazards, electrical and plumbing problems before doing any insulation work. That will save you some re-installing cost.

How to estimate home insulation cost?

Kenny — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:38:45 +0000

Due to the overwhelming response to the post, “how much does insulation cost“, I decided to write another post that is going to address the question of “how to estimate home insulation cost”. This post is going to be somewhat similar to “how much does insulation cost” article, so I am going to be brief here. Before I go deeper into the cost estimation, I want to stress that you can use this formula or method to estimate the insulation cost no matter where you live.

The question of how to estimate home insulation cost actually depends largely on if you were doing the home insulation work all by yourself or if you were going to hire some contractors to do it. Whether you are do-it-yourself or hire a contractor, the formula to estimate the home insulation cost is going to be the same and real simple. The only difference is just on the labor part. If a contractor is going to do the dirty work for you, then all you have to do is include the labor cost plus the material cost. If you decided to go adventurous, then the only cost you incur is the insulation material cost.

To estimate the insulation material cost, all you need to do is figure out what the R-value is in the first place. Of course before doing that, you need to know which area in your house that you like to install the insulation as different areas require different R-value. Other than that, you also need to know which insulation material you want to use for the specific area. Different material carries different cost. So after choosing the insulation material and figuring out the R-value, the next thing to do is measure the size of the area that you want to insulate. You need to know the size as the number determines the amount of insulation material that you are going to use.

Other than figuring out the size of the area, knowing the thickness of the insulation material is equally important as most insulation material comes in a standard thickness. You might need to stack the insulation on top of each other to achieve the desire R-value. For example, popular insulation materials such as fiberglass and cellulose batts or rolls have R-value of 3 and 3.3 per inch respectively. Therefore, to achieve an R-value of 18, you would need about 6 inches thick of fiberglass or 5.5 inches thick of cellulose. With that being said, if your fiberglass batts is 3 inches thick, then you need to stack two batts to achieve a R-value of 18.

Once you have figure out the size and also the amount of insulation material, you can call the local home depot to ask about the cost of a square feet of insulation material. By then, you will know what the total home insulation cost is. To save yourself from doing the work, you can hire a contractor to do it for you. Then you will have to add that extra labor cost into your budget.

To get a quote for hiring a contractor to do the insulation work for you, following the link here:

Get a quote from a local contractor

Hope this help!

What types of insulation methods are available? Page3

Kenny — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:53:58 +0000

Reflective Insulation
Reflective insulation materials are usually fabricated from aluminum foils with a variety of backings such as kraft paper, plastic film, polyethylene bubbles, or cardboard. Reflective insulation is most effectively used to reflect sunlight in the summer which directly affects the heat gain in your house. Therefore, reflective insulation is often used in reducing what we call downward heat flow. Downward heat flow is basically the heat gained during summer. Reflective systems are typically located between roof rafters, floor joists, or wall studs. If a single reflective surface is used alone and faces an open space, such as an attic, it is called a radiant barrier.

Radiant barriers
Most people are familiar with traditional insulating materials such as fiberglass, cellulose, Styrofoam, and rock wool. These products use their ability to absorb or resist (slow down) convective and conductive heat transfer to insulate (R-value). A third, seldom discussed but dominant form of heat transfer exists: radiant heat transfer.
Radiant heat transfer is due to electromagnetic energy transfer. For instance, when you step outside on a sunny day and feel the sun’s rays on your face, you are feeling radiant heat transfer. All objects above absolute zero (-459.7 degrees F.) emit infrared rays in a straight line in all directions.
Therefore, here comes the radiant barrier to insulate against the radiant heat transfer.

Radiant barrier is basically a type of reflective insulation installed in buildings to reduce summer heat gain and winter heat loss. A radiant barrier insulation system is a layer of foil facing an airspace and is installed in the envelope of a building. A pure aluminum radiant barrier reflective insulation is unaffected by humidity and will continue to perform at a consistent level no matter how humid it may be whereas a 1-1/2% change in the moisture content of fiberglass insulation for example will result in a 36% decrease in performance (referenced from HVAC Manual 10.6; McGraw-Hill).

In new buildings, you can select foil-faced wood products for your roof sheathing (installed with the foil facing down into the attic) or other locations to provide the radiant barrier as an integral part of the structure. For existing buildings, the radiant barrier is typically fastened across the bottom of joists, as shown in this drawing. All radiant barriers must have a low emittance (0.1 or less) and high reflectance (0.9 or more).

Radiant barriers have become increasing important and popular now when this relatively new insulating technology is maturing. Moreover, the cost of radiant barriers installation has also been drastically brought down in recent years which make this insulation method a popular choice in new houses. Studies have shown that as much as 90% of heat gain in the summer, 50% of heat loss through ceiling or roof and 65% of heat loss through wall is through radiant heat transfer.

In conclusion, if you are buying a new house or doing renovation, do consider radiant barriers as part of your insulation work.

Page1: What types of insulation methods are available?
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What types of insulation methods are available? Page2

Kenny — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:22:28 +0000

Foam Insulation
Foam insulation is very expensive but it usually offers the highest R-value. It is usually installed by a professional as it requires special equipment to meter, mix, and spray the foam into place.

Polyicynene is one of the materials used in foam insulation and it is considered an open-celled foam. An open-celled foam insulation material is not compressed. As such it traps vapor barriers or air within the cell. The advantages of open-cell foam are it’s cheaper compared to closed-cell foam and it can easily be taken off. The disadvantages would be that open-celled foam insulation is less resistance to moisture and should not be used in area where moisture is a concern. In addition, as there is air trapped within the cells, open-celled foams usually have a lower R-value for a given thickness compared to closed-cell foams. Open-cell-foam insulation is usually used to protect items in shipping.

On the other hand, polyisocyanurate and polyurethane are closed-cell foams. As the name implies, close-celled foam is the opposite of open-celled foam. After applying the foam to an area, as the foam cures, it forms bubbles or tiny cells that have solid un-broken cell walls, making this insulating material harder and resistance to moisture. Closed-celled foam also provides more R-value per inch than open-cell foams and is the product of choice if the insulation is likely to be exposed to high moisture or to water.

Foam insulation is usually applied in irregularly shaped areas where cutting fiberglass batts would be labor intensive. Other than that, foam insulation is also used in insulating hard-to-access building areas - a spray wand can be inserted into tight spaces to release the expanding foam product which will expand to fill the odd-shaped space. It also provides a very good air leakage seal as well as it is wind leakage and moisture (in the case of close-celled foam) resistance.

Rigid Insulation
Rigid insulation is a broad term used on a variety of insulation. The foam insulation which we discussed earlier can also be considered as a type of rigid insulation after it hardens. In general, rigid insulation is tough and long lasting and is usually used in areas such as the roof where it gets the most exposure from the environment. Rigid insulation is made from fibrous materials or plastic foams and is produced in board-like forms and molded pipe coverings. Rigid insulation is very effective in providing full insulation coverage with minimum heat loss and is often able to provide a greater R-value where space is limited. Rigid insulation in the form of board is sometimes fitted with a reflective foil that reduces heat flow when it is installed next to an air space. Rigid insulation is often used for foundations, roof and as an insulating wall sheathing.

Page1: What types of insulation methods are available?
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What types of insulation methods are available? Page1

Kenny — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:14:53 +0000

There are several types of insulation methods available for home insulation. However, the types of insulation methods that work best really depends on a couple of factors such as the amount of insulation needed, the space to be insulated, the accessibility of the area to be insulated, insulation price and the local expertise of local contractors. Therefore, the question of which insulation methods work best will probably have to be addressed in a different article. For now, we will only look at the types of insulation methods in this article.

The most common types of insulation methods available are batts or roll, blown-in loose-fill, foam, rigid, reflective and radiant barrier. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. One insulation method that best works in an area might not be suitable in a different area. Some methods are expensive but last longer and more effective while some are cheap but may not be effective. Therefore it really depends on which space that you want to insulate as well as your budget in order to apply the intended insulation method. We will discuss each of the insulation methods in detail in the following paragraphs.

Blankets in the form of batts or rolls
Batts or rolls are flexible insulation materials made from mineral fibers such as fiberglass or rock wool. They are best used for areas like the wall studs, attic or floor joists where they have a standard spacing as batts or rolls can easily be cut to fit into whatever widths are available in these areas. Non-standard spacing areas such as the area in between joists near windows, doors, or corners can also easily be fitted with batts or rolls that are hand-cut and trimmed. In areas where there are obstructions such as wires, electrical outlet boxes or pipes, you can easily avoid insulating these areas by trimming and cutting the batts or rolls to the exact shapes and sizes. Simply put, batts or rolls insulation materials are the choice of most home users as they are cheap and can be easily installed either by homeowners or professionals. Some batts or rolls are available with or without vapor-barriers facings. Batts with a special flame-resistant facing are available in various widths for basement walls where the insulation will be left exposed.

Blown-in loose-fill
Blown-in loose-fill insulation is a type of insulation method which uses a special pneumatic equipment to blow insulation materials such as loose fibers or fiber pellets to an area. This type of method is usually handled by a professional installer and it is difficult for homeowners to do it on their own as the equipments are expensive to buy. Blown-in loose-fill is best used in wall cavities. In addition, it is also appropriate for unfinished attic floors, for irregularly shaped areas, and for filling in around obstructions.
In some cases, cellulose and fiberglass fibers can be mixed with an adhesive or foam and after that the mixture is sprayed to areas such as open wall cavities. Blown-in loose-fill insulation is more expensive compared to batts or rolls and only used for insulating certain spaces.

Page2: What types of insulation methods are available?

How much does insulation cost?

Kenny — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:53:42 +0000

I guess this is probably one of the most asked questions in terms of home insulation. This article tells you what the cost of insulation is and how to do a rough estimate on insulation cost. Before going further, I would like to point out that the estimated insulation cost here only caters to people living in the United States. However, for those not living in the United States, you can use the same guidelines here to estimate the insulation cost in your area.

First of all, the cost of insulation largely depends on R-value of the material and the size of a specific area of your house that you want to insulate. With that being said, you can determine the cost by first figuring out the R-value requirement in your area. R-value requirement depends on where you live and climate of the area as well as the specific place in your house that you want to insulate. For example, if you live in Florida and you want the wall to be insulated, then the required R-value is R-13 according to the diagram at the bottom of this article. If you live in North Dakota, the R-value is different and it is R-18. If you are going to insulate the attic for instance, then the R-value is going to be different. Anyway, the important thing to know is higher R-values means higher insulation cost. Therefore, an R-18 requirement certainly costs more than R-13 for the same insulation material.

After determining the R-value, the next thing is to find out the insulation material that you wan to use. Different insulation materials cost differently even though they achieve the same R-value. Popular insulation materials are fiberglass and cellulose. Their respective R-value is 3 and 3.3 per inch of material. Therefore, to achieve an R-value of 18, you would need about 6 inches thick of fiberglass or 5.5 inches thick of cellulose.

When you know the R-value and the insulation material, you will need to estimate the size of the space that you wan to insulate. For example, a typical 1,200 square feet house has about 800 square feet of attic space. Once you have figure out the R-value, insulation material and size of the space, you can look for a contractor. The contractor will be able to give you a quote including the labor cost with all these information.

If you plan to do the insulation work yourself (DIY) and decided not to engage a contractor, you can roughly figure out what the cost is with the known R-value, insulation material and the amount of insulation material needed for the specific space.

If you decide to ask a contractor to do the work, here is a rough estimate of the cost of insulation. For example, a rough estimate to insulate an open attic by contractor can range from as low as $0.50 in certain area to as high as $2.25 per square foot. That’s about $400 to $1800 for an 800 square feet attic space. Typically, the cost of attic insulation averages from $700 to $1100. Do-it-yourself materials for roll-out batting in an open attic can run $100 - $500 for an 800 square feet attic space.

Moreover, a rough estimate for hiring someone to blow insulation into a flat roof, cathedral ceiling or wall cavities is $2 -$3.50 a square foot, or $1,000 -$3,500 for filling 1,000 square feet of empty wall or roof space. A complete insulation job on a typical family home can run $2,000 -$10,000 or more, but averages $2,500 -$5,500, depending on materials, the regional climate and the local economy.

In conclusion, the cost of insulation varies greatly from region to region. One thing for sure is the DIY home insulation can roughly cut the cost by half. Therefore, if you know how to do the insulation work and you are on a tight budget, then by all means go ahead to do it yourself to save cost.

Insulation R-values-diagram

Insulation zone-map

Having trouble looking for a reliable local contractor?

Kenny — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:00:40 +0000

It’s very common that almost every homeowners like you and me needs to do something in our homes, whether it’s a bathroom, kitchen, doors or set of windows that require repairs or replacement. Or we may want a new, large patio or the whole back yard landscaped and an extension of a bedroom. In all of these situations the best route to go is to hire a contractor.

Why a Contractor?
Most of us will go for a handyman or a do-all person when we require some work on the house because it’s cheap. But cheap in most situations can’t ensure work quality and there is no warranty that comes with the work done. Therefore, the best option is to hire a contractor. Unlike a general do-all person or handyman a contractor has the qualifications and experience to take the project from an idea to a finished space all ready to use. And the best part of this is that it is all done for you from the planning to the labor and materials. The contractor also arranges for the space to be cleaned up and any debris taken away.

What a Contractor Can Do For You
Many projects require the services of more than one type of trade. A general contractor takes the plans and acquires the appropriate licensed contractors for work, such as scheduling a siding contractor or roofing contractor if these trades are needed. A residential contractor will need the services of up to a dozen individual trades to complete the work. The completion of a remodeling or building project requires careful planning, a time-consuming process that requires an individual with the proper training and many years of experience on the job. During this time the contractor has developed a network of reliable subtrades, skilled workers who can get the job done on time and on budget.

Get Started
Hiring a contractor for your job takes time and, in many cases, some guesswork. To take the guesswork out of the equation go to reliable sources such as Reliable Remodeler where the contractors are licensed. Because remodeling and building are expensive enterprises and require top-notch evaluations of the people with whom you intend to entrust your home.

The best place to get you started is to go to Reliable Remodeler to hire a qualified contractor in your area where it will save your precious time and get the job done in the first time!

Click on the following link to get a quote for a contractor now!

How Reliable Remodeler Works

Select a service and tell about your home improvement, remodeling or maintenance project.
You will be contacted within 24 business hours to verify receipt of your project request and clarify any details about your project.
Up to 4 member contractors will contact you within 48 business hours to schedule a Free Estimate on your project.
A project representative will follow up with you again to make sure you are happy with the service you received from Reliable Remodeler and the member contractors.
Finally, you will choose the contractor you like most for your project and have the work done!

Installing Attic Insulation Page3

Kenny — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:21:20 +0000

For fiberglass batts insulation, lay the batts in place by unrolling them between the joists, pressing them down without compressing them too tightly. If you lay one batt on one side of the attic and another batt on the other side, you will likely have a space in the middle that you will need to cut a batt to fit. Since you are working from the walls in, you will be measuring and cutting in the area with the highest roof clearance, which should make things easier.

When working with fiberglass batts insulation, the way to cut it is to compress the batt with a straight edge. After you got the straight edge, cut through the compressed material against the edge with a utility knife. The ends of batts should be joined by butting them up against each other firmly, so that there is no space between them.

While laying out insulation over your attic, it’s equally important that you do not miss to weather-strip the attic hatch. Running a length of self-adhesive foam weather stripping around the top of the attic opening will create a good seal when the hatch is placed over the opening.

If you attic already has insulation in place, you could install the new fiberglass insulation batts over the top of the existing layer of batts filling the joists. You could lay the new batts (which must not have a vapor barrier) perpendicular to the old ones. Insulation batts can be cut around cross bracing between joists, but remember to keep it 3 inches away from any heat source such as electrical fixtures or chimney flues. Unless the electrical fixtures are rated IC, only then insulation can be installed near them.

Look out for any vents in the attic while you are installing attic insulation. Make sure your insulation do not block them. If you are using loose-fill insulation, you can nail wooden frames together to fit around vents or heat-producing elements to keep the insulation away from these things.

In conclusion, increasing your attic insulation while making sure that the attic is properly ventilated can be very rewarding when you start noticing savings on your utility bills, particularly if you have started with an insulation value that’s well below what’s recommended for your area.

Please click on the following links to go to the respective pages.

Installing Attic Insulation Page1

Installing Attic Insulation Page2