About Home and Building Insulation

Choosing the Most Excellent Insulation for Your Home or Building

Exterior Wall Insulation - Save Money or Blow It Away?

No one will dispute that exterior wall insulation is necessary for energy conservation and comfort within a home. It however, is part of a system, your house and while one type of exterior wall insulation may be perfect in new construction, it may require special considerations when applied to an older home.

Exterior finish systems that are applied to the outside walls can be relatively easy to decide upon, change the look of, and to upgrade. They are designed to provide structural support, insulation and be decorative.

On the other hand insulating the cavities between the studs of exterior walls can certainly require more thought. The area between the wall studs in older homes especially can be either un-insulated or very poorly insulated by today’s standards.

One of the first answers that springs to mind is blown in foam insulation that expands to fill the wall area and can provide excellent exterior wall insulation. However if this is considered the building’s construction must also be considered. Many homes will have braces half way down the studs so that insulation blown in may reach only half of the area. If this is not considered the exterior wall may end up being only half insulated which will not do the job.

Finishing a basement includes ideally insulating the exterior walls with a moisture resistant material so that the basement can be a center of activity and not within all too short a time, a damp cave that smells of mold.

Cold climate areas are not the only places where thermal insulation is useful. Homes in hot climates benefit as well since the thermal properties that keep heat from escaping a home in the cold weather also prevent heat from entering it in hot climates.

The better the insulation in a home the more energy efficient the home is likely to be. Less heat will be required to warm it and less to cool it as the inside is protected against the weather.

However, the best insulation systems will usually be the most expensive. Most homeowners will end up balancing what they can afford against the best types of exterior wall insulation is available.

Few will be able to afford the top of the line highest R rating insulation. However, not as many will need it. Sometimes even a moderate R rating will be enough to realize many dollars in energy costs over the life of the home.

Areas where the weather is extreme for months on end may find that even the most expensive insulation is worthwhile due to the energy costs required to heat or cool their home in these environmental extremes.

Homeowners in more temperate climates may be able to accept moderate exterior wall insulation and still realize a reasonable energy savings.

The home as an entity should always be considered when choosing insulation. It does less good to have excellent exterior wall insulation in the cavity between the studs if the floors, basement and attic have little or no insulation in place.

Fireproof Insulation Can Help The Spread Of A Potential Fire

Almost all insulation products are tested and rated as fireproof. If for some strange reason you find one that is not, stay away from that product. Because insulation is such a big part in any home or building construction, they need to have a fireproof rating.

Fireproof insulation is one of the main things that will help to prevent a fire from spreading through out the rest of your home. In most cases, if the insulation performs the way it is meant to perform, by helping to slow down and even stop the fire before it spreads, then your chances are very good for at least getting out of you home alive, and even by allowing you to extinguish the fire before it becomes a raging inferno.

Many of the older building that were built before the modern advances of current day insulation have been known to have such things as; shredded up newspaper, rock wool or many other different types of materials used for insulating. As you can imagine, these materials would only increase the chances of a fire spreading out of control.

For some older homes and building it is possible to use a type of spray on fireproof insulation. If you’re using it in a commercial building, where the looks are not important, such as in a warehouse, this fireproof spray on insulation can be applied directly over top the internal skeleton of the building. When you have a home or building where the looks are essential, then it would not be a recommended method of insulating or fireproofing. You may need to take the home right down to the studs to apply the proper dosage of fireproof insulation.

Even though it may be more costly to install new fireproof insulation in the beginning, it will pay for itself ten times over in heating and cooling cost savings, as well as increase the safety levels.

Choosing the Best Insulation for Your Home or Building

With the soaring energy costs of heating and cooling your home today, it’s more important then ever before to ensure that it is properly insulated. In some older homes that were built back some seventy or eighty years ago, you may not have any insulation at all in the walls, and very little in the attic. Although the costs of re-insulating an existing home are much greater then new home construction, the long term benefits in reduced heating and cooling costs will make up the difference.

Today’s insulation comes in many different forms as far as the ways in which they are applied, and the materials that are used in their manufacturing. You can use the standard fiberglass pink insulation that is synonymous with Owens Corning who also offer attic blanket insulation for unfinished attics, to spray on foam, and rigid foam as well. Each type provides for different uses, and each type will have a different ‘R’ value. The ‘R' value is the rating system that determines the insulations over all heat reducing qualities. The higher the ‘R’ value, the better insulator it will be.

The classic fiberglass insulation comes in what are known as ‘batts’. Usually in four foot by one and a half foot strips. These are designed to fit nicely in between the studs of a wall. They should fit snuggly into the wall, but should never be compressed to fit. When you compress fiberglass insulation it loses much of its ‘R’ value. They are also very easy to cut to fit with the use of a sharp utility knife.

If you’re insulating a building or a basement where the looks are not important, such as a warehouse, then the best solution would be to use a spray on foam insulation. This foam can be sprayed overtop the existing interior of the building, it then expands and dries to form a well sealed surface. This is a nice option because it can get into all those small, unnoticed cracks and holes that may allow for heat loss. You can find spray foam insulation in an open cell or closed cell foam. While the open cell is less expensive, it is also less dense and therefore will have less of an ‘R’ value.

Rigid foam board insulation is often used on the exterior of the home or building. It is installed first, and then the siding is applied over top. Some siding companies like Alcoa, have designed a siding product that combines both. It has the foam insulation bonded directly to the siding itself. This will allow you to save a lot of time during the installation process.

Another common type used in attics is a loose fill, or blown in insulation. Blown in insulation can be made of fiberglass, rock wool or cellulose. It is pumped in through a hose and blown in to the desired location. The ‘R’ value of this type is measured by how thickly it is blown in. Obviously, the thicker it is, the higher the ‘R’ value is. There is also garage door insulation as well as insulation for individual components such as gasket insulation.

In order to get the best possible insulating qualities that will serve your purposes, you’ll have to go out and do a little research. Going online is a great place to start, as you can have the information right at your finger tips for easy comparison. If you’re looking for ways to save money, not only in the cold winter months, but also in the hot simmer ones, then improving the insulation in your home is the first place you need to start.