What To Insulate in the Attic

If your attic is unfinished and used only for storage, you want to insulate the attic floor so that warm air is trapped below stairs, in those rooms you actually inhabit. If your attic is finished, you want to insulate above these finished spaces.

Your attic may have insulation already in place but if it's been there for years, chances are it has compressed and is not as effective as it once was, or as it could be. It's an easy matter to roll new insulation on top of old and reap all the

benefits.

Your attic should also be properly ventilated to allow air to circulate through the space.

Insulation Tips

When you insulate the attic floor, you simply lay rolls -- called batts -- or blankets of new insulation over the floor. Batts are precut to a specific width. Blankets are wide and you cut them yourself.

Batts of insulation may have a paper or foil backing on one side. If this is the case, lay this down, towards the heated part of the house. If it's facing up, it can trap moisture, which you do not want.

Roll the insulation between the joists and do not leave any gaps. Warm air will find its way through even the tiniest crevices. Install a second layer of insulation perpendicular to the joists, so that they are covered.

Do not get too close to light fixtures or the chimney. Insulation needs to be distanced from anything that generates heat.

Fill in odd pockets of space with insulation cut to fit. Push it into the area but do not compress it more than necessary.

Don't walk on the insulation unless you have to. Do not store anything on it, such as boxes or suitcases. Above all, you don't want to compress it, which detracts from its efficacy.

Finally, if you decide to lay insulation yourself, take care. Wear long sleeves and long pants, gloves and a face mask. Protect your eyes, too. You don't want to get fiber glass in your eyes or lungs.

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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.