Insulation Installation and Home Comfort

Are areas in your home freezing cold in the winter and super-hot in the summer? Or just looking to improve your homes energy efficiency and comfort? the attic should be at the top of your priority list. Insulation and air sealing in the attic have a dramatic effect on the home's overall energy performance, and upgrades in this area can lead to significant savings on heating and cooling costs. 

Most homes in Michigan have R-30 (just under 10 inches) which was the previous code. With increasing to the current code of R-49 (approx. 15 inches) our homeowners experience significant savings on their heating bills and savings on their electric bills during the summer months when air conditioning is used. Think of your home like a large bag surrounding your living environment. If you turn your furnace or air conditioning off how long will the hot or cold air stay within your home? The more thermal barrier to the outside environment you have the less your equipment will run saving you money and increasing comfort

How the attic impacts home comfort

Cellulose insulation can be installed over existing insulation without interfering with your storage area

About 50% of energy costs are typically attributed to heating and cooling, making it one of the biggest expenses for many homeowners. The attic has a major impact on home efficiency for several reasons:

• Air leaks and drafts between attic and living space
• Air leaks and drafts between attic and outdoors
• Poor or incorrect ventilation
• Insufficient attic insulation
• Uninsulated ductwork in the attic

Best methods for improving attic efficiency

• Air sealing: The first step to improving attic efficiency is air sealing. Your attic is full of gaps and cracks that allows conditioned air to escape from the living space into the attic and unconditioned air to enter from the outside. Sealing these air leaks helps to keep your attic isolated from the outside and keeps conditioned air inside your home.
• Attic insulation: Many attics are lacking proper insulation, which is one of the biggest causes of energy waste and uncomfortable rooms. Raising attic insulation to proper levels prevents heat transfer between the attic and the living space, meaning your HVAC system will run less because conditioned air is being contained in the areas you want to heat and cool.
• Ductwork services: If you have ducts in your attic, they are affected by the extreme hot and cold temperatures that occur in that space. When you try to send cold air through hot ducts or vice versa, the air in the ducts is heated in summer (and cooled in the winter), making it difficult to heat or cool your home. Having ducts in attics is extremely inefficient, which is why duct sealing and duct insulation are smart upgrades for homeowners with ductwork in the attic.

  Once our customer had put their home on the market for sale a buyer was immediately interested in this home.  Our buyer had a Home Inspector do an inspection and unfortunately found a prodigious amount of Mold in the attic and other issues arose once the inspection was completed.  After searching remediation companies our name came up and our customer found our website and was pleased to see they weren't the only home that may have mold issues. 

  After our company remediation inspector completed his walk threw of the attic he also found a couple of bath fan vents not directed out the roof, instead of blowing warm steamy air from the bathroom into the attic space.  Also found a majority of the soffits were blocked with insulation and either incorrect size or improper install of baffles.  These two issues add to the moisture in this attic and therefore the ventilation is unable to circulate properly in the attic causing a higher humidity to allow mold to form.

  Our customer was pleased to see the issue was solvable and we were able to complete this job in a timely manner.  Once all the mold was remediated with our RMR solution to kill mold staining and remove mold, we also cleared the insulation from the soffits and added all-new baffles.  The bath fans were also vented out the roof can we used new insulating ducting.

  Once our job was completed my customer was very pleased we offer a year paid in full warranty for remediation and before and after pictures of the attic. This is a complementary way to show our homeowners the work we did for not everyone wants to go in their attic space.