Custom Insulation Blog

There are many ways to increase your home’s efficiency for the upcoming winter. Properly insulated homes have significantly lower heating and cooling bills. However, often homeowners do not think of insulation when looking for ways to lower their heating costs.

Your attic may be insulated, but check out your attic access way. In the form of a hatch, pull-down stairs, or a knee-wall door, attic accesses often go uninsulated. This gap in the attic insulation increases heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.

Also, attic accesses often aren't sealed properly. A 1/4-inch gap around the perimeter of an attic access can leak the same amount of air supplied by a typical bedroom heating duct.

Knee walls are often found in houses with finished attics, they are vertical walls with attic space directly behind them. These walls are usually leaky and often uninsulated. A knee wall and the attic floor in the attic space behind it should be properly insulated and air sealed.

Properly insulating air ducts located in unconditioned spaces such as attics, crawl spaces, garages, or unfinished basements can also help improve your home's energy efficiency.

Air ducts supply conditioned air from your space heating and cooling equipment to your living spaces. They also return an equal volume of air back to the equipment to be conditioned again. Ducts are typically made out of thin metal materials that easily conduct heat. Therefore, uninsulated or poorly insulated ducts in unconditioned spaces can lose 10%–30% of the energy used to heat and cool your home.

If you properly insulate your crawl space—in addition to air sealing and controlling moisture, you will save on energy costs and increase your home's comfort.

Contact Custom Insulation for more information on making your home more energy efficient.

As the days get warmer you might start dreaming of air conditioning. But, there are some other ways to keep your house more comfortable during hot summer days that are easier on your wallet and the environment.

Attics can reach temperatures over 140 degrees F on hot summer days. If there isn’t much insulation between the ceiling and attic a lot of this heat is going to be transferred into the house.  Increasing attic insulation can make a big difference in the comfort level of a home and will also cut your heating costs in the winter. By adding R40 insulation to a poorly insulated attic the temperature inside the house will drop by 6-8 º F on hot days.

Proper attic ventilation is also important in keeping your house cool and extending the life of your roof. Without it, as the sun goes down your attic won’t cool off as much and will continue to heat your house throughout the night.

The use of spray foam insulation has been rapidly growing as Architects, Builders and Homeowners become aware of the long term energy savings and comfort benefits associated with using spray foam. However, if you have a walk up attic, blanket insulation would be fine to use.

With the difficult conditions and volatility of the real estate market, investing in home improvement projects to keep your home in its best shape will give you the upper hand in a housing market where competition is fierce. For the home seller, there are a couple of tasks that you can take care of to significantly add value to your home.

Focus on the curb appeal
The front of your home is the first thing that can be seen from street. It is important to put effort into updating this part of your home. Assess your property from the street. One great improvement option is the installation of copper gutters.  For your home, only the best will do.  Copper gutters are a popular choice for new and remodeled homes, and they are growing in demand because they look beautiful and they are unique and durable.   But most of all they are also very low maintenance.

Improve your home's energy efficiency
Those home improvement tasks that are focused on improving the energy efficiency of your home will turn in significant gains with reduced energy consumption and lower energy bills. For instance, you can reduce your energy loss and raise the level of comfort in your home by improving the insulation quality of your home.

By improving your home’s insulation, you can also extend the life of your home itself, reducing repair and maintenance costs. To improve home energy efficiency the “thermal envelope” must be improved. This is the barrier to winter heat loss and summer heat gain, which protects and separates the indoor living space from the outdoor climate.  Insulation is the heart of the thermal envelope, so improving insulation is the first step.

Few homeowners are aware that there different ways to insulate their home, and that there are some differences among the two methods. Rolled insulation, or batting, is the most recognizable option to most home owners. Many consider it the neatest, cleanest and easiest to install, but it has its advantages and disadvantages just like the blown in insulation which is installed by a professional.

The main advantage of Rolled Insulation is convenience. Rolled insulation can quickly and easily be installed, and is sold at home improvement stores for the do-it-your-self homeowner with time on their hands.
 
The advantages of blown in insulation are performance and the speed of install. Despite the fact that rolled insulation is manufactured to fit in between standard sized studs - it still does not exactly match the "fill" of professionally installed blown in insulation. Blown in insulation has optimal performance because it fits securely into every nook and cranny. It fills every crack and crevice and surrounds every piece of conduit and obstacle, which makes for a much more effective barrier than rolled insulation.

Custom Insulation Company, Inc will come to your home and insulate in a few hours, what could have taken a few days to do with rolled insulation. And again, blown in insulation will get into areas that would have never have gotten to with rolls.

This brings up the point of price. Considering the cost of materials, the higher level of protection, and the amount of time and work that a do-it-yourselfer would have to invest, it could be very well worth a bit higher initial investment to have the blown in insulation installed by professionals. You may come to find that the money you are saving on your energy bills will help pay for that extra cost in no time

When it comes to a home improvement that reduces energy use and improves the interior comfort of the home environment, many first look to energy efficient air conditioning and heating units as the answer. Energy Star HVAC units are indeed energy savers. They are also very costly investments and even those have limited effectiveness if other areas of the home where heat is gained or lost are not also addressed. The place to begin is with the attic.

Attic insulation and ventilation is a critical part of energy conservation in a home. Significant heat enters the home through the attic in summer and heat is lost from the attic in the winter. Attic insulation systems work less hard with less energy needed. Making sure you have proper attic insulation is key not only in the winter time but also in the summer time to prevent heat loss and cold air exiting through cracks.

Adequate attic ventilation is equally important to prevent heat and moisture from being trapped in the attic. Keeping the air circulating properly in the attic also aids in preventing unwanted heat gain and loss and prevents damaging moisture from rotting wood and promoting the growth of mildew and molds. If you are looking to make a home improvement that pays for itself in reduced energy usage as well as one that protects your most valuable investment, then contact us today. We will be happy to assess your insulation needs!

If you want the most for your money, our cellulose blown in insulation is the top choice. It out performs most other insulation methods on the market and is less expensive too. Cellulose is also a natural organic, recycled material which has no harmful effects on people or the environment. The building industry has been using fiberglass as the old stand by and recently builders and home owners have been looking for a better solution.

Dense packed cellulose has an R-Value of 4.0 per inch which is better than most others with R-Values of 3.67 per inch. Fiberglass is in last place with an R-Value of 3.2 per inch. Cellulose also wicks moisture better than any other insulation meaning that cellulose insulation is still effective if it's wet. Air infiltration is also reduced greatly with the use of dense packed cellulose. Sound control is another huge reason to choose cellulose as many music studios have dense packed cellulose integrated in the sound control designs.

Our National Fiber’s Cel-Pak is a premium, all borate cellulose insulation with proven energy savings. Our cellulose insulation is non-irritating to skin and has no health problems associated with it. With its significant sound barrier and moisture control you can increase the value of your new buildings and existing homes. Contact us today to learn more about our insulation methods.