Home Insulation Tips & Instructions
Because the state of your home insulation has such a substantial impact on your household budget and your family’s comfort level, special care should be given to that insulation at all times. While you may know that there’s insulation in your home, do you really know what kind of shape it’s in or whether it was installed properly to begin with? The following are tips to help you ensure your house is thoroughly protected from the elements.
Insulation in the Right Places
For one thing, insulation does you no good unless it’s installed where it’s needed. For instance, you may have great insulation in your walls, but if your attic and floors are not insulated, that wall insulation will do you little good. Your attic is one of the most important places to insulate if you are really serious about keeping your home heating and cooling bills down.
Heat easily escapes from an attic that isn’t insulated in the winter and will come pouring into your home the same way in the summer. Both of these situations add to the strain on your home heating and cooling system, and also drive up the cost of keeping your home comfortable all year–round.
You also want to make sure that your ducts and pipes are properly insulated from the extremes of heat and cold that come with the various seasons. If they aren’t, they can easily develop cracks and leaks that will cause more serious problems for you down the line.
Door & Window Seals
Another common place for air to sneak in and out of your house is around your doors and windows. You want to make sure the seal is tight where the wall meets the door or window frame, and that the entire area is well insulated. Otherwise, even the best insulation quality will be marginalized by unwanted cracks and leaks.
Along these same lines, it is helpful to check all of the seals on the windows and doors themselves.
Insulation Experts
You can certainly check for many of these things on your own, but there’s a lot you’ll miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Having a professional come out and take a look at your insulation situation is the best way to find out for sure exactly what you’re dealing with. Someone with experience can spot areas where the insulation is worn out or where there’s evidence of shoddy workmanship. With this information, you can then have your insulation problems addressed, providing you with substantial savings on your home energy bills.
Insulation Audits
To keep your home well insulated, you should have a professional come out occasionally to check the state of your insulation and make any necessary repairs. Just because your insulation was in good shape a few years ago doesn’t mean it still is today. These types of inspections don’t need to happen often, but you do need to make sure you have your entire insulation system checked every few years or so.
Normal wear and tear will eventually lead to deterioration of your insulation. None of these products is designed to last forever, so they’ll eventually develop problems. And the only way you’ll know these problems exist is if you have a professional come take a look.