Best Tips for Insulating Your Home
The benefits of insulating your home are many. Some include:
1. Keeping your house warm when it is cold outside.
2. Keeping your home cool in the warm summer months.
3. Saving on your utility bills by not running your heating/AC as much.
4. Increases the value of you home when you go to sell it.
The older the house the larger the possibility that it needs to be insulated or at least checked for improvements to be made to the existing insulation. You should start with these areas to check and improve your insulation.
Windows and Doors
Windows are probably the largest culprit in letting out the precious heat in your house. At a minimum, the windows should be double pane. If not, then it is time to look at replacing your windows for newer, energy saving windows. If this does not fit into your budget, then in the fall you need to put plastic over the windows. Many manufacturers make easy to do yourself kits that are available at your local lumber yard or home improvement store.
All windows need a good caulking around where they meet the outside of the house. This will prevent any air to leak in or out and wasting energy. This proves true for doors also, along with checking the weather stripping at the bottom of your door.
Most utility companies will come out to your house for little or no charge and perform a infrared scan of your house and see where the heat is escaping and thus showing you where you need to concentrate on improving your insulation.
Attic
Insulating the attic gives the rising heat in your home a barrier to fight through instead of free access to the outside. The insulation to use can be rolls of fiberglass insulation or it can be cellulose insulation that is blown in to your attic.
Basement/Crawlspace
If you have a basement or crawlspace then the underneath of your floor should be insulated to keep any moisture, cold air and/or dirt from coming up through your floorboards. Usually rolled insulation is used and it is kept in place by wire supports placed between the joists.
Walls
The walls of your house need insulation inside of them to prevent the outside elements for sneaking into your home. Rolled insulation can be put in if you replace the interior walls at anytime, otherwise you can blow in cellulose insulation either from accessing the inside or outside walls.
If you are planning on putting up vinyl siding, then a house wrap and a layer of foam insulation may be put up. This will give added insulation and prevent air infiltration.
The newer your house the more it is likely that you have it insulated fairly well. You just have to do yearly checks to make sure your caulking is still in good condition and nothing has disturbed any insulation that you have installed already.
Adding insulation is not to hard to do and can be mostly handled by yourself and a helper. But, you may feel more comfortable hiring the job out if you have the budget for it. Either way you will save money in the long run and have a more comfortable home.
