Home Improvement Projects-Blow-in Insulation
It is widely acknowledged that today’s fuel and electricity prices are ridiculously high. Unfortunately, we do need both to either heat up our homes during winter or cool it down during summer. A practical way to save on your energy costs is to insulate your home properly. Insulating your home may be a little expensive initially and it could be bothersome to install, but over time you’ll learn to appreciate that it is quite possibly one of the most important improvements that you can ever undertake for your home. So now you know that you need to have your house insulated, the question is what could be the best type of insulation for your home?
What is the best insulation?
In the older homes it was common for insulation to consist of stuffing the floor boards and the walls with newspapers or even egg cartons. While it may have worked its purpose, un-beknownst to most of them people were actually introducing additional fire hazards into their homes! Fortunately, now there are many available methods for insulating your home. Insulation materials today have something called an R rating. As you might guess, the higher the R rating goes the more efficiency you have from your insulation.
Aside from the efficiency of the material used, there are also different methods of installing the insulation. In the process of evaluating all the available choices you will discover that the blow-in insulation has one of the highest R ratings.
How is blow-in insulation better than the others?
Instead of using multiple sheets of fiberglass, the blow-in type is more adaptable and has better insulation qualities. Its R rating is entirely dependent upon the amount of insulation you blow in and ranges from fifteen to thirty-eight. This is also a very friendly type of insulation for those people suffering from respiratory problems or allergies.
The insulation material is form-fitting since it is able to stick to the outline of the plane where it is attached as it is basically blown into the walls. There is little to no chance of air seepage as it is fit tightly to the wiring, beams and corners. The installation process is a breeze. The material actually seals surface imperfections as it expands to fill the gap between every crack and crevice.
How is it installed?
Installing the blow-in insulation is very simple. First, you insert the installation tube through a hole located on this material called the blanket. This is attached to the walls or floor where the insulation will be blown. The hose used to blow in the insulation goes into the blanket hole and can be moved in any direction until the insulation is filled in behind the blanket barrier. The blanket is merely to contain the insulation as it is blown in. Once the job is finished, the hole is taped shut.
The new wall material is installed directly over the blanket. If you wish to add some more insulation down the line,it would not be necessary to remove the entire wall material in front of the blanket. You may just make a small opening, have the insulation blown in, close the hole up, and finish with a little paint job. Mission completed.
Even though this type of insulation costs much more to install than rolls of fiberglass, the projected energy savings however will make it possible for you to recover your initial investment within a span of four years.
Have questions about 5S or spill kits? Get the answers.
Mail this post