NORTH KANSAS CITY Blog

How To Tell You Need New Insulation in Kansas City

Signs You Need New Insulation in Kansas City

Whether you are a new homeowner or have owned your home for some time already, it’s always a good idea to check recent and past updates done to your home. What initially attracted you to purchase it? Or did you get a good deal because it needed new insulation? Kansas City, KS homeowners who experience decreased indoor comfort and increased energy bills know exactly what they need to do next.

Our local experts at Koala Insulation have been helping the residents of Kansas City and surrounding areas with new insulation installation for many years, providing guaranteed workmanship and quality products. As your leading Kansas City insulation team, we are committed to helping our local customers lead a comfortable life in an energy efficient home.

In this blog, you will learn more about when you are due for new insulation, how to tell if your attic or walls are affected, and how much you’ll be able to save on energy costs with high-quality new insulation in Kansas City. Our insulation pros have answered your most commonly asked questions.

What Are The Warning Signs I Need New Insulation in Kansas City?

When you feel drafts or other types of air leakage, the first area you check is likely your entryway and windows. These are the typical systems that you would weather-strip to manage your home’s energy efficiency. But if problems persist despite weather stripping or other air sealing services, you will know it’s because you need new insulation.

Kansas City homeowners should watch out carefully for:

Changing Indoor Temperatures

There are various reasons for this nuisance. We recommend that you first check your thermostat and calibrate it if the temperature is inaccurate. If it’s older than ten years, you should have a professional replace it. Besides your doors and windows, blocked vents and ventilation problems with your chimney flue might also be to blame. If you’ve ruled out all the potential culprits named above, you likely need new insulation. Kansas City technicians at Koala Insulation can help complete a more thorough inspection to help you find specific areas of concern, where the fluctuating temperatures need to be addressed the most.

Drafts

You may be picturing an inefficient window or a damaged door frame that allows drafts to travel into your home. While these are the most obvious and common culprits for drafts, you can also experience this nuisance with walls and ceilings that appear to be intact. 

The problem is that your drywall may have lost efficiency or even suffered interior damage. This is particularly serious because it means your walls and ceiling are in contact with the outside. If that’s the case, it will easily suffer from moisture damage down the road and could lead to structural damage, unless you hire a team of professionals for the necessary repairs and new insulation installation service.

Water Damage

Insulation with water damage should be replaced as soon as possible, but it’s also important to identify the underlying causes of that damage so it doesn’t happen again. There are a few ways for water or moisture damage to occur on your property. The most common ones include:

• Clogged gutters: When your exterior drainage system isn’t effectively directing stormwater away from your property, it will cause a spill onto your roofline. When excess moisture is absorbed, it will find its way into your home, most likely your attic. Along the way, it will lead to material deterioration, blocked vents, and also deteriorate your current insulation system. 
• Plumbing Failure: Most of your electrical and plumbing lines are buried behind walls, ceilings, and floors, which are all insulated spaces to help you manage your indoor temperature. When you experience a ceiling leak or a leak behind walls, chances are you’ll need to replace the affected insulation.
• Basement Flood: Clogged gutters and severe weather conditions can cause a basement flood. Whether you have a finished basement or partially finished one, waterproofing services are highly recommended, as well as new insulation installation to protect your home from further water damage.

Though we will go into more detail about the types of new insulation the expert team at Koala can install for you, it’s important to note that materials, such as fiberglass and cellulose insulation, do not provide a strong enough vapor barrier to keep external water out. The only strong enough product to prevent water damage is spray foam insulation.

Decreased Indoor Air Quality

When you experience stuffiness, allergies, or sickness, the first cause of action we recommend is having your heating and cooling system and your air ducts checked out. From clogged filters to mold growth, contaminants can come from multiple sources inside your home in Kansas City. New insulation may also be due. As old insulation deteriorates, it’s easy for it to release more dust and volatile organic compounds into the air, which will then be circulated throughout your home.

What Types of Insulation Are There?

At Koala Insulation, we offer a wide range of high-quality insulation products to help the residents of Kansas City stay safe and comfortable in their homes. Below, you will find the common types of new insulation we install on a regular basis. To make the right choice for your next installation service, our experienced, certified pros will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have during an in-house inspection and consultation.

Blown-In

Often referred to as loose-fill, blown-in insulation can provide your home with a fluffy layer of new insulation. Made of loose-fill cellulose or fiberglass, it’s flexible, adaptable, and very easy to install, filing between walls, rim joists, and across your attic floor. Besides attic insulation, blown-in is also ideal for wall insulation because there is no need to tear down your drywall. We’ll just drill a couple of access holes and refill your wall’s interior with new insulation over old.

Batts

Batt insulation comes in pre-cut sheets and can be made of fiberglass, mineral wool, or even denim cotton. Batts are probably one of the most common and cost-effective options out there and as long as they are properly installed by a certified technician, you can count on them to last for more than a decade. They’re also highly versatile and designed to be installed in between wall studs, rafters, ceiling joists, as well as floor joists and walls.

Spray Foam

Made of polyurethane foam, spray foam insulation is one of the best options. It has the ability to create a tight seal to prevent air leaks and can protect your home from all types of moisture damage. 

If most of your energy loss is caused by air infiltration, spray foam will put a final end to this. With an R-value of 7 per inch, we can use spray foam to fill the tiniest holes and crevasses throughout your home and enhance your vapor and acoustical barrier, along with reducing your monthly energy costs. 

SPF is pricier, but it does pay off in the long run. If you seek new insulation material to last you indefinitely, we highly recommend that you opt for SPF. You will see the difference it makes in the summer months and winter months. It’s like your heating and cooling system has never functioned any better.

How Do I Tell If I Need New Insulation in My Attic?

Similar to the warning signs mentioned previously, there are a few more specific signs to look out for in your attic and even outside your home:

• Ice dams: Ice dams are formed when your home suffers from heat loss. When heated furnace air rises too fast, it will melt the layer of snow on your roof. As it melts and flows down the roofline, freezing temperatures will turn the melted snow to ice, hence the dams. Therefore, heat loss is a clear sign that you need new insulation to reduce heat transfer.
• Water leaks: If you have water leaking in your attic, it’s likely caused by condensation. When it’s cold outside, and you take hot showers or cook for several hours, all that moist, warm air will rise into your attic and condense. It’s time for new insulation in your attic if your old one no longer serves as a vapor barrier. The sooner you treat it, the sooner you can avoid other problems, such as mold growth, material deterioration, or your HVAC going into overdrive.
• Pests: When pests like rodents have found their way into your attic, they must have found access via nooks and crannies. It’s important to note that rodents love to build nests in loose-fill and all types of fiberglass insulation. To properly manage rodent damage, we highly recommend a thorough insulation removal service before choosing a new insulation installation to recover your home’s energy efficiency.

How Much Will New Insulation Help Me Save?

According to Energy Star, your estimated energy savings after installing new insulation can be as high as 15%, given that you properly insulate and air seal your attic, walls, floors, crawl spaces, and basement rim joists. The estimate is based on cost-effective improvement projects for the average household. But what if our Koala team told you that you could go above and beyond with your new insulation project in Kansas City to save more money?

When Energy Star refers to cost-effective improvement projects for insulation, you can assume they refer to fiberglass and batt insulation materials, which are certainly high-quality materials. However, spray foam has an overall higher racking strength, which means that it provides your walls, ceilings, and floors with additional structural strength. 

As the only material to provide structural integrity, SPF protects structures from cracking and shifting, so you won’t ever have to worry about severe weather conditions. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rated SPF with a well-deserved 5 as a highly acceptable insulation material with excellent water-resistant qualities.

In fact, homeowners in Kansas City with spray foam insulation installed by our local experts have reported to have saved between 20% and 30% on their monthly utility bills. Their indoor comfort and air quality have never been better!

When Should I Get New Insulation in Kansas City?

When you wonder about how often you should get new insulation in Kansas City, we recommend replacing natural fiber materials, such as cellulose or fiberglass, once every 15 to 25 years unless you experience unforeseen weather damage that could deteriorate your materials twice as fast.

While we pride ourselves on our spray foam and high-quality workmanship, there are contractors out there who don’t do a proper installation job. The tiniest hole or gap left unfilled is enough to cause numerous problems, and you may find yourself needing a replacement within a short period of time if that happens. But with our workmanship guarantee, you can rest assured that your new insulation will last its full lifespan.

Is Replacing Insulation Worth It?

Absolutely! To be 100% sure that your existing system is no longer efficient or even damaged, it’s always good to have an experienced technician complete an inspection or energy audit to ensure that your home’s lack of energy efficiency boils down to outdated insulation. Every property owner who fails to install new insulation for their home will experience increased energy bills that will also deteriorate their HVAC’s functions in the long run.

Need New Insulation in Kansas City? Get In Touch With Koala Insulation!

Whether you need a detailed energy audit or an inspection service to get down to the root cause of your insulation problems, our experts at Koala Insulation are here to make a change.

Contact our friendly office team today at 913-675-6722 to describe your situation, and we’ll send out a certified professional to check your problem in further detail. We look forward to being part of your new insulation project!