PEARLAND Blog

5 Important Places Your Home Needs Sufficient Insulation

Most homeowners have a surface-level understanding of insulation: what they see as they poke their head into their attic is typically what they associate household insulation with. Unfortunately, this aids in keeping insulation under an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. It’s important to remember that the material throughout your home plays a significant role in your comfort and safety. As such, you and your household should be familiar with key areas where insulation should be installed, regularly evaluated, and periodically updated.

How Insulation Impacts Your Home

To have a better understanding of why insulation should be carefully considered as it’s being installed throughout the house, you may need to first know the basics about the function and use of the material. The primary use of insulation is to help reduce the effects of heat transfer. This is the rate at which heat moves in and out of a building structure.

The material's ability to reduce the rate of heat transferred is measured by its R-value. Also known as resistance value, R-value is the numerical measurement to calculate the effectiveness of the insulation material. A higher R-value typically means the insulation is better able to regulate the temperature in order to keep your home evenly heated or cooled. If you start to notice that your HVAC system is working harder, if one room or even a whole side of the house isn't the same temperature as the rest of your home, or if there's a significant increase in your monthly energy bills, these are early warning signs; your insulation may be old, damaged, or improperly installed.

5 Areas in Your Home That Need Insulation

1. The Attic

As mentioned earlier, most homeowners are already briefly familiar with the insulation they find within the attic. Most homes either have blown-in or loose-fill insulation lining the floor, with the material being either fiberglass, mineral wool, or cellulose. You may even recall being told as a child not to touch the fluffy material upstairs if you helped to move storage in and out of the area. However, just because you can see the insulation along the floor doesn't mean the home is necessarily well-insulated.

It’s important to have your attic regularly checked and updated to ensure the house is properly covered. Because heat rises, the uppermost part of your home can turn into a furnace in the summer and an escape for warmth in the winter. Although you may be concerned with allowing your home to “breathe”, air sealing and covering the walls, ceiling, and floors help to keep the building temperature regulated. To learn more about airflow and the difference between quality air sealing and ventilation for a “breathable house”, take a look at our information on the subject here.

1. Inside Walls

The walls in your home need to be well insulated in order to improve temperature regulation and climate control. However, this isn't the only benefit the material can provide to you and your household. Sufficiently insulated walls contribute to factors like noise reduction, mold and moisture resistance, and even pest control in some cases. With industry practices like thermal imaging testing, your local experts at Koala Insulation of Pearland can tell you whether or not your walls are in need of retrofitted insulation without impacting your environment.

Your home’s walls and floors are constructed with the intention to protect you from the outside elements, pollutants, and unwanted guests and pests. Without quality insulation and air sealing supporting your building envelope, the structure isn’t able to effectively do its job. The insulation material acts as a cushion for both heat and sound waves, helping reduce the ability of these forces to enter and exit your house.

1. Under Floors

It may come as a surprise at first, but insulating under the floorboards of your home can be just as important as covering your attic and walls. Regardless of whether you live in a multi-story home, have a basement or crawl space, or you’ve transformed your attic into an additional living area or bedroom, your floors could be the prime suspect of escaped air.

When your home is underinsulated, you'll notice an increase in discomfort from things like drafts, moisture, and potentially even mold growth. These health hazards, along with the potential for invasive pollutants, bacteria, and other pests, are what make air sealing and insulation so crucial in keeping your household safe. With a free evaluation, you can determine where your home may be lacking sufficient insulation under the floorboards.

1. On Ceilings

When you consider temperature regulation, it's important to not only consider room to room but also from the floor to the ceiling. As mentioned earlier, heat rises, most often escaping through the top of your building. Therefore, the ceilings in the upper floors and attic should be effectively insulated with strong, durable material. While homeowners most commonly use batt insulation made from fiberglass or mineral wool, alternatives like spray foam insulation are just as helpful of an option.

Ceilings that are underinsulated are a significant contributing factor to heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. You can greatly reduce unwanted heat transfer throughout your home with the help of your local insulation experts and a simple thermal imaging test. Every insulation professional on the team at Koala Insulation of Pearland is trained and experienced to help educate homeowners on the importance of a well-insulated building.

1. The Basement & Crawl Spaces

Finally, whether you have a full basement under the house or access to a crawl space, insulating these areas can significantly reduce your heating and cooling costs. According to the Department of Energy, sufficiently covering these areas “saves you money on heating and provides a dry, comfortable living space.” Similar to your attic, these lower levels will most likely cover a significant area under your home, if not the entire foundation. Therefore, keeping them maintained is very important.

In addition to insulating your floors, the underground levels of the house greatly contribute to reducing air leakage, moisture build-up, mold, and even pest nesting. Regardless of whether you have fiberglass, cellulose, spray foam, or another type of material installed in the lower levels of your home, local experts can help you find better savings without sacrificing comfort and safety.

How To Improve Your Comfort, Safety, and Savings

When it comes to making sure you have solutions that are both cost-effective and energy-efficient, Koala Insulation of Pearland has a team of insulation professionals that works with industry leaders to bring you the best options. With our free evaluations, we can help you to improve the comfort and safety of your environment while taking your current schedule and budget into account. Our team provides a detailed breakdown of your home’s insulation and air sealing so you and your household can make informed decisions on necessary changes. Contact Koala Insulation of Pearland today to schedule your free evaluation and learn more about where material should be updated in your home.