BATON ROUGE Blog

Top Signs You Home is Lacking Enough Insulation

Top 10 Signs You Need More Insulation

Home insulation is an important part of your home’s energy systems. Whether it’s a 90 degree August day or freezing day in January, your insulation’s job is to resist the transfer of unwanted temperatures into your home. Without adequate attic insulation, crawl space insulation and exterior wall insulation, a home’s efficiency and comfort will greatly suffer.

      1. Bare spots in your attic.

This one is obvious. Total lack of insulation is causing a giant gap in your home system. We often see this in homes following other contractors who have been in your home. We've seen homes where roofers had moved an entire 300 square foot section of insulation from over the master suite. Ouch.

      2. Attic joists are visible.

When poking your head up into your attic, look around. If you can see the joists that make up your attic floor, you are seriously lacking insulation. Most often 2” x 6” or 2" x 8" joists are used to construct your ceilings. If you see the skeletal beams of your attic that means you have less than the new construction code minimum of 10 3/8" to 11" of insulation.  In most cases, you are getting half or less of the insulating value required by local permitting agencies for new or renovation construction.

       3. High temperature changes between floors and rooms.

We often hear, “My upstairs will not cool no matter how low I set the temperature.Often, a customer will call us after having multiple HVAC companies out to help cool the upstairs bedrooms. After hundreds of dollars spent on unneeded maintenance trips and additional freon, a technicians may mention that you should have someone look at your insulation. The HVAC unit has been running overtime to keep up with the heat transfer, shortening the life of your expensive equipment and leaving you uncomfortable with both the temperature in your home and the high energy bills.

      4. High energy bills.

If you feel that you are paying way too much each month, your insulation should be one of your first places to look. If your home is allowing your comfortable air to escape, the furnace or air conditioner must work overtime to combat this. Pay attention to how often your unit is running. If you notice that it is running constantly, you are unfortunately paying more than you should.

      5. Cold spots on floors

If your home is built over a crawl space, low or a lack of crawl space insulation will lead to cold kitchen and bathroom floors in the winter. Some contractors and environmental service companies recommend removing crawl space insulation. They suggest this when mold or other microbial growth occurs in the crawl space. There are better ways to address these issues that won’t cause other discomfort and inefficiencies.

      6. Extremely Hot Attic

Poorly ventilated attics do not let heat out by natural convection, and quickly turn your attic into an oven. More insulation helps in this instance, but an even better solution is to push more hot air out of the attic. Today's new solar powered attic fans are far more effective than the old powered fans, wind turbines, and ridge vents at removing hot air from your attic. By reducing the temperature of your attic, not only do you stay more comfortable in your home and reduce your energy bills, but you also increase the life of both your HVAC unit and your roof shingles.  Attic ventilation can be one of the best home investments you can make.

      7. Recurring issues with freezing pipes

Exterior walls have a required insulation of R-13. Installing batt insulation around pipes means a lot of cutting and fitting. It is very common that contractors will rush through installation and the insulation will not fit snuggly or they will not have split the batt to fit it on backside of pipes at all. You’ll never know until it’s too late.

        8. Bugs and other pests

No one enjoys seeing a roach scurry across the floor or spotting a spider in your bedroom. These insects often come through disconnected pipes or vents in your crawl space or attic. Also, they come through light fixtures or other gaps in insulation in your attic. Blown-in insulation fills up creases and gaps in construction to block entry. Cellulose is also treated with borates which strongly deters rodents and other pests from settling in it. 

        9. Touch Test

The simplest way to tell if the insulation is lacking in your home is with your hand. Touch your exterior wall. Cold? It shouldn’t be. Touch the ceiling in your upstairs hallway. Hot? Low insulation is unable to fight off the hot attic air from entering your living space. In Louisiana often times the heat can be felt by hand even few feet away.

       10. High humidity in the Home

Try this out this coming winter. When we receive our first snow this winter in Nashville look around your neighborhood. Compare the rooflines. Has the snow melted from your roof before your neighbor’s? This is heat escaping your living space escaping. This also causes icicles to form. If the air is cold enough to freeze the melted snow it should be cold enough freeze the snow itself. Unless of course your furnace’s hard work is not being contained in your home and warms the roof from the inside.

All these signs and symptoms of low insulation are uncomfortable and some much more costly than others. Book a free attic and insulation analysis here and let us either put your mind at ease or get out in front of some of the costly consequences that can come from lacking or low attic and crawl space insulation.