GATEWAY WEST & METRO EAST IL Blog

Try Adding Home Improvements to Your New Year's Resolutions List

As the next year rolls around, many people take it upon themselves to create New Year’s Resolutions full of goals that they wish to achieve or improve on during the next few months. As a homeowner, the holiday season is often very stressful – resolutions may have had to take a back seat in the midst of those preparations, visits, and health concerns. However, whether you want to improve the energy efficiency of your home, lower costs, or generally maintain a cleaner house, home improvement projects should be a priority on your goals for the upcoming year.  

When thinking of home improvement, homeowners often think of large-scale renovation projects; luckily, there are many smaller projects you can take on to assist in creating a healthier environment. Your local Koala Insulation industry professionals have broken down four reasons to take up low-scale renovation projects that can improve your wellbeing throughout the year.  

4 New Year’s Resolutions in One 

Some of the most common New Year’s resolutions are for improved health, learning, and saving money. For 2022, 40% of people say their resolutions involve being more energy-efficient. One way to help with this goal while also improving the comfort and safety of your home is to retrofit your insulation. The primary function of this material is to regulate the temperature of the house. Additionally, improving the climate control of a home can also help lower potential health risks, monthly costs, and energy usage. If you’re trying to check off multiple resolution boxes, updating your insulation and air sealing can be the best course of action to tackle some of the most common New Year’s challenges.  

Reduces Health Risk 

Many homeowners often don’t realize that insulation in a home may prevent health risks, especially if they are not familiar with the type of insulation they already have installed in their home. Insulation plays a major role in improving indoor air quality, reducing the risk of mold growth and moisture damage, and even contributing to pest control.  

The materials that make up insulation often either have natural properties or are chemically treated to resist moisture retention. For example, cellulose insulation is treated with boric acid, a chemical that has antifungal properties. Boric acid has the additional benefit of killing insects that ingest it to help reduce the potential for pest infestation; damaged material often acts as a food source for certain disease-carrying insects or rodents that are looking for a new home. When choosing material for your home, take into account the different qualities your insulation choices have so that you can improve potential weak points your home may have. 

Improves Energy Efficiency  

Insulation’s primary function is to reduce the rate of heat transfer and improve climate control. As such, it’s a crucial support system for your HVAC unit; with properly installed insulation, your home is able to contain desired warmth in the winter and keep out the heat during the summer while lowering the amount of work your HVAC system needs to put in. With your HVAC unit running less to keep up with the thermostat, your energy usage is significantly reduced.  

In many ways, the same factors that can improve insulation’s moisture resistance or pest prevention may also contribute to the energy efficiency of the material. To use cellulose as another example, this insulation is made out of 80% recycled material, which primarily consists of recycled newspaper. In another case, closed-cell spray foam has a higher R-value at about 6.9 per inch of depth; this means less needs to be applied to be more effective in resisting heat loss, which leads to less material being needed when adding or fixing your insulation. 

Increases Savings 

Energy efficiency often goes hand in hand with improved savings. In the same way, a reduced need for your HVAC system means less energy usage, it also means less monthly costs. While your HVAC system is constantly running to keep up with your thermostat, this results in not only higher energy bills but also potentially more maintenance. When your HVAC system isn’t supported with quality insulation and air sealing, you may be in need of a new or repaired unit. 

Retrofitting your insulation may initially sound costly. This is why Koala Insulation offers free evaluations so you have an overview of your home’s current condition before making a decision on removal and reinstallation. From there, you have the ability to work with your time and budget to fix pain points in your insulation. Additionally, when you’re on top of your insulation’s needs, you will have a higher return on investment from updated insulation, saving you on monthly costs than if you were to let the insulation deteriorate significantly for years. 

Provides Learning Opportunities 

For many homeowners, insulation and air sealing fall under an “out of sight, out of mind” problem. While many people are familiar with the insulation in their attic space, they may not realize the importance of regularly evaluating and updating the material within their walls and floors as well. While it may not be on your top list of skills to acquire in 2022, having more knowledge on what impacts your home’s comfort and safety is crucial for any homeowner.  

With the help from Koala Insulation of Gateway West, you and your household can start gaining a deeper appreciation for “the little things” that make a big difference. Insulation can save you up to 40% on heating and cooling bills when properly installed and maintained. It’s especially important to understand the ways that different climates and weather conditions affect your home meaning that each home will have different insulation needs. 

Find Local Resources For More Information

Improving your home’s environment shouldn’t need to be an expensive and time consuming effort. Instead, contacting your local industry professionals can help you to save money both during and after the project while also working around your busy schedule. At Koala Insulation of Gateway West, our experts are well-versed in home improvements and insulation. Our experts will arrive with state-of-the-art equipment to thoroughly inspect your attic or home and identify any areas in need of repair or improvement.  By hiring a Koala Insulation expert, you not only get to enjoy a more efficient home faster, but you also get to benefit from the years of energy savings that professionally installed insulation will bring.