SOUTH MIAMI Blog

Common DIY Insulation Mistakes

If you’re already thinking about insulation, you are at the point where you have noticed your high energy bills or that your A/C is working overtime and it’s still not as cool as you would like. You might be wondering now, if you could save a couple dollars by installing the insulation yourself; it can’t be that hard and there’s so much to choose from in the Home Depot insulation aisle, right? However, what might seem easy is actually a time- and labor-intensive job for the untrained homeowner and there’s many possible mistakes that could make the job dangerous and the results insufficient and ineffective.

Choice of insulation

There’s an endless choice of insulation materials and application methods and as a non-expert it is extremely difficult to make the right decision. There’s the terms fiberglass, cellulose, spray foam, batt, blown-in, loose fill, open cell, closed cell…all of that can be confusing. A trained insulation technician knows exactly which type of insulation is the right one for your home with its unique environment and your specific needs. Sometimes it’s even best to get different kinds of insulation depending on the area of your home and the trained eye of a Koala technician can identify that as well during a free in-home consultation.  

Preparation and safety

If not handled properly, some types of insulation can pose serious health risks and expose you and your family to dangerous chemicals. One of the most popular types of insulation in South Miami, Spray Foam, is a safe choice for homeowners when applied properly (for example by an insulation technician) but the chemical composition of the product needs proper air circulation to be safe - something amateurs often overlook. 

Like with most home improvement projects, there’s personal and professional equipment. DIY spray foam equipment might be a lot cheaper than its professional counterpart but it comes at a loss of quality which will end up making your insulation less effective. Professional equipment can be rented but requires some serious skills and you will need a long list of things to make the process efficient and safe:

• Spray Gun
• Heated hose
• Air compressor
• Transfer pumps
• Proportioning machine
• Respirators
• Disposable suits

Additionally, rented equipment from home improvement stores is often damaged or not up to date. Here at Koala Insulation of South Miami, we maintain our machines constantly and are always on the lookout for updates or new technologies that can improve your insulation experience. 

Thickness of insulation

As a non-professional and without experience it can be hard to know how much insulation your space needs. Your first instinct might be to add as much insulation as possible - the more insulation, the higher the R-Value, the better, right? Actually, that is a mistake as too much insulation will create hotspots that your A/C unit will have to work extra to cool down and stuffing too much insulation into a space will compress it which makes it less energy efficient. Insulation needs to be fluffy and have some air pockets trapped inside in order to insulate effectively.

On the flipside, too little insulation will not do its job properly and allow for heat to transfer between the outside of your home and the costly air-conditioned inside. You need to make sure that you have a material with a good R-Value and create a sufficient layer of thickness in order for your insulation to be able to do what it’s supposed to. Due to experience, an insulation expert can easily assess how much insulation you need and make sure you don’t overspend on unnecessary insulation material or your energy bills if the insulation doesn’t work efficiently. 

Leaving Gaps

Insulation needs to cover the entire surface you’re trying to insulate, otherwise it cannot effectively block the air flow and heat transfer in your home so air can easily sneak through crevices and make your insulation useless.The untrained eye of an amateur insulation installer often misses little gaps and spaces that actually should be filled with caulk before you even start the insulation process. Even filling every little space between joists can be a very tedious and difficult job which is not done properly by most homeowners. This can mean that you’re spending a lot of time, money and effort installing your own insulation just to be left with basically the same problems as before - air escaping or entering your home. 

Some bigger homes have attic walkways so you can move around the attic and access air handling systems and basically all homes have attic doors. Leaving these spaces without insulation or simply under-insulated causes a loss of heat. All surfaces in your attic should be fully insulated to ensure proper protection.

The only gap you should be leaving is on top of recessed lights. The popular, modern light fixtures in the ceiling below the attic create a high amount of heat which could create a serious fire hazard in your home. It’s therefore important to keep insulation at least 3 inches away from recessed lights.

Ventilation

We’ve been emphasizing how important it is to cover everything in sufficient insulation to avoid air flow. However, insulation is not that simple. It is actually important to balance insulation with ventilation, meaning that some air needs to be able to flow to maintain a good quality indoor air. Without ventilation, air can get stale and moisture and condensation in your home can cause mold and mildew. As a result, it is important not to cover up ventilation when installing your insulation so that air can pass through vents which are usually located in the soffit, along the underside of the eave, along the ridge of the roof or on the gable end of the house. Do neither of those words sound familiar? You should consider hiring a professional then to take care of your insulation.