Frequently Asked Question About Attic Insulation

Contact us anytime if you have any other questions…

Question: Should I Insulate My Home?

Answer: Insulate your home when:

You have an older home and haven’t added insulation.

Only 20% of homes built before 1980 are well insulated.
You are uncomfortably cold in the winter or hot in the summer—adding insulation creates a more uniform temperature and increases comfort.
You build a new home, addition, or install new siding or roofing.
You pay high energy bills.
You are bothered by noise from outside—insulation muffles sound.

Question: How do I know if my home needs insulation?

Answer: You can benefit from re-insulating your existing home if you experience any of the following: Upper Floor or Room Colder, Temperature diffrences between floors, Ice Dams, Drafty Walls, High Heating/Cooling Bills, Moisture in your Attic, or if your Furnace or A/C unit runs constantly.

Question: What does insulation do for my home?

Answer: Insulation keeps your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter, because insulation resists the flow of heat. Heat is a form of energy and always seeks a cooler area – flowing out of the home in the winter and into the home in the summer. By reducing heat flow, a properly insulated home uses less energy for heating and cooling. In addition to being an energy saver, Cellulose insulation also acts as a sound absorber. When installed in walls and ceilings, it can reduce the transmission of sound from one room to another or from the outside. In today’s noise-laden environments, more and more homeowners are soundproofing their homes. A well-insulated home increases the overall comfort of the home and adds to its resale value. Whether your home is new or old, it pays to insulate.

Question: How much insulation do I need in my Attic?

Answer: There is no exact answer to this question. Like anything else, there are exceptions to this rule, and there are some homes or buildings that may require more. I usually suggest a minimum of R50 to rural residents who are subject to more adverse weather conditions.

The building code minimum is R-50 and is likely to be changed to slightly higher shortly. This is where you will get your quickest return on your investment. Anything more has a declining cost-benefit curve. For example, if you put R-70 in your home, you will probably recover the cost of the first R-40 upgrade in the first or second winter season. It makes takes you 10 to 15 years to recover your investment in the last R-30 portion of that R-70. Once you reach the R-40 to R-50 level, your warm air starts to find other ways out of your home.

Question: What does R-Value mean?

Answer: “R” value is a standardized measurement that gauges insulation’s ability to resist heat flow. The HIGHER the “R” value, the GREATER the INSULATING POWER.

Question: What is Attic Rain?

Answer: “Attic Rain” In Calgary, it is very common to have attic rain in the winter season. It usually happens when you have high humidity in the house and that ends up in the attic turns into frost and keeps accumulating until we have Chinook-like weather and then it all melts. That’s what we call attic rain.

Question: What can I do to prevent Attic Rain?

Answer: There are a few things you can do to maybe slow or stop the attic rain. Here are a few examples that might help but NOT Guaranteed.

Make sure Humidity turned down or even Turned off
Exhaust fans are properly connected and operating
When you take shower fans are turned on for 45 minutes after the shower
When cooking the same thing 45 minutes after cooking
Make sure you do not have any dryer vent near the furnace fresh air intake
If you are using any portable humidifier, please turn it off

Question: What is Payback and return on investment in insulation?

Answer: Insulation is always a good long-term investment. It’s zero risks and zero maintenance. Insulation will continue to spit out consistent energy savings year after year. Look at your other places you could spend your money and see how they compare: Solar panels require maintenance, windmills too. Will wood pellet prices always be stable? Will used fry oil always be free? Who knows? These can all be good investments, but in the long term, they don’t hold a candle to insulation. So, if you have the long view, make your choice with confidence and move forward.

Question: What areas of my home should be insulated?

Answer: Insulation is not just for attics and outside walls. Insulation should also be installed in other areas of your home such as ceilings with unheated spaces, basement walls, floors above vented crawl spaces, cathedral ceilings, floors over unheated garages or porches, knee walls, and in between interior walls, ceilings or floors for extra sound control.

Question: My house is very noisy. Is there anything that can be done to decrease the noise?

Answer: Insulating for sound control is best completed during the building process before drywall is installed. Sound control is achieved when fiberglass batt or cellulose insulation is installed in the interior walls of the home. When sound waves pass through a sound-insulated wall, ceiling or floor, the energized air molecules bump into the insulation and pass some of their energy into the. Thus, when the sound wave reaches the other side of the wall, ceiling or floor, it has much less energy, and the sound has much less volume. The result is a quieter room. Popular areas for sound control include bathrooms, bedrooms, media rooms, study/office areas, and between floors of the home.

Question: What is the difference between fiberglass and cellulose insulation?

Answer: Cellulose insulation is environmentally friendly. Our insulation is produced by AFT. AFT’s cellulose insulation uses 100% recycled wastepaper fibers to- • Reduce landfill space requirements and conserves trees • Save energy used by the building/home owner • Use less energy to produce than equivalent fiberglass insulation A typical 1,500 square foot ranch-style home that is insulated with cellulose recycles as much newsprint as an individual will consume in 40 years. In 2004 alone, over 650,000 tons of wastepaper – which is equivalent to over 10 million trees – were recycled into this superior insulating product. Our insulation also contains no asbestos, formaldehyde.

Fibrous glass insulation, in manufactured with a high recycled content as well (they are the world’s largest user of recycled glass bottles), and is naturally fire resistant. This fact, along with price matching, has allowed the fibrous glass to become the dominant product used in Calgary and area attics. It has become the choice of new home builders, and most retro-fit companies like us, use it as well.

Question: If I Attic rain in the attic right now Can anything be done?

Answer: If your Attic is having Attic rain as you are reading this, it is already too late, and there is not much you can do. Some people will open the attic hatch thinking that will dry out the attic fast but that is not true.

That will accelerate frost melt from the heat of the house and all the frost will turn into water and rush it down to the opening like light fixtures and any other opening if any.

Hopefully, you have a good (about 18″) amount of attic insulation and that will absorb that moisture and good airflow to dry it after.

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