| Questions About Insulation |
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1. Isn’t new insulation really expensive? It does cost money to remodel, maintain, or insulate your home. It also costs you to delay making these improvements. The loss of present comfort and satisfaction has a value. And by waiting to insulate you also lose on the savings you’ll realize from added energy efficiency. One more troubling thought, each time utility rates rise you’ll be losing even more. 2. My House Needs to Breathe. When most people say this they are referring to ventilation for moisture control. Breathing would refer to air exchanges to maintain adequate fresh air. Your house ‘breathes’ by inhaling through air pathways in the bottom half and exhales through paths in the top half. Ventilation is necessary as a moisture escape path. Because air always contains some moisture, any air movement carries moisture with it. When moist air touches a cold surface, some of the moisture may condense, or leave the air and become liquid. If this happens on a cold window pane you may see the water freeze or run down and pool on the sill. There it may ruin the paint or rot the trim. Now picture this happening inside your wall, or in your attic. The problem will progress since you can’t see it and promote mold and mildew and eventually damage the structure. This is why air sealing is so critical to getting the best performance possible from insulation materials. And possibly the best reason for using foams.  Extreme moisture damage due to a ‘breathing’ problem
3. Isn’t foam toxic? We like to say if you are allergic to water then you’ll have a problem with half pound spray foam. It contains no ozone depletion chemicals, no formaldehyde, no asbestos. No toxic substances are emitted. It has passed the established off gassing tests. Airkrete foam is safe enough to eat. We don’t recommend it, it’s rather chalky.
4. I Already Have Insulation, Why More? You have some, that’s true. But it’s also true that smelly socks stuffed in your walls will add some insulation benefit. The question to ask is how does my insulation PERFORM? The typical insulation in most homes addresses conduction (poorly) and does nothing to stop air inifiltration. This is because the materials themselves are porous and allow air to flow through them. This is why we prefer foams. Whenever we use cellulose or fiberglass we always use foam to seal the pathways where air can easily move. 5. I Can Do This Myself. You can. So could someone with a truck and a few tools. But getting something done and getting it done right yield completely different results. Parts of an insulation project are simpler than others. Most projects involve crawling through cramped spaces that are dark, sweltering, dusty, tangled with cobwebs, and wet. You have to contend with splinters, rocks, nails, and critters. We often work with our customers where you do certain tasks and we complete the rest. 6. Doesn’t Manufacturing Foam Pollute the Environment? Actually the opposite is true. Plastic insulation in buildings saves more than 8 units of energy for every unit consumed to produce it. An estimated 6.2 quadrillion BTUs of energy is saved annually from plastic insulation in buildings. Its production consumes the equivalent of 0.7 quadrillion BTUs annually. (quad=1015) U.S. Energy Information Administration |
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