Insulation is like a
wool sweater for your house. It is what keeps you warm on a chilly winter day.
Insulation and air impermeability go hand in hand. If insulation is the wool
sweater for your house, the house wrap is your rain coat. We can talk about the
air barrier later, but today I want to talk about insulation.
There are many
different types of insulation on the market. At Arlington Designer Homes, we design our houses using
different types of insulation for different reasons. We use a hybrid system
which helps us maximize efficiencies. An insulation package that is correctly
installed will have contact on all 6 sides: front, back, left, right, top and
bottom.
On a typical construction project we will use Demilec Sealection 500 in the places where spray foam is a good fit. These places include the band
board, bump outs and overhangs, and as part of the roof assembly. Spray foam goes on in a thick coat and
expands 100 times to fill all the nooks and crannies. It sticks in places where
other types of insulation just won’t stay.
Another type of
insulation we commonly use is spray-in fiberglass insulation or the BIBS
system. This is another great insulation that fills all the cracks
and helps to prevent air infiltration. Sometimes we will use a dense pack cellulose in the vertical walls, with the same benefits of the BIBS
system.
If you have been
reading my blog, then you know that the products we put in the walls and ceiling
are just one part of the whole advanced insulation package. We use air sealing
(check out our next blog for more on air sealing) to keep the air out and help
the insulation perform the way it is supposed to. Advanced framing, proper
ventilation, high quality windows and siding, and attention to detail are also all
factors in making sure that our houses are properly insulated and extremely
comfortable and energy efficient.
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