The Part Insulation Plays To Protect Your Home
Most homeowners in southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, and Rhode Island are grateful to their roofs for protecting their families from Mother Nature’s worst habits. Yet those same homeowners often ignore their roof. For example, do you know why your attic is insulated?
Not What You May Think
If you have crawled into your home’s attic on a summer day, you may have been disappointed to feel the same hot, humid air in the attic as what is wafting around outside. You might think the insulation is supposed to make the attic comfortable and cozy. No!
Your attic air is insulated so it matches the outside air. Your expensively treated indoor air is separated from the attic and outside by thick, bountiful insulation, as it should be.
Attic insulation is usually found in three places:
- Rigid board insulation may be adhered to the underside of sheathing, directly beneath your roofing material, to reflect heat away from the plywood sheets.
- Soft, billowy, and incredibly energy-efficient blown-in insulation is between the joists and piled on top of them.
- Custom-fitted insulation around HVAC system ducts.
How Insulation Helps
Insulation does significantly more than fight high energy bills:
- It moderates the heat of your attic, preserving your roof and its many components.
- Insulation absorbs sound, so a noisy teen’s bedroom does not telegraph music throughout the neighborhood (or at least, does not do it as loudly as an uninsulated attic would).
- It encourages natural convection to keep air flowing from soffit vents up along the sheathing’s underside and out your ridge or gable vents.
- It extends the life of heating, cooling, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment by allowing your environmental systems to stay off longer and operate for shorter periods.
- It battles humidity inside your living space.
Right Timing
Two perfect times to assess and improve your attic insulation are during roof repair work and when your roof is replaced. Then, your roofing contractor can evaluate what insulation you have, recommend replacements or supplements, and install them.
Your roofer can recommend a multi-prong strategy to update your home and boost its energy efficiency. Any investment in modernizing your insulation will return to you many times over in lower energy bills. Some excellent options include:
- Blown-in cellulose insulation
- Duct insulation
- Radiant barrier insulation
- Rigid board insulation
Connect with Couto Construction today to have your home’s insulation evaluated or to plan for complete, proper insulation during your total roof replacement.