Insulating Your Basement and Attic

by | Dec 5, 2022 | Insulation Installation

In order for you to live comfortably, insulation must be a part of the construction process around your living spaces. Insulation helps to keep your home at a comfortable temperature, no matter what the weather outside happens to be. When it comes to attics and basements, the question is often asked, should I insulate a space that no one will be spending time in? The answer is YES!

Keep reading to learn more about:

  1. Insulating your basement
  2. Insulating your attic
    1. What is attic insulation?
    2. Why should you insulate your attic?
    3. Attic insulation saves you money
    4. Attic insulation conserves energy
    5. How does attic insulation work?
    6. Types of attic insulation

Insulating Your Basement

When building a home, basement insulation sometimes gets skipped to cut down on costs. However, this is a big mistake for homeowners. Insulating your basement comes with multiple benefits.

Basements are known as breeding grounds for dampness and moisture, but with proper insulation, your basement can be a dry, cozy space in your home. This will help keep bug infestations from occurring and cause less hassle and money spent on pest control.

Moisture and humidity can ruin not only your home’s structure but your furniture and personal belongings as well. A professionally insulated basement can help make your basement a safe place for keeping your belongings, creating a game room, or putting up guests.

Insulation keeps your basement dry, but it also helps to cut down on energy costs for heating and cooling your home. An insulated basement helps to regulate your home’s temperature so that it’s less susceptible to temperature swings due to extreme weather.

Insulating Your Attic

Whether you’re building a home and planning to insulate your attic or thinking of updating the insulation in your current attic, you have many decisions to make. Insulating your attic properly is an excellent wait to retain cool air in your home during hot months and warm air during cold months. If you think your attic could be better insulated, it might be smart to conduct an energy audit or use a thermal camera to locate the cool spots in that part of your home. Some homeowners may choose to fill gaps or holes in their attic to better insulate their home, but others choose to replace the insulation altogether. 

Attics are the often forgotten space between your roof and your main living area, serving as a long-term home to boxes you’d rather keep out-of-site. But it also plays a role in keeping your home comfortable throughout the seasons. If every winter has you shivering, attic insulation upgrades can help. Luckily, insulating your attic is an easy process that will have you warm and smiling again in no time flat.

What Is Attic Insulation?

Insulation may not always be pretty to look at, but it does an important job. Insulation serves as a barrier between the conditions outside your home—helping to maintain the desired temperature inside. Good insulation keeps out hot air during the summer and freezing air in the winter.

Why Should You Insulate Your Attic?

Insulating is good for your wallet because you’re spending less money on heating and cooling your home. Using less energy to maintain the indoor temperature (thanks to insulation) also reduces the need to overwork your home’s HVAC systems. Here’s how it breaks down.

Attic Insulation Saves You Money

In the case of attic insulation, you can DIY install it or hire a roofing professional in your area to get the job done. The estimated cost of installing attic insulation, dependent on materials, is between $1,500 and $2,500. According to HomeAdvisor, properly installed attic insulation can shave as much as 50% off your heating bill. Talk about work paying for itself.

Additionally, many power companies offer rebates for customers who install insulation. Reach out to your local utility company to see if they have any deals or offers that could benefit you.

Attic Insulation Conserves Energy

The science of insulation is simple: empty spaces in the home mean open spaces for cold or hot air to fill; insulation fills in those empty places to prevent the transfer of air from outside. Good insulation means you don’t have to crank the AC during those hot summer months and that those chilly winter days won’t require you to over-use your furnace either.

How Does Attic Insulation Work?

Like other insulation, attic insulation serves to redistribute heat coming from outside the home. In the summer, when it’s hot outside, good insulation blocks heat from getting inside your home and raising the temperature.

But good insulation should be just as effective in the winter months. When it’s cold outside, the insulation keeps the warm air inside your home. Different types of attic insulation tackle this task in different ways, which we’ll cover next.

Types of Attic Insulation

There are several popular types of insulation that you should familiarize yourself with before choosing the right insulation for your attic:

  1. First up is blanket insulation. This type of insulation is available in rolls or batts and is the easiest insulation material to install yourself. This type of insulation is made from fiberglass, plastic fibers, natural fibers, and mineral wool. For attics with normally spaced beams and few obstructions, blanket insulation is ideal.
  2. Loose-fill insulation is another type of insulation commonly used in attic spaces. This type of insulation is best used for attics that have little headroom and some obstructions (like cross-beams or vents). It’s fine to blow loose-fill insulation over existing insulation. This type of insulation is available in mineral wool, fiberglass, and cellulose. Typically, cellulose is the most effective material for loose-fill insulation.
  3. Finally, sprayed foam insulation is more expensive and requires a professional to install it, but it is quite effective. Sprayed foam insulation is made with polyurethane. There are two types of this kind of insulation: open-cell foam and closed-cell foam. Open-cell foam cells are filled with air, making it feel like a sponge. Closed-cell foam cells are filled with a gas that makes the foam expand so that it can fill the spaces around it. Closed-cell insulation can serve as a moisture vapor barrier if needed, and both types of sprayed foam insulation make an effective air barrier.

Alamance Insulation has been proudly serving the Triad area for over 20 years. Located in Burlington, NC, We provide quality gutters and insulation for our clients across central North Carolina, including Greensboro, Burlington, Mebane, Hillsborough, and High Point. We offer a variety of gutter, insulation, and moisture barrier services that will keep you and your family safe and comfortable all year around.