Insulating Your Home
Before shopping for insulation, it is important to understand its R value
, or its resistance to heat flow. The higher the R value is, the greater the resistance to heat loss.
Which R value is right for you depends on several things, including where you live and what type of heating system you have. It also depends on whether you are insulating for energy efficiency on exterior walls or noise reduction in interior walls.
Insulation comes in various forms, including loose fill, rolls, and batts. Loose fill is forced through a tube and blown into the space between the walls.
Loose fill is best suited for unfinished attics and hard-to-reach areas. This necessitates professional installation, however.
Rolls are a blanket-type insulation that comes in the forms of rolls or batts. Either of these options is a good choice for insulating interior open stud walls.
Batts are a rectangle, sold flat in packages, while rolls typically come in 8-foot lengths, a standard ceiling height. Insulation is sized to fit between studs, usually spaced 16 or 24 inches apart.
Be sure to measure the space between the studs before buying. Batts are generally made of fiberglass, and batts and rolls are available either with face coverings or without.
Brown Kraft paper is a common facing. Fire-retardant foil sometimes is used to cover batts that will be left exposed in unfinished spaces, such as a garage or basement.
It also comes wrapped in plastic to protect you from the itchy fibers, which is a good choice for first-timers. If you are insulating an exterior wall, use faced insulation because the facing acts as a vapor barrier that blocks moisture from forming on your drywall.
For additional moisture protection, you can staple sheets of plastic or nylon film to the "warm-in-winter" side of the. Insulation is very easy to work with, and does not require strength or tremendous skill.
The rolls or batts should fit snugly between the studs, and the only trimming you will have to do is around windows, doorframes, electrical outlets and plumbing. It cuts easily with a utility knife and is extremely lightweight.
To calculate how much rolled or batted to buy, measure floor to ceiling and multiply by the number of between-the-studs spaces you need to fill. That is your total lineage.
Measure the distance between the studs. This will determine the width of the product you buy.
To calculate the number of rolls or batts you need, divide the total lineage by the length of the batt or roll you will be working with. If you are working with batts, you likely have 8-foot lengths and will not have to trim for length at all.
Gently press the insulation into the opening between the wall studs, trimming around electrical outlets. If you are working from a roll, you can either trim for length with it rolled out on the floor, or you can start with the edge of the roll at the top of the space you are filling, roll down to the bottom and trim there with a utility knife.
Snug-fitting insulation will stay put without fastening, but faced insulation is available with stapling flanges. Stapling flanges are extra paper facing on each side that allows you to staple it to the side of the wall stud.
Open-faced cannot be stapled, so it needs to fit snugly for friction to hold it in place. The most important thing to remember is to never compress the material.
While it seems that would not change its effectiveness, in reality, you severely compromise the R value by removing the air between the fibers. If a roll or batt is too long for the space, it must be trimmed and never folded over itself for optimum performance.
When you are finished, launder your work clothes in a load separate from your regular wash and run the rinse cycle twice. The small fibers of the insulation could cut you, so be careful.
by: Terry Daniels
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