Attic Insulation

About home insulaiton

We all know what attic insulation is about, right ?. It's to keep are butts warm in the winter !. You'll be surprised to learn that's not really true, well for the most part. Sure it helps.

But let's look at this way for a minute. Some of us wrap are hot water heaters and our self's with blankets, right ?. And as we know they work pretty darn good at that. Well the insulation in our attic is just that. A nice big blanket for the top of our houses.

Like that hat that we wont leave the house without. Same thing once again. So by now you can understand just how important that insulation can be. Can you have too much, sure you can. Is it a waste of money, no way. But really why put more then is needed. 

For the most part it cold out there, but not that cold. Most newer homes and I mean most if not all are built and inspected with way to little insulation. Why you may ask. Well to be honest, because they can. It's just what the builder needed to install in order to pass inspection. 

Most homes only have R19 in attics. To give you a idea that's only 5 1/2 inches of insulation. That's ok for your walls. But remember heat rises right. And your attic has how much more space to add even more.

Now to understand what the R means will help you. The R stands for resistance to heat flow. Just that says a lot. 

So by adding another R19 "5 1/2 inches will give you a R38 value. And that's a good number to live with. Or should I say sleep with. So between $500 - $1000 bucks you can start saving some big bucks this winter. 

You could just go rent a blown-in insulation machine and of course some real fiberglass insulation and do it your self in 15 minutes, yea it makes a nice mess but works real good. Or buy the R19 insulation. But use the one that comes in four foot batts. Yup you guessed it, each piece is four feet long and just lay them on top of your existing insulation. Make sure you buy the ones without a vapor barrier attached. 

Also very important is to close up, seal up the attic access good so more of your warm air doesn't escape through there.

Quick note: Ever go down the road and see all the frost and or snow on the house roofs. And one half of the house doesn't have any. Or some houses don't have any at all. Well those are the ones with some big heating bills. That's all the heat from the house going right up and out that melts that snow.