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Installing building insulation
Due to the variety of building insulation materials available and the various building elements that may require insulation, there are a number of ways of installing building insulation. Additional recommended knowledge
Where to insulateBy David Turner, Insulation Contractor, Lexington, KY. Where to insulate depends on where your living or conditioned space (the space that you heat and air-condition) ends and where your unconditioned space begins. Treat unconditioned space as if it were outdoors, minus the rain and snow. Insulate the living space as if you were insulating from the outdoors. For example, if your crawlspace is unheated, and you want it to stay that way, then make sure it has adequate ventilation, and insulate the floor above. If your attic is unheated, and you want it to stay that way, also make sure it has adequate ventilation, and insulate between and over the floor joists. If you occasionally want to heat only some sections of the living space, you should insulate the walls between the sections you want to heat and the sections you don’t want to heat. If the basement space is unheated, it may be best to insulate between floor joists (basement ceiling) instead of around the foundation (basement floor and walls). There is no harm done in insulating both the ceiling, and the floor and walls. Generally, you should insulate:
If you are curious what kind of insulation already exists, here are some ways to inspect your walls for insulation:
Location of structural insulationThermal insulation works best on the outside of the structure, as this allows walls, floors and ceilings to stay closer to room temperature, thus preventing condensation in the living area of the house and increasing comfort by the use of the building's structure as thermal mass to dampen temperature swings. A well-insulated house requires a vapor barrier because of the risk of condensation on cold parts of the structure with resulting damage, such as mold and rot. The vapour barrier is usually a sealed plastic film inside the wall and should go on the warm side of the insulation. A vapor barrier must be continuous to be effective. Seams must be closed between sheets or panels.
goes close to the warm inside of the wall.
The highest R-values per inch are provided by spray foam and rigid panel insulation. These are still only conductive thermal insulators, not radiant barriers, except in the case of rigid panels that have a reflective metal facing. Insulating ducts and pipesInsulate all ducts and water supply pipes where they pass through unconditioned spaces, such as through an attic or crawlspace that is not heated or air-conditioned. This includes heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and return ducts, and both cold and hot water supply pipes. Before insulating ducts and pipes:
Why to insulate ducts and pipes:
Insulating materials for ducts and pipes:
You may want to wrap your water heater in a nonflammable thermal blanket, especially if you have an older, inefficient water heater that does not have much internal insulation. Insulating around electrical fixturesTo prevent a house fire, keep insulation away from any electrical fixtures that generate great amounts of heat, such as ceiling fan motors, and older recessed lighting fixtures that are not IC-rated. Newer recessed lights contain a heat sensor to turn the lights off when they reach a threshold temperature. The newest recessed lights, known as IC-rated (Insulation Cover) fixtures, are designed so that they do not require any air clearance and will work safely buried deep in insulation. If you have non-IC-rated recessed lighting fixtures, you should install baffles around the fixtures to maintain at least 3 inches of clearance from insulation. This is a stop-gap measure to remedy the excessive heat. Ultimately, you should:
OR
Insulating exterior of foundationIdeally, a home should have poured concrete walls, waterproofing, and 2-inch rigid foam panels. Complete retrofit foundation insulation may be prohibitively expensive. Since most of the heat loss from a foundation occurs where the foundation is above grade and exposed, you can partially insulate the foundation wall and still have good results:
The sheets of extruded polystyrene foam attached to exterior foundation walls before backfilling serve as insulation, but their main purpose is to protect the waterproof coatings or membranes applied to the foundation wall. You should protect them from backfilling, as well, since they will not function as effectively as possible if they are cracked or torn while backfilling. Rigid foam panels applied to an external foundation wall:
How to apply insulation to an exterior foundation wall when building a house:
Rigid foam panels do not have to stop where the siding begins. You can extend them up, underneath the siding, all the way up to the roof. When you secure them to the sheathing, make sure that you use galvanized nails or coated screws, and make sure they penetrate sufficiently into the studs, without cracking the panels. Unlike with the panels installed against the exterior foundation, with these panels, you should leave slight gaps between them to allow moisture to escape. Self-insulating foundationsExterior insulation and finish systems (EIFS) are a new type of home construction that uses “all-in-one” insulating and structural walls with a stucco-like finish. Face-sealed EIFS is susceptible to trapped moisture if it is not installed meticulously. Drainable EIFS allows moisture to escape. Some building experts think that EIFS should only be used in hot, dry climates because of its tendency to collect moisture. [1] Some contractors pour insulation into concrete blocks while building the foundation. Turn this concept inside out, and you have an insulated concrete form (ICF). An ICF is a rigid foam block, usually polystyrene, that homebuilders can stack so their centers are aligned, insert reinforcing bars into, and fill with concrete. These foundations are both structural and insulating – insulation is incorporated directly into the foundation walls, rather than added as an afterthought. The tricky part is making sure that concrete fills all of the voids in the foam blocks. Here is an example of an ICF home: Habitat for Humanity ICF Build Apr 2004 See also
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Installing_building_insulation". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |