Attic Insulation

According to the Department of Energy, heating and cooling account for 50 to 70% of the energy used in the average American home. Additionally, inadequate attic insulation and air leakage are leading causes of energy waste in most homes.

The amount of energy you conserve depends on several factors: your local climate; the size, shape, and construction of your house; your family’s living habits; the type and efficiency of the heating and cooling systems; and the fuel you use. Once the energy savings have paid for the installation cost, energy conserved is money saved—and saving energy will be even more important as utility rates continue to increase. The insulation experts at Mr. Attic can help ensure that your attic is insulated properly. We’ve been helping families in Walnut Creek, Concord, Danville, Lafayette, San Ramon, Oakland, Berkeley, Martinez, San Rafael, and Antioch save money and be more comfortable in their homes for over 10 years.

Advantages of Insulating

Saves you money and saves our nation’s limited energy resources
Makes your house more comfortable by helping to maintain a uniform temperature throughout the house
Makes walls, ceilings, and floors warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer

How it Works

Heat flows naturally from a warmer to a cooler space. In winter, the heat moves directly from all heated living spaces to the outdoors and to adjacent unheated attics, garages, and basements—wherever there is a difference in temperature. During the summer, heat moves from outdoors to the house interior. To maintain comfort, the heat lost in winter must be replaced by your heating system, and the heat gained in summer must be removed by your air conditioner. Insulating attics, ceilings, and walls decreases the amount of heating or cooling needed by providing an effective resistance to the flow of heat.

Does your home need more insulation? Unless your home was constructed with special attention to energy efficiency, adding insulation will probably reduce your utility bills significantly. Most existing homes in the United States are not insulated to the levels used today. Older homes are likely to use more energy than newer homes, leading to higher heating and air conditioning bills.

Spray Foam

When we look back at the insulation industry and see how far we’ve come, we almost can’t believe what used to be standard practice. Suffice it to say, we’ve come a long way from the days when sawdust was dumped inside the walls of people’s homes to keep them insulated and efficient.

From there, insulation best practices moved to spray insulation, which is fiberglass batt insulation made from spun glass fibers. Today, we use state of the art technology and spray foam insulation to keep people’s homes comfortable all year round. Other types of insulation simply can’t measure up to the quality and efficiency of this material.

Here are some of the many advantages to using spray foam insulation in your home, installed by the vastly experienced crew at Mr. Attic:

Unbeatable R-Value

In terms of insulation, different materials and products used on and inside your home is given an R-value. This is a value that determines the level insulation per inch used. Poly spray foam has been proven to have a higher R-value than any other insulation material, with an R value of 6.2 or higher.

Natural Air Sealant

Where your insulation is concerned, you want something that will create both a barrier against air while providing insulation. Spray foam gets into all the nooks and crannies of the space it fills so that there will be no drafts or gaps. It does such a great job that it is often used as a super adhesive in spot applications to keep air from getting in or out of attics or crawl spaces.

Waterproof Properties

One of the greatest things about polyurethane spray foam is that it is extremely waterproof. While other types of insulation may get soaked through when in contact with moisture, spray foam repels water. It is also nonporous so that it will never soak up any moisture.

Foolproof Material

If you have a space that has a gap of even 5% of the total area to be insulated, this can diminish your insulation performance by about 50%! One of the benefits of closed-cell polyurethane spray foam is that it expands as it sprays, eliminating the possibility of a void or energy loss.

Upgrade

Depending on when your home was built and whether or not energy efficiency was taken into consideration at the time, you might want to consider upgrading it to a type that is more efficient. Call us today to schedule a free insulation evaluation.

Removal

Have you inspected your attic insulation, only to find it moldy, rotting, or destroyed by rodents? There’s no need to stress. We have over ten years of experience removing insulation from homes. We’ll get rid of the mess in no time.

Replacement

Once we’ve removed any spoiled insulation from your attic, we’ll walk you through the various insulation options we offer and find the best fit for your home and needs. Then we’ll get you up and running with new insulation.

R-Value

An insulation’s resistance to heat flow is measured or rated in terms of its thermal resistance, or R-value. The more heat flow resistance your insulation provides, the higher your R-value and the lower your cost to heat or cool your home will be.

To determine whether you should add insulation, you first need to find out how much insulation you already have in your home and where. If you live in a newer house, you can probably find out this information from the builder. If you live in an older house, you’ll need to inspect the insulation yourself or give us a call for a free insulation evaluation.

Determining Recommended R-Values
Once you know the R-value of your existing insulation, you can use the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zip Code Insulation Calculator to determine how much insulation you should add and where in order to achieve the recommended insulation levels for maximum energy efficiency.