Roofing Insulation Types To Consider

Do you realize that the most weather-beaten part of your home is its roof that continues to bear all the burden of ever changing weather all thru year and year after year? That makes it difficult to find out the best insulation to be provided on the roof. It continues to bear hot sun for long hours, more so in summers. And, if you happen to be living in Utah, or California this heat can be worse. And, don’t forget the harshness of melting snow in winters.

If you are in the process of remodeling your home or making a new one, you can ill afford to be stingy in certain areas, and roof and walls are two such areas with roof being a major area. Going for the best quality of materials and products doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to spend lots of money. There are ways and means to get the desired items and affordable prices.



Cellular glass insulation is categorized as commercial grade. It has been used as an insulating material for long. It was patronized as an insulating material in 1943 as it was realized to be extremely durable. Even today it is being used for the same reason. Unless you provide adequate and proper insulation on your roof, it will not be able to able to prevent the effects of outside weather to the interiors of your home. That means in summers, it will not be able to stop heat from entering inside while in winters it will not be able to contain the inside heat that you might be generating at an expense. That’s why the subject needs a serious consideration at your end, any insulation just won’t do. If you overlook this important aspect of your home, you might be exposing your family to some risk that can be easily avoided.



Quite a lot of people are getting conscious about environments and like to use “green” products. Here again you get a variety of materials. Cellular glass is crushed glass that has been mixed with special agents under very high temperatures. It is fire resistant, a characteristic feature that you may like to consider.

It is highly desirable to spare some of your time to study the available options for insulating your roof. At the end of it all, you will appreciate it was time well spent. And, the best time to go for providing an improved insulation is when you are going for a new roof or while constructing a new home.

An easier option will be to study online and know the different options available for roof-insulation. You get a fairly good idea of the prices and also learn the characteristics of different materials available for the purpose. The choice of material also depends on the geographical location, and the climatic conditions of your home, meaning that if a material is suitable for a particular part of the country it may not always suit rest of the country. You can learn all this online and do talk to a roofing expert of your area.

Roof Insulation And Technology

This may come as an element of surprise to most of the present generation of house owners that till about early 1970’s, the U.S. building code did not specify the insulation of homes. It may come as a big surprise to many of the house owners that their present house has inadequate or no insulation at all. The same holds good for many of the commercial buildings.

The present Standard Building Code of the U.S. makes it mandatory for the builder to provide attics with R19 insulation. Generally, the specified grade of insulation is adhered to by providing insulation with fiberglass or cellulose that is blown in at the time of construction of the building. The drawback of the materials mentioned is that over a period of time they get settled and tend to get compacted, thus offering limited insulation.



If ever a survey is carried out to check the insulation of houses and commercial buildings, it will become apparent that most of them lack proper insulation in some form or the other. This will be particularly true for roofs, which start collecting heat coming in from the roof in the absence of perfect insulation. As a matter of fact, no means of effectively insulating the roof were available till recently. Most of the homeowners were content using cellulose or fiberglass as there was no better choice of an efficient insulating material.

The said materials that have so far been employed for the purpose of insulation proved ineffective as they would get fluffy and soft and failed to provide the needed level of insulation. As a consequence, the homeowners had no choice but to bear the heat that radiated down their homes thru the roof.

The latest technology that has been developed calls for the application of a layer of polyurethane foam before fixing the roof over it. Such a roof with a thin layer of polyurethane foam prevents the heat from entering the structure. In winters the same insulation helps to retain the heat within your home.

The new age material is Polyurethane foam. It provides insulation that is twice as strong as normal insulating products. It wouldn’t deteriorate or settle in your lifetime. Once it has been cured, you can walk over it without causing any harm; you won’t be able to make a dent into it under normal circumstances. That’s how tough it gets. Its thin layer applied under the tiles of your roof remains invisible and doesn’t affect the looks or pitch of the roof at all.

Using Insulation To Save Money On Heating

Heating of a house is an expensive proposition. It is observed that an average house owner spends about 85% of the heating bill to heating of space, and only the balance of 15 % is consumed for heating of water. Are you amazed? As most of the expense is incurred in heating of rooms, you could make a substantial saving if this expense could be brought down. And, mind you it’s not too difficult or expensive a proposal as the arrangements pays for itself thru the recurring savings it enables you to make.

You’ll find it of interest to learn that the suggested proposition holds good irrespective of the kind of heating you might be employing, be it gas or electricity. Hope you have guessed it by now. Yes it is thru proper insulation that you can save recurring heating expense. A good part of the money that you spend producing heat is lost because the insufficient or improper insulation is unable to retain heat generated. The losses may be as high as 60% at times. Two major ports of your house which facilitate this loss of heat are the walls and the ceiling. As wall area is more than the roof area, and the loss of heat is directly proportional to area, you could lose up to 35% of heat thru the walls and the balance of 25% is thru the ceiling.



So, one of the most effective way of cutting on or gas or power bills will be to have the right and sufficient insulation. Well, you may already be having some kind of a natural insulation. .In case your home is sandwiched between two other houses or if you already have a terraced house, your situation is not as bad. The walls of the neighbor’s houses act as a protective blanket by trapping the air heated by your heating arrangements. In such a situation you may not need as much of insulation as you would need if you were staying in a detached or semi detached house. Nevertheless, a terraced house does lose some heat thru the walls would need to be insulated to have an optimum utilization of the heat generated at your expense.



Another major point of heat loss in a house is its windows. Unless your house is double glazed, you stand to lose up to 20% of generated heat. Providing an effective insulation to your home thru cavity wall insulation, and insulation of lofts and by having double glazing on your windows can result to substantial savings. Going the estimates of gas, one may save up to $380 annually on gas or electricity bills by adapting to the suggested measures.

It’s not only the money you save for yourself by having efficiently effective insulation, you are contributing to the larger interest of the society too by reducing carbon emissions by reducing the consumption of energy, the generation of which causes increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Improved insulation certainly adds to the value of your property, while it protects the walls and the ceilings from getting damp because of condensation of water vapors. Over and above everything else, you will have a warmer house in winters and a cooler house in summers to welcome you after a day’s work.

Contact

Use comments on this blog to contact us and we will get back to you ASAP.