If you want to reduce your home cooling and heating costs, especially during triple-digit Creedmoor summers, installing spray foam insulation in your attic is one of the best steps you can take. Doing this can lead to a major drop in your energy bills while still keeping your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter because this type of insulation blocks the three main types of heat flow.
- Conduction occurs when heat moves through materials, like wood flooring and joists in your attic and sheetrock on your ceilings.
- Convection occurs as heat moves through the air, like warm air rising or cool air sinking.
- Radiant transfer happens when light from the sun heats the roof and that radiation absorbed can rise off of surfaces in your attic and cause heat transfer.
When your home isn’t insulated properly, heat is transferring freely from your attic into your living areas, making your home hotter than it should be, causing your air conditioner to work harder, wear out sooner, and increase your energy bills. Spray foam insulation blocks heat transfer, meaning your living areas will stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Details on Spray Foam Insulation
Spray foam insulation used in attics is a fairly new substance, especially compared to fiberglass and cellulose varieties. It’s typically made from two organic compounds used in polymers, liquid isocyanate, and polyol resin. When separate, they maintain liquid form, but when combined they react and become an expanding foam that hardens into a solid.
Spray foam insulation can expand to fill the smallest gaps and spaces while creating a heat and moisture resistant coating, making it ideal for spraying onto walls and eaves, between studs, and even in cracks around outlets, switches, doors, windows, and in the spaces where doors and walls come together.
We use “open-cell spray foam” which is durable and provides incredible insulating and heat blocking properties, but its semi-rigid form fills into cracks and shifts with the building so it doesn’t pull away, separate, or lose its thickness over time.
What are Insulation R-Values?
R-value ratings tell you how effective insulation is at stopping conductive heat transfer, with a higher number meaning it’s more effective, a lower number is less effective. Fiberglass batts and rolls have an R-value of around 3.5 while paper-based cellulose is rated a 4.0.
The attic spray foam insulation we use has an R-value of 7.0, so you can feel confident that this option will block heat from moving into your attic from the outside while also blocking any heat from your attic from seeping into your living areas.
Installing Attic Foam Insulation in Creedmoor
While spraying foam insulation into your attic is a quick process, it can only be applied by trained technicians due to the chemicals involved. When our experienced technicians arrive onsite to install your insulation, they begin by removing any old insulation from the area to create a clean, empty space.
The next step is to connect the containers to a hose and begin the work. Our techs typically spray the walls and eaves, and in some cases, also spray the attic floor. Everywhere that is sprayed, the insulation adheres and expands to fill every space, crack, and crevice to stop air and moisture from getting into your attic.
Once it expands, the foam dries quickly to form a solid substance. The techs cut off any excess that protrudes from between studs or eaves, then they leave the space clean of any excess insulation.
Benefits of Attic Spray Foam Insulation
The main benefit of spray foam insulation is the improvement in your home’s efficiency and helping your home stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Because minimal to no heat is able to transfer into or out of your attic, your HVAC unit can operate more efficiently and even last longer!
Additional benefits to spray foam include:
- It’s better for the environment than fiberglass.
- It’s not a source of food for pests or insects.
- It blocks moisture, preventing mold and mildew from growing in your attic.
- It can improve the structural integrity of your attic with its rigidity.
- It doesn’t break down, separate, or decrease in volumes like fiberglass or cellulose.
- It won’t cause breathing difficulties or allergy flareups because there’s no dust or allergens that break off and end up in your ducts.
Does Your Apex Attic Need to “Breathe?”
You may be surprised to find that the ventilation spaces in your attic are unnecessary. When it’s properly sealed, there’s no reason for your attic to “breathe” or leave spaces for air and moisture to enter and exit.
Ventilation is only necessary when the attic is not sealed and there are cracks and spaces. When small amounts of heat and moisture collect and build up, then you do need ventilation to allow it to escape and circulate. However, when we seal and insulate the entire space, no moisture or heat can enter at all so there’s no venting needed.
Contact Us Today for Attic Spray Foam Insulation in Creedmoor!
If you want to keep your home comfortable while saving on utility bills, we’re here to help! Give us a call at (919) 847-7072 or fill out our online form, and schedule a no-obligation estimate today!
