If you want to lower your heating and air conditioning bills, especially during triple-digit Sanford summers, having spray foam insulation installed in your attic is an excellent solution. In fact, just taking this one step can result in a dramatic reduction in your energy bills because insulation blocks radiant, convective and conductive heat flow.
- Conduction occurs when heat transfers through materials, such as heat that moves through your roofing materials, the wood flooring in your attic, and the sheetrock in your ceiling.
- Convection occurs when heat circulates through the air such as hot 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.
Without the proper insulation, conduction causes heat to seep into your attic and down through your attic flooring and ceiling, while convection is causing hot air from your ground floor to rise toward your ceiling. This causes your air conditioner to work harder and skyrocket your energy bills. When you insulate your attic, hot air in your attic won’t seep into your living areas in the summer, nor will your warm air move into an unheated attic in the winter.
What Is Spray Foam Insulation & How Does it Work?
Compared to fiberglass and cellulose insulation, spray foam is relatively new to the insulation world. It’s made from liquid isocyanate and liquid polyol resin, two organic compounds. Each liquid is kept in a separate tank, connected by one hose, and when the liquids combine, they become a foam that increases up to 60 times the size of the liquid.
Spray foam insulation can fill small and large gaps and can be sprayed onto walls, between the studs, and even in cracks around windows, doors, and where floors and walls come together in your Sanford home. This prevents air from escaping or coming into your home through cracks and blocks heat from transferring through radiation or conduction.
We use what’s called “open-cell spray foam” which is light and pliable because, while it’s expanding, small CO2-filled cells are formed. This provides excellent barrier protection while its semi-rigid material can flex around irregular surfaces, fill cracks, and expand and contract as the building shifts and settles.
What are Insulation R-Values?
R-value ratings are the ratings that show how effective a type of insulation is against stopping conductive heat transfer. The rolls of fiberglass that are laid down in an attic have an R-value of about 3.5, while cellulose insulation, made from recycled paper has an R-Value of 4.0.
Our open-cell spray foam provides an R-value of 7.0, a significantly more effective at preventing heat from your roof from moving into your attic and stopping any heat in your attic from transferring into your living areas.
Installing Attic Foam Insulation in Sanford
Spraying attic foam insulation requires trained technicians who know how to take the appropriate measures for safety and effectiveness. The first step is removing any old insulation that’s currently in the attic so we don’t have any obstructions that would prevent us from properly sealing leaks and cracks.
The next step is hooking up the hose to the two containers and spraying the attic. We typically spray the attic walls and eaves, and in some cases, we will also spray the flooring. The open-cell spray foam adheres to wood, masonry, and metal and expands to fill every space, preventing air and moisture from penetrating.
Once it is fully expanded, the foam insulation dries quickly into a solid. Our techs cut off the excess foam that may be bulging out from between eaves and studs, then clean up the attic. The whole process is generally much quicker than installing rolls or batts.
Benefits of Attic Spray Foam Insulation
The biggest benefit of using spray insulation in the attic of your home is that it improves your home efficiency. Because there’s almost no heat conduction from your attic to the living areas of your home, your air conditioner won’t have to work as hard and may even last longer. Additional benefits to spray foam include:
- It’s more eco-friendly than fiberglass.
- Pets and insects aren’t drawn to it as a food source, unlike cellulose.
- It seals against moisture, preventing mold and mildew from growing in your attic.
- It’s rigid enough to improve the structural integrity of your attic
- It doesn’t break down or decrease in volume like other forms of insulation.
- There’s no dust or allergens from it that can flow through your ducts and trigger breathing difficulties.
Does Your Sanford Attic Need to “Breathe?”
There’s a common belief that your attic needs to “breathe,” and that ventilation spaces must be left in the attic to keep air circulating and preventing moisture from collecting in the winter and allowing heat to move out in hot weather.
It’s actually only necessary to leave ventilation when there are already cracks and spaces in the roof. Those cracks cause excess heat and moisture to build up, so additional ventilation is necessary. With an encapsulated attic, we seal up all the smallest spaces, including ventilation openings to prevent any bit of moisture and hot air from coming in.
Contact Us Today for Attic Spray Foam Insulation in Sanford!
If you’d like to save money on your energy bills while keeping your home comfortable all year long, 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!
