Exterior wall insulation is designed to ensure that your home is comfortable throughout the extremes of the differing seasons, keeping your heat inside its walls in the winter and Mother Nature’s out in the summer. Of course, exterior wall insulation also saves you money on those heating and cooling bills, making your home more energy efficient. If your home could use a bit more protection against those cold drafts in the winter, a variety of exterior wall insulation products are available that are relatively easy to install.
If your home is an older one, chances are that your walls are not insulated as effectively as the typical new home. Standards and materials are changing all the time, making exterior wall insulation products used in today’s construction industry much more efficient than those used when older homes were built. Also, exterior wall insulation installed years ago may have settled or degraded, substantially reducing its performance.
The most effective method of determining the status of your exterior wall insulation is through an energy audit, performed by a qualified professional home energy auditor. However, if an audit is not the way you want to go, you can look at your insulation yourself. In unfinished areas, such as the attic or an attached garage, insulation is generally right out in the open, making it easy to identify its type and thickness. To evaluate the exterior wall insulation in finished areas of the home, turning off the power to the electrical outlets in each room will allow you to safely remove them to look inside the wall.
If you discover a need for more exterior wall insulation in your home, loose fill or blow in insulation are good options to consider. These products can provide an effective barrier against the elements with the least possible disturbance to your home, sealing out the worst Mother Nature has to offer for your comfort.
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