Missouri Insulation & Supply, Inc.

Insulation Fundamentals

Why Insulate?

When it comes to the day-to-day comfort of your home, insulation has a significant influence. A proper thermal "blanket" helps keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer, lowering year-round energy bills and conserving the earth's natural resources.

But insulation does much more than save energy. Strategically placed, it absorbs sound and helps make your home a quieter place to live. And when you go to sell a home that boasts recommended optimum levels for your geographic region, you can expect it to have a higher resale value.

Advantages of Fiber Glass

Fiber glass is the preferred insulation material by builders and homeowners. It is inorganic, naturally noncombustible and will not deteriorate or lose its insulating power over time. Fiber glass is also:

• will not retain water
• an excellent absorber of sound
• proven in third-party tests performed by the NAHB Research Center for assuring thermal performance
• safe when installed properly

R-Value

Insulation is measured in R-value, the capacity of an insulating material to resist heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating power.

When you're purchasing insulation, buy or specify R-value, not inches, as R-values of materials vary.

To achieve higher total insulating power, R-values can be added together. For example, R-38 added to an R-11 results in R-49.

Contrlling Moisture

Insulation can do more than help control the flow of heat into and out of your home - it also helps control the movement of moisture and water vapor that a family generates during everyday activities such as cooking and cleaning.

During the heating season, this vapor moves from a home's warmer interior to the cooler exterior, where it can condense. Continued or prolonged condensation can cause wood rot and the growth of mildew and mold. It can also lower the efficiency of the insulation.

That's where vapor retarders come in.

Vapor Retarders

A vapor retarder is any material that limits the transmission of water vapor. If you're using unfaced fiber glass insulation a suitable vapor retarder is a 2-mil nylon film (MemBrainTM, the Smart Vapor Retarder).

Or, you can buy faced fiber glass insulation, which has the vapor retarder already attached. Types of faced insulation include:

• Kraft-Faced - kraft paper coated with an asphalt adhesive
• Foil-Faced - foil-backed paper coated with asphalt adhesive
• Flame-Resistant Foil-Faced - foil-scrim-kraft paper that is strong and resistant to flame spread.

Insulation and Ventilation

Insulation and ventilation work in tandem to keep your home comfortable. Ventilation helps dissipate unwanted attic moisture during the winter and hot air in the summer. Because warm air rises, vents are placed in the soffits or low on the rooftop to let in fresh air, and along the ridge of the roof or in the gables to let the warm air escape. Always provide at least two vent openings for proper air flow.

Ventilation is especially needed in unused attics where insulation has been added to keep heat from leaking out of the rooms below in winter.

Ventilation Recommendations

Many codes require a ventilation area equal to at least one three-hundredth of the attic floor area. Ideally, 50 percent of the required ventilating area should be provided by vents located in the upper portion of your attic, while the remaining 50 percent should be provided by eave vents. Baffles at the soffits are necessary to protect insulation from air flow due to wind. Air movement through the material will reduce the effective thermal resistance.

Controlling Noise

Fiber glass insulation is effective at reducing unwanted sounds from appliances, TVs, stereos and ventilation systems. By putting insulation in some or all of the interior walls, ceilings and floors of your home, you not only benefit from increased peace and quiet, you also add lasting value. CertainTeed has a sound control batt for interior wood-stud walls called NoiseReducerTM specifically designed for this application.

You can get better results by insulating heating and air conditioning ducts and water pipes. Metal ducts may be wrapped in insulation, or you can install rigid fiber glass insulation duct board.

Sound Performance

The sound performance of a wall or ceiling is given a number rating called STC, or Sound Transmission Class. The higher the number, the better the sound control.

Another rating, the IIC (Impact Insulation Class), is used to describe the sound control performance of floor/ceilings on impact sounds, such as footfalls or moving furniture.

As an example, standard wall construction containing 3 1/2" of insulation with a single layer of 1/2"-inch gypsum board on each side produces an STC of 39.

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