Insulating my house

babycorn

New Member
Our house is over 15-20 years old.. i think we need to have someone check our insulation in the attic , under the house ,etc..
And who does insulation ???
 

dn0121

New Member
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

Where are you? You can check it yourself to save green and then go to Lowes to add it yourself. Its actually very easy.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Our house is over 15-20 years old.. i think we need to have someone check our insulation in the attic , under the house ,etc..
And who does insulation ???

Contact SMECO to do an energy audit and they'll give you coupons for insulating your home. Save a few hundred bucks.
 

Chain729

CageKicker Extraordinaire
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

Where are you? You can check it yourself to save green and then go to Lowes to add it yourself. Its actually very easy.

:yeahthat: Climb up in the attic, peer under the house... Hour of work, and the first 50 minutes is finding the flashlight.
 

JoeMac

New Member
Insulation is by far the one of the best upgrades you can make to your house.

You pay for it once and it pays you back for a long time and you dont have to pay to operate it. It also helps keep you comfortable.

I have used Dean Lumber before they are pretty reliable. Don't use Accurate they did not impress me at all. They arrived at my customers 4 hours late and he was irate.
 

DoWhat

Deplorable
PREMO Member
Insulation is by far the one of the best upgrades you can make to your house.

You pay for it once and it pays you back for a long time and you dont have to pay to operate it. It also helps keep you comfortable.

I have used Dean Lumber before they are pretty reliable. Don't use Accurate they did not impress me at all. They arrived at my customers 4 hours late and he was irate.

Dean Lumber:yay:
 

ewashkow

New Member
It is easy to check to see if you have enough insulation. I am by no means a handyperson around the house and even I can do it.

Since this is under the green section, I have to throw this out there. Check out Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation, Natural Cellulose Insulation for their cotton fiber insulation. It's very eco friendly and you can install it without all the precautions of the standard pink insulation.
 

Vince

......
Insulation is by far the one of the best upgrades you can make to your house.

You pay for it once and it pays you back for a long time and you dont have to pay to operate it. It also helps keep you comfortable.

I have used Dean Lumber before they are pretty reliable. Don't use Accurate they did not impress me at all. They arrived at my customers 4 hours late and he was irate.
Good to know. I want to get my garage done this year.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
What are the best ways to keep heat in your house?

Our outer walls in our brick house essentially have NO insulation. Short of stripping every outer wall bare, refitting with studs and insulation - and consequently having to adjust everything, such as vents and electricity - I don't know of any way to increase it.

We have plenty of insulation in the attic. The windows have been weather stripped.

Just can't seem to keep the heat in the house.
 

kom526

They call me ... Sarcasmo
What are the best ways to keep heat in your house?

Our outer walls in our brick house essentially have NO insulation. Short of stripping every outer wall bare, refitting with studs and insulation - and consequently having to adjust everything, such as vents and electricity - I don't know of any way to increase it.

We have plenty of insulation in the attic. The windows have been weather stripped.

Just can't seem to keep the heat in the house.

Definitely go with the SMECO energy audit. You'd be amazed at how many places allow air infiltration. We did it and found that our windows were subpar and allowed a lot of air into the house. We've replaced a little over half of them already (unfortunately)
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Definitely go with the SMECO energy audit. You'd be amazed at how many places allow air infiltration. We did it and found that our windows were subpar and allowed a lot of air into the house. We've replaced a little over half of them already (unfortunately)

We did that already. They did find a few things, but nothing glaring. For instance, our attic door doesn't close very tightly. So there's leakage. We have a pocket door in the extension above the garage - and there's leakage in the space where the doors slides going up to the attic. At that time they also told us something we kind of knew already - the extension over the garage had NO INSULATION on the garage ceiling, and I put that in using their credits.

I just can't figure how our electric bill is consistently over 500 in the winter, even with shoving down the thermostat. Something is really gobbling power or leaking heat.
 

kom526

They call me ... Sarcasmo
I just can't figure how our electric bill is consistently over 500 in the winter, even with shoving down the thermostat. Something is really gobbling power or leaking heat.

500 just in the winter? I was going to suggest appliances as a possible culprit. Have you tried to use a Kill a Watt device? I'll pull up a link.

P3 - Kill A Watt
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
500 just in the winter? I was going to suggest appliances as a possible culprit. Have you tried to use a Kill a Watt device? I'll pull up a link.

P3 - Kill A Watt

I've been waiting for a convenient time to order one of those.

For what it's worth, up till now I've hesitated because I didn't think I'd recoup the meager cost of the device.
 

JoeMac

New Member
Most insulation companies can cut a small circle hole in your sheet rock between every stud and push insulation in the cavity.

I believe the hole will be anywhere from 2-4" and there is little to no settling, then the holes get plugged and you will have made a drastic improvement

Winters Heating and Cooling does a much more in depth energy audit. I think they are like $200 or so.

Just because you have a $500 electric bill does not mean it is high. How big is your house, how many people living there? How old are your appliances? These are all big contributing factors to electric bills
 

jayzee

New Member
Home Depot

Run up to Home Depot and get the Spray (recycled newspaper) insulation for your attic. If you buy 20 bags of the stuff (at most 1/2 price of fiberglass insulation) they let you rent the machine that spreads the stuff for free. I was looking at 600 in rolled fiberglass for the attic and did 12 inches of paper insulation for like 160.00 bucks total. Was super EZ and a bit fun and took an hour.

JayZee
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Just because you have a $500 electric bill does not mean it is high.

Ummm. No. A 500 dollar electric bill is high. It may be that high for a reason, but it's patently absurd to say it's not high. That's like saying a 200 dollar tab at a restaurant isn't "high" depending on what you had for dinner.
 

JoeMac

New Member
Ummm. No. A 500 dollar electric bill is high. It may be that high for a reason, but it's patently absurd to say it's not high. That's like saying a 200 dollar tab at a restaurant isn't "high" depending on what you had for dinner.

It is all relative my friend, someone with a 7000sqft house with 3 hvac systems and 5-7 people may wish for a 500 electric bill.

All I was trying to say is that I need more information to make a credible assessment of their situation.

A $200 restaurant tab would be high at McDonalds for 2 people, but what about at Outback for 6 people, see an entirely different ball game.

Yes, the recycled newspaper, called cellulose is a good product, I recommend it.
 

LocalGoogleGuru

LocalGoogleGuru
How's your windows?

What are the best ways to keep heat in your house?

Our outer walls in our brick house essentially have NO insulation. Short of stripping every outer wall bare, refitting with studs and insulation - and consequently having to adjust everything, such as vents and electricity - I don't know of any way to increase it.

We have plenty of insulation in the attic. The windows have been weather stripped.

Just can't seem to keep the heat in the house.

I put that plastic film over the windows of our townhouse, I'm really surprised at how well they worked. A $20 fix saved many times that in wasted electric bills (heat pump). I had to cut holes for the blind strings. Cold air poured in from that tiny little opening.

Made me realize how much windows can help or hurt (now I wish I worked for one of those 'replace your windows' companies... oh well if it's true- it's true
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
I put that plastic film over the windows of our townhouse, I'm really surprised at how well they worked. A $20 fix saved many times that in wasted electric bills (heat pump). I had to cut holes for the blind strings. Cold air poured in from that tiny little opening.

Made me realize how much windows can help or hurt (now I wish I worked for one of those 'replace your windows' companies... oh well if it's true- it's true

What I've read is that, while all houses lose heat eventually through the walls, the fastest loss of heat is through leaks, and this is mostly likely to occur around windows, doors and any other break through the walls of your house (even electrical outlets!).

I used to wonder how in God's name fiberglass insulation was so good at insulation - after all, it's basically glass. It works well not because heat doesn't conduct well through it, but because air won't travel effectively through it.

We did use that thin film stuff, but it was taken down prematurely.
 
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