Does anyone know about "snow" insulation?
Question:First of all thanks for taking the time to read this and giving me any advice you might have.
We have a 40 year old home and barely any insulation. We want to rent a blower and "snow" insulation and was wondering what costs we might be looking at? How hard is it to do it? What are some things we need to know? Will it really make that much of a difference in the temperature of the house?
Answers:
Sometimes, a project is better left to the pros. In this case, it'd be better for you to get several estimates from insulating companies. Blowing insulation into an attic area, especially at this time of year, is EXTREMELY hot work, since temperatures can reach 120 degrees in a non-vented attic area. When you get your estimates, make sure that the estimate includes the installation of baffles to eliminate covering the soffit venting (hopefully, you have soffit vents). If you do not have soffit venting, you'll need to have vents installed, since an attic needs to "breathe". Have the insulation contractors give you estimates on baffle installation and 12 inches of blown insulation. One other thing to look into is having roof vents installed. There are 2 types - the galvanized "whirly bird" type, and a power roof vent. The power vents are nice, and really don't cost that much. They need a receptacle for operation, so you might have to have an outlet installed in the attic for this reason. Any reliable roofing contractor can install a power roof vent. What is nice is that all power vents have a thermostat which can be preset so that the vent comes on when the temperature in the attic reaches a certain level (90 - 100 degrees for example). This feature will help with your heating and cooling costs and more than pays for the initial installation. Any good Home Improvement store (Lowes, Home Depot) will carry several different power vents, select the one rated for the square footage of your attic area. By the way - DO NOT install whirly bird or power vents unless you have soffit vents installed first. The idea is that air is drawn up through the soffit venting, then vented through the whirly bird or power vent.
a forty year old house should have insulation in the walls, about 3 1/2 " of it. If the walls are masonary and have 1x 3 to hold your dry wall nothing can be done about it with the blown in insulation. On the ceiling and roof area, the more is merrier. But make sure you have enough ventalation going around up there. If you completely eliminate the air flow you will get a mold problem. It does not cost much to get done profesionaly around $ 0.70 to $ 0.80 a square foot. At least get an estimate and pick the guys brains on the process.
snow insulation refers to burying the structure in deep snow to keep the outside air from the building. it does help keep some of the heat entrapped inside, but does not keep the heating costs down, the only true answer is to insulate the whole structure top to bottom, the choice of material is up to the installer, the benefits of insulation will immediately show up in the heating/cooling expenses
Blow in INSULSAFE type insulation. You can blow it into the attic and the walls.
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