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Exterior Walls Insulation

One main function of walls is to keep heat in your living space through insulation. Many houses prior to 1970s had very little or no insulation at all which resulted into extremely high heating and cooling energy costs. Whenever you want to do home insulation, it is always important to consider walls insulation especially the exterior walls.

Why Consider Walls Insulation?

It has been established that walls contribute to about 30% to 35% of heat loss in houses, making it the second major area of heat energy loss in most homes. The primary benefit of walls insulation is to reduce the energy costs. Many walls have been established to have cracks and penetrations that allow moisture and air leakage in and out of the house. This leads to uncontrolled drafty temperatures, which would make you depend more on your heater and air conditioner, sometimes even forcing you to go for furnace or air conditioner repair, hence high energy bill and repair costs. Insulated exterior walls seal all the cracks and penetrations and you can reap so many benefits by pursuing this project.

  • Reduced heat loss and energy bills
  • Increased comfort due to reduced cold drafts in your living space
  • It is applicable even to an existing home, and can be installed without disrupting the normalcy at your home.
  • It improves the weatherproofing of your walls and can also help greatly in sound resistance.
  • It does not reduce the internal floor area because it is applied from the outside
  • It increases the lifespan of the wall and also reduces the condensation on internal walls

External walls insulation can be expensive. There will be a cost in erecting scaffolding and the removal and replacement of pipes and cables that are fixed to the wall. In addition, you will still need experts in insulation Toronto to fix your wall insulation. However, by adding it as part of a larger project the costs decrease. It is also very effective as it has numerous benefits as stated earlier.

Planning Is Required

What should first come into your mind whenever you think of embarking on external walls insulation, is that the general external appearance of the house will change. In most cases, it is important to gain planning consent before doing it. One thing you should remember is that it does not need to be done to the whole house. If your front elevation is attractive to you, consider internal wall insulation while the rear elevation can be externally insulated.

Choosing The Best

Once you have decided that your walls need insulation, you should choose the best in all aspects. Don’t go to any insulation contractor; first review them and know the quality of their materials. Let them advice you on the various methods of exterior walls insulation such as:

Fiberglass batts

It is mostly recommended for new walls or renovations where cavities are exposed. The most careful part being to make sure one uses the correct thickness of the fiber batts and make sure they fit around the pipes and ducts. Remember batts are permeable to moisture so its recommended to also install a vapor retarder.

Blown-in insulation

It is used when walls are fully enclosed and material are like cellulose and foam-in-place. They are impermeable hence give high R-value.