Today we’re talking about what came after framing: Insulation. Since we live in Texas, where generally the weather forecast for any day later after April is “balls hot”, this topic is very important to us.
Our last house was horribly insulated. It was awful. Like I don’t know enough superlatives to describe how inefficient that house was. More than once we had electric bills over $700. It was brutal. In this house, we wanted to be as efficient as we could afford to.
The 2 basic options when it came to insulation were fiberglass insultation or spray foam insulation. When I say that we had options, our builder basically said “you can have fiberglass if you want, but you’re crazy if you do.”
Apparently, with fiberglass 30% of the air leaks through the insulation. Whereas foam insulation has 0 air leaks and is way more efficient.
Inside the walls, they basically spray the insulation, then cut it back to the studs. Above is what it looks like before its cut. And below is what it looks like after it’s cut back to the studs.
Up in the attic, they don’t cut it. They just let it stay as thick as it gets when it’s sprayed on. They crazy thing was watching the guy up in the rafters spraying the roof.
The difference the insulation makes is pretty astonishing. Walking into the house, even when it’s blazing hot outside, it’s reasonable inside the house. The temperature difference between the inside and outside was pretty jaw dropping the first time we went in, even without HVAC.
If you’re interested in reading more on the difference between the 2 insulation types, this page is a pretty good source.
$700 electric bill?! I’m dying just reading about it. I can’t even imagine paying it. Spray foam all the way. I watch enough HGTV to know that’s the ONLY insulation everyone uses now-a-days. Good call. May your days be filled with chilled air and protection from the hot balls.
Ah-men.
Balls hot. Lol. I wish we could’ve opted for the spray foam deal. That’s one of the drawbacks with working with a major home builder. Sometimes their options are limited. Even for bug intrusion, I would think the spray foam is amazing.
Our first home was around 1500 sq ft and we have heating bills around $300 a month. We’re in a 3000+ sq ft home now and the bills are around $250. The first home was 100 yrs old with barely any insulation. This new one is much tighter.
We expect to have a significant drop in electrical bills. Plus we’re pretty sure we are gonna be on a coop which Will be at a Much lower rate.
Good choice. Only one draw back. It doesn’t let the housr breathe as well as other insulation. Be sure to run your exhaust fans in the bathroom and laundry when showering or running the washer. You don’t want mold or mildew. I am looking forward to seeing the completed house. It’s looking awesome. I am also an opponent of hot balls.
Interesting. Plus our brick will be painted, so the house will be able to breathe even less. I’ll have to ask my builder about any issues, since he doesn’t use fiberglass at all anymore.
I’m so envious, I wish our house had good insolation but it pretty much stinks!
This stuff is crazy. I know it’s more expensive, but I don’t get why everyone doesn’t do it.
Smart insulation choice! I haven’t done any research on the spray insulation, but I hear great things. We used fiber glass and on the west side of our house we have Therma insul-tec panels. I think they are called… dont’ hold me to that. They basically look like the car sun shades – a quilted silver something – and sits in front of the insulation. Do they work? Not sure. Our patio gives us very nice shade as well, so I couldn’t tell you…
We’re really happy so far. The difference is pretty amazing.