Attic Insulation Retrofits
to Boost Energy Efficiency
Heat rises! Adding insulation to your attic is usually the quickest, easiest and most affordable way to increase a home’s energy efficiency and comfort. However, it is rarely so easy as simply 'topping up' existing insulation. It is crucial to assess each attic as a unique situation, ensuring that everything will function properly as a system. This is where we come in!
We always make sure to address the following 3 critical areas when retrofitting an attic:
Air Sealing
Air leakage through penetrations in a home’s ceiling can be a major source of heat loss. According to Natural Resources Canada, air loss contributes 20% to 30% of total heat loss in an older home. Air carries heat. Therefore, air loss equals heat loss! Air also carries moisture, which, when allowed to enter an attic space, can cause a whole range of issues. These issues include mold growth, damage to drywall, rotting of structural components, and damage to insulation. Common sources of air leakage include light fixtures, holes drilled through top plates, plumbing stacks, bathroom fans, and chimneys. In every attic retrofit we carefully move existing insulation aside and seal up penetrations to stop air leakage in its tracks!
Ventilation
Ensuring that a home’s attic is properly ventilated is a critical step in the attic retrofit process. Ventilation must be addressed on two fronts.
First is the intake. We address this through the addition of air chutes at the eaves and vents at the gables.
Second is the exhaust. We address through the addition of roof vents at the ridge of the roof.
Using guidelines from the Canada Building Code, we calculate each attic’s ventilation needs and add eave and ridge ventilation as necessary to balance intake and exhaust and create a happy, healthy attic space.
Ensuring your attic space is properly ventilated has the following benefits:
- It removes excess moisture from the attic space, which lowers the likelihood of the water-related issues mentioned in the air-sealing section above.
- It reduces ice damming by venting out any warm air which may escape into the attic.
- It helps to extend the life of shingles by reducing the temperature of the roof deck.
Insulation
Once air leakage and ventilation have been addressed, it’s time to add some R‑value! This is the fun part. We roll out the hose, fire up our machine and blow insulation into your attic. We use a horizontal line laser to ensure an even application with no low spots.
We install a range of insulation products, but our preference is cellulose, for the following reasons:
- Cellulose has excellent fire resistance.
- Cellulose reduces convection cycles, which improves effective R‑value vs fibreglass.
- Cellulose repels insects and rodents! Keeping creatures out of your attic means less damage to insulation, structural members, wiring, etc and it also means better long-term R‑value. We’ve been in enough attics insulated with fibreglass to know that mice and insects are very happy making their homes in fibreglass.
- Cellulose is made from up to 80% recycled material! The rest is made mostly from renewable natural fibres. This means that you can decrease your energy use and your carbon footprint using an eco-friendly product manufactured from a renewable resource! In our minds, this makes cellulose the obvious choice when choosing which materials to use when insulating your home.
Conclusion
Retrofitting an attic space with additional insulation, paired with sealing up air leaks and balancing ventilation is about so much more than saving on your energy bill (though it certainly does this as well!). It also extends the life of your shingles, prevents structural decay, improves occupant comfort levels, reduces risk of fire, keeps pests out and lowers your carbon footprint!