Insulation-The Stuff You Don’t See

The stuff you will never see after your remodeling project is finished, is some really important stuff.

Okay, I know that’s not very technical.

But, as I was looking through progress pictures Jeff took last week, I felt a ton of pride about the work and the home improvement projects we build.

Consider insulation, something you probably won’t think much about after sheetrock is hung.

A well insulated space will help you feel comfortable, through all the changing seasons and will reduce your heating and cooling costs.

The Severna Park master suite addition project is constructed above an existing garage. We wanted to alleviate the Owners’ concerns about having a cold room, which can be typical for rooms built over a garage.

To do this, we incorporated insulation methods beyond Anne Arundel County building code requirements. It’s always been a standard for our company to include R-30 insulation in floor systems, over garages and crawl spaces. Minimum code requirement is R-19.

This photograph shows some additional methods and/or materials we used to make the room and cozy and as comfortable as possible.neatinsulation

Above, the bottom of roof with ridge venting in place and closed cell spray foam, sprayed in the eaves, so we could obtain a full R-38 insulative value. Although acceptable, this could not have been obtained with standard R-38 batt insulation.

The next step is the installation of fiberglass batts, as shown below.

And, that’s not all we did. We insulated the structure so the HVAC equipment and duct lines are within insulated spaces. Why is this important? Otherwise, heat is lost into an uncondition attic. Which is money going out of your pocket. It will also allow the heat pump system to function more efficiently, which is money staying in your pocket. In the extreme cases will help cause ice damming.

Because we didn’t skimp on R values and we kept the duct work installed within insulated spaces, creating the best possible efficiency, this will help keep the master suite space warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

Mechanical rough-ins for plumbing, electrical and HVAC are completed. Next step, hanging sheetrock.

As always, thanks for reading,

Joanne