5 signs your home needs insulation

October 19, 2021

Looking to make your home more comfortable and energy efficient this year? Replacing or upgrading your insulation can go a long way to making your space warm in winter and cool in summer - and keeping your house healthy. But how do you know when it’s time to call the insulation pros? Look for these 5 signs.

1. High utility bills.

If you’ve already invested in energy efficient appliances, but your bills are still higher than they should be in summer and winter, air leakage could be the culprit. Your warm (or cool) air could very well be sneaking out through a poorly insulated crawl space or attic, walls with old or pest-damaged insulation, inadequately insulated areas that house your mechanicals, you name it. There are lots of potential sources for heat loss.

Ask us how we can find the air leak paths in your home.

2. Your home feels drafty.

A sense of draftiness can happen even if your house is air-tight. In fact, there may be no actual “draft” coming in: the feeling could be caused by a cold, poorly insulated building envelope. When warmth leaves your body and tries to warm up the wall, that can give you the sensation of a draft.

3. Cold floors.

If you have a room that’s above an unheated garage or your floor is otherwise exposed to the outdoors, it can leave the floor – and the rest of the room – feeling uncomfortably chilly. This can be an indicator of damaged or insufficient insulation. Insulating that floor from below can make a huge difference in the comfort of a room, and it can be a particularly quick fix if the area below is unfinished.

4. Melted spots on a snowy roof.

Take a look at your house the next time it snows: if you see spots where the snow has melted, that’s a warning sign. Those melted areas tend to be the result of a heat source, air leakage or otherwise poorly insulated area, and indicate that heat is escaping through the roof. This issue can lead to more than just higher energy costs: melted snow and ice cause condensation in your attic, which can drip down into your insulation, compressing it and also leading to mold damage.

5. Icicles along your roofline.

These may look beautiful, but they’re a sign of heat loss and can cause a lot of damage. This phenomenon is called ice damming, and it happens when lost heat melts the snow on your roof, which then runs down the roofline and freezes. That ice is very damaging to aluminum and soffit: it can get heavy enough to rip an eavestrough right off. Ice buildup can also lift and get under shingles: as soon as it melts, that water will leak into your house and cause all kinds of damage.