Your Guide To Basement Insulation
Your Guide to Basement Insulation
If you're planning on living and / or raising a family in Texas, basement insulation is an important thing to consider. One of the reasons that it's so important is that in many areas in Texas, there are strict building codes that determine how basements need to be insulated. Another factor that makes it appealing is the fact that many home owners are now finishing their basements as living areas rather than simply using them for storage space as was once the most popular application for basement space.
Insulation is very important to finishing a basement because it helps the area become more inhabitable by controlling the temperature and moisture. Basements that do not have insulation tend to be very cold and damp and that is not the type of environment that most people want to live in. One final reason for insulating basements is due to the energy cost that is driven up by an un-insulated basement. Energy costs are a very important issue in these times with energy costs rising and the economy not being as strong as it once was. Many people are doing everything they can to save money and one of the biggest things people can do to save money is to lower their energy costs.
In an energy cost study it was determined that heat loss from an un-insulated basement can actually account for up to one-third of the heating costs in most households. This is an extremely large amount of heating cost to pertain to one factor. For this reason, it makes sense that insulating your basement can greatly reduce the amount of money you are spending to keep your home heated. In the same study that determined heat loss from basements can account for up to one-third of heating costs, it was also found that insulating the basement walls with R-5 insulation from top to bottom can reduce heat loss by up to 70 percent.
There are three ways that basements can be insulated. The first way is called exterior insulation and, as the name describes, the insulation is placed on the exterior of the walls when the foundation is being laid. The main problem with this type of insulation is that it makes it very difficult to protect the insulation from the weather both during construction and after construction is complete. The next way to insulate a basement is by putting the insulation in the middle of the wall during construction. One kind of insulation used for this method is closed cell foam insulation. The biggest difficulty of this type of insulation is that it has to be done when the house is being built. Most people are either purchasing a home that has already been built or already own a home. Since most people are not building their homes they do not have the option of putting the insulation in the middle of the wall as wall insulation.
The last type of insulation is interior insulation. This is the easiest way to insulate a basement and the most common. The insulation is placed against the wall that has already been constructed. This is also very popular when it comes to finishing a basement to be occupied. Once the insulation has been installed, all that remains to finish the basement is to put up drywall overtop of it.
