Does your attic always have to be a sauna in the summer? No, it doesn’t. Learn why most attics are hot and what you can do to help yours.
Continue readingAir Seal, Moisture, Air Quality: Why We Remove Old Insulation From Your Attic
One area in your home that benefits greatly from adding foam insulation is your attic. When RetroFoam of the Carolinas comes and sprays foam insulation in your attic, it is standard procedure to remove old insulation from your attic floor. Do you know why?
Continue readingOpen Cell vs. Closed Cell Spray Foam: What is the Best Choice For You?
Both open and closed cell spray foams work and do a great job at insulating a building. They both have strengths and weaknesses. It is important to understand those strengths and weaknesses to decide which type of spray foam will work best to meet your needs.
Continue readingThe Stack Effect: What Is It and What Does It Have To Do With Your Homes Insulation?
Most people will say that you should address the area of your home where the air is escaping. Is this true? Learn about the stack effect and how to stop the air leakage in your home.
Continue readingUnlike your Jeans, Your House Can Not Be Too Tight
While it is true that good indoor air quality requires fresh outdoor air, letting your home decide where that air enters your home instead of you making that decision is not the way to go about things. An airtight home and proper ventilation work together to create a healthy home.
Continue readingRetroFoam Injection Foam: The Windbreaker Your Home Never Knew it Needed
For most people, the largest and most expensive purchase they will make will be purchasing their home. It’s a significant investment. A refuge from the craziness of the outside world. A place for roots to be planted and lives to be grown.
With that in mind, homeowners often do whatever needs to be done to ensure their home is maintained and kept up. Maintaining a home can involve countless hours of cleaning and many repairs. If gas is leaking, they will get the gas leak fixed. A leak like that could be potentially fatal if left unattended. If a pipe is leaking, it will be a top priority repair. It can lead to detrimental and costly problems if it is ignored.
What would you say if I told you that another type of leak is most likely happening in your very own home? The damages might not be as dangerous or extensive as leaking gas and water pipes. They aren’t even visible to the average naked eye. But over time, this leak can cause many problems.
The leak I am referring to is air leakage. The website, energy.gov, defines air leakage as “occur[ing] when outside air enters and conditioned air leaves your house uncontrollably through cracks and openings.” Some of the problems that can happen when a house is leaking air are:
- high energy bills from having to be running your furnace or air conditioner constantly
- poor indoor air quality
- moisture problems inside your home (If left unattended, these problems can lead to health problems for those living in the house and can affect the structural durability of your home.)
Air leaks are happening all over your home. You may be able to guess that a lot of your air leaks happen around doors and windows that are not sealed properly. But would you guess that there is air leaking through your walls, floors, and ceilings? (Visit this website for a more extensive list of air sealing trouble spots.) Think about these numbers:
- 10% of your heat escapes through your floors
- 25% of your heat escapes through your ceiling
- 35% of your heat escapes through your walls
While you can do things like adding caulking and foam strips to problem areas like windows and doors, you can also seal up those air leaks in your walls, floors, and ceilings with proper insulation. This is where RetroFoam injection foam can help. Most typical types of insulation are made to stop the conduction of heat. They don’t do much to stop the convection of heat. RetroFoam has high R-values to stop the conduction of heat, AND it provides an air seal to stop the convection of heat. (Click here to read more about R-values, conduction, and convection.)Think of it as putting a windbreaker on your house.
When RetroFoam injection foam is injected into your walls, it fills in all of the nooks and crannies that traditional insulation misses. When your house has the proper air sealing, good things happen. Your energy bills go down. The quality of air that you breathe increases. You also have an additional defense against moisture in your home. Most importantly, your comfort levels in your own home go up.
If you are interested in making sure that your home is properly air sealed, consider contacting one of our RetroFoam professionals today.
Foam Insulation: Let’s Go Green
I was impressed. There are not a lot of products out there that can do the job of air-sealing, insulating, and even sound-dampening with so little environmental impact. I am very happy that I didn’t have to worry about what was going into the walls of my home.
Continue readingSpray foam and Injection Foam; Why You Need It and What’s The Difference?
At RetroFoam of the Carolinas, we specialize in injection foam and spray foam. They are two very different products. Read on to learn how they can work together to make your home a healthier, more comfortable place to be.
Continue readingReclaim Your Square Footage With Injection Foam Insulation
Reclaim your square footage and make it all livable again. Are parts of your home like a sauna in the summer or a freezer in the winter? Learn how creating an air seal with foam insulation can make all the rooms in your house liveable.
Continue readingSigned, Sealed, and Delivered: Creating an Air-Sealed Envelope For Your Home
With summer now in full swing, our incredible southern heat and humidity are just getting started. It is important to address the air leakage we can’t see just as much as the ones that we can. Learn how creating an air-sealed envelope with spray and injection foam can keep you cool, save you money, and help extend the life of your HVAC.
Continue readingSummertime! Keep the Air Conditioner from Running Non-Stop
I have always assumed that because we are in the south, the AC cycling all the time is expected. Then I learned it doesn’t have to be that way. Read on and learn why.
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