Learn more about building science and how considering the entire home as a system yields the positive results for your home and wallet.
Continue reading10 Home Maintenance Tips For First-Time Home Owners
Buying your first home is both a big investment and a big commitment. As with anything new, there is a learning curve with becoming a first-time homeowner. Get the most out of your investment and to help you avoid preventable problems with these 10 home maintenance tips.
Continue readingFun Facts About Home Insulation
The insulation in your home is one of the most important things keeping you happy and comfortable in your home. Here are some interesting facts you may not have known about insulation.
Continue readingHow Can RetroFoam of the Carolinas Help Me Limit My Environmental Footprint?
The bigger your environmental footprint, the more of an impact you have on the world around you. Learn how RetroFoam’s injection foam is helping homeowners reduce their environmental footprint.
Continue readingTips For Saving Your AC Unit: Energy Efficiency in the Summer Months
Learn 5 ways to make your home’s AC unit energy efficient. Spoiler Alert: While several things can cause air leaks in your home, the biggest is inadequate insulation.
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 readingRetroFoam of the Carolinas Reviews Worth Reading
At RetroFoam of the Carolinas, we want to leave you with insulation that will last you the lifetime of your home, that will reduce your energy bills, and increase your comfort. Read what our customers have said about their experiences with RetroFoam of the Carolinas.
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.
Are You Getting the Right Value From Your R-Values?
Insulation is rated on its ability to slow conduction. The “R” in R-value stands for resistance to conductive heat flow. The number that is attached to the R-value is how resistant the insulation is.
Continue readingFoam 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 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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