Don’t dismiss the importance of Insulation

AWELL-INSULATED home is without question the most important thing to remember when it comes to ensuring your home is protected from the elements and with many cold weeks still to get over before the warmer weather arrives again, it’s always a prudent decision to improve insulation. If you haven’t already insulated your home now is the time to do it.

Many high-tech options are now available when it comes to insulating your home that range from a simple DIY approach to internal insulation to more complex methods of external insulation. If your home does not retain heat, then you need to seriously consider some very important options. Why? Well, first off the cost of heating homes has increased in recent years with the price of coal and turf only going one way: upwards. If you have an open fire or range then you’ ll most probably be familiar with the saying: ‘only smoke and not heat should exit your home’. The same also applies to home heating oil which can be difficult to maintain once turned off.

What can I do? There are many factors that come into play when it comes to insulation. Frist off windows should be sealed to prevent heat escaping and you will need to check that they closed tightly and are not allowing air into your home. You might also need to re-seal older windows with silicone to prevent this. Other options include blanket insulation which is easy as the fiberglass or wool comes in convenient rolls that you can insert between floors. A tip here is to cut the fiberglass correctly so as it fits snugly around pipes and wires remembering not to leave any gaps that will only allow heat to escape. Many older homes will already have had blanket fiberglass installed, but more and more people are now re-insulating their homes. An option in your attic is to use foam boards that fit concertina-like between roof timbers. This not only prevent heat escaping outward, but also reduces the impact of cold penetrating the outer roof into your home.

External and cavity wall insulation has become very popular in recent years but you will need a professional installer to do this job. Options here include the filling of cavity walls with foam that helps reduce external cold. Also, a slightly more expensive, but less effective option, is to completely re-surface the outer walls of your home and this works particularly well if your home is semi-detached. So remember: it’s never too late to start insulating your home. You won’t just retain heat, you’ll also be saving money and ECO Build are the true professionals you can trust to get this job done, see an example of a case study below.

John has a 3 bedroom detached bungalow with a footprint of 120 sqm (1290ft2). He has an annual heating bill of €1,800. John has solid masonry (or hollow block) walls and needs to use external (or internal) insulation for his home as there is no cavity in his walls. The costs for external insulation systems installed was approx €10,500 (excluding grant). The Grant available from SEAI to Externally Insulate John’s house was €3,600. Taking this measure resulted in John reducing his heating bill by almost 35%, more than €620 in his annual heating bill.

John & his family now enjoy a more comfortable warm and healthier home and would highly recommend external wall insulation to other homeowners.

John: “It’s almost like we are living in a different house with the real saving being the comfort we now have in our own home. I would strongly recommend RMC Ecobuild as being one of the best in their field and having dealt with Jer and Paudie I would have no hesitation recommending them”