Site Search
Air Barriers
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS:
Steve Maxwell, casaGURU's home improvement guru, shares with homeowners the best story he's heard in support of insulation. It illustrates the importance of insulation, especially in cold climate areas, as well as the importance of 'vapour-barriers'.
A friend of mine still lives in the same rural farmhouse where he grew up in the 1930s, and this lets him tell the best story I’ve heard in support of insulation. Every winter morning as a boy, he’d wander downstairs to find a crust of ice on water buckets in the kitchen, something that lasted for about an hour until heat from the woodstove warmed the house. And even though his place is still heated entirely by wood today, sub-zero indoor temperatures are a thing of the past. And that's mostly because of the fiberglass insulation added during renovations over the years.
Just about the time my friend remembers drinking ice water every morning with breakfast, Owens Corning was developing a manufacturing process to produce glass fibers in large enough quantities to become economical for use keeping homes warm. That was 1932, and since then fiberglass insulation has become a standard feature of Canadian homes. It’s easy to install and works well at a reasonable price, but there’s a problem.
Despite its attributes, fiberglass insulation has a big weakness. It’s open structure and low density means it’s vulnerable to the formation of rot-promoting condensation inside building cavities. This is a fact that even some trade professionals don’t fully understand, and it’s why building codes in cold-climate areas demand the installation of what’s traditionally called an ‘vapour-barrier’ on the warm side of insulated areas. But how often does this happen properly? Not often enough. That’s why internal wall and roof condensation is all too common during the winter.
Tags
article attics home improvement home renovation insulation steve maxwellRating
|
Average (1 Vote)
|
