Insulation Information

Your walls do more than protect your home from the elements; they also play a vital role in keeping you comfortable. And without wall insulation, heat will leak into your home in the summer and raise your AC expenses, and leak out of your home in the winter, raising your heating bill. To trap in the heat or the cool at the right time, exterior walls must be properly air sealed and insulated. At The Insulation Company, we can install new insulation for new construction or additions and for older construction. The best part is that we can do it without making a big mess or tearing up your drywall. For decades, we’ve helped numerous business and homeowners in the greater Los Angeles area upgrade their energy efficiency levels, do their part to lower human impact on our environment, and stay more comfortable all year long.

Any wall with an exterior face ought to be insulated and even if your siding had built-in insulation attached to it, you’ll need insulation on the interior face if you want to achieve maximum energy efficiency. Also, insulation can be installed inside of room-diving walls if you’re looking to heat or cool specific rooms instead of the entire house. Attic walls and those in unfinished garages, basements, or crawlspaces normally get batts insulation.

Both blown in and batts insulation is often used inside of wall cavities. Traditionally, blow in insulation is more common with existing walls while batts is used on new construction, but this varies in some cases. There are many factors that go into choosing between the methods of installation and the insulation product that is environmentally-friendly, has enough R-value, and still fits your budget. We at The Installation Company are experts in all these issues and can help you understand and weigh all of these competing factors so you can make an informed decision.

Do you need a soundproof room in your home? Maybe you have college kids who come home on weekends and need a quiet place to study, want to outfit a media room of some sort, would like to create a serenely peaceful environment for your newborn baby, or just want a place to relax and not be disturbed after a long day at work? The Insulation Company can help keep both airborne and impact noises from entering or leaving a room by installing soundproof insulation.

We use Roxul® brand soundproof insulation, which is the most effective brand on the market today. Just like any other insulation, Roxul will fit snugly in between your studs but will have far more superior sound-quenching powers. This type of insulation is made of stone wool. This is a combination of steel wool and stone (basalt) manufactures through a unique, proprietary process. The denseness of this material is the secret to the astounding success of Roxul. Roxul Comfort Batt® is used to insulate walls with an exterior face and Roxul Safe ‘N’ Sound® is used on fully interior walls. Both brands greatly reduce the movement of noises through your walls.

If your wall is already insulated, Roxul can lay right over it, resulting in better filled inter-stud spaces. If you don’t want to, there’s no need to remove the old insulation because it adds to the effectiveness. But it’s also not necessary to leave the old batts in. To ascertain the STC (sound transmission class) rating of the soundproof insulation, we test your walls before and after the installation and can tell you how much sound dampening the wall achieves. Roxul products can catch even the low-frequency sounds and we’re sure you’ll notice how quiet the room will be after we soundproof it. When you need energy efficiency, soundproofing and extreme protection against corrosion, moisture, fire, and other potential problems, it will be worthwhile to install Roxul insulation, even if it’s more expensive than the other insulation types.

Installing high-quality radiant barriers in your attic and ceiling is an important element if you want to get the most out of the energy efficiency level of your home. A Radiant Barrier is a type of building product made of reflective materials that tend to reflect thermal radiation instead of absorbing it. Radiant barriers are designed to reduce cooling costs in the summer months and are usually installed in attics.

Heat is transferred through your house in three ways: convection, conduction, and radiation. Radiant barriers help stop heat transfer from your house by radiation. They are highly reflective and will literally bounce back heat out of your home when it tries to penetrate through the ceiling of the attic.

There are various types of Radiant Barriers but they all are made up of highly reflective materials. Most are made from aluminum foil applied to Kraft papers, plastic films, or cardboard. Some may be combined with different insulation materials while others may be fiber-reinforced. Adding a radiant barrier on your attic ceiling will see your home reduce heat gain in your house by about 40%. This translates into a reduction of about 17% in your energy bills.

Of course, your energy bills are affected by many other factors and the results that insulation will bring can vary. However, just a single addition of a radiant barrier in your attic ceiling can achieve a one-sixth reduction or so, which is definitely a big dent in your month to month power and gas bill. The more extreme the outdoor temperatures, the bigger your energy bill but when you have a radiant barrier installed, the more money you will save on a monthly basis.

At The Insulation Company, we have vast experience in effectively installing radiant barriers in homes and business properties of all ages and descriptions. We the brands of radiant barriers available on the market and can furnish you with the information you need to make an informed decision. We can install your new radiant barrier quickly, efficiently, and safely so you can optimally enjoy better cooling within your home and much lower energy bills.

To ensure an optimum R-value, a proper air seal must be maintained in the area to be insulated irrespective of where you plan to install new insulation or what type of insulation product you plan to use.  Air sealing is an essential preparation step as it can have a great impact on how much your insulation project ends up saving you on monthly basis and the environmental benefit that come with the cost savings.

Choosing to add insulation to an uninsulated basement or attic or even reinsulate your ceilings or walls is an easy one. You definitely want to pay less for electricity each month while enjoying comfortable temperatures. But the reality is, Los Angeles has many buildings that lack adequate insulation and are also poorly ventilated.

Generally, air leakage is caused by large (often unseen) holes found in the crawlspace, basement, attic, electrical and plumbing penetrations, floor and ceiling joints, and small cracks and openings around doors and windows. While these gaps appear minor, they can have similar effects as leaving a window or door wide open. Also, water vapor can condense inside walls and attics as a result of air infiltration, which makes insulation wet and ineffective. The ultimate result is mildew and even structural damage. It makes little sense to leave holes in your house if you’re going to insulate because air leaks can pull right through insulation products.

We at The Insulation Company can do air leak inspection to determine if your home has significant leakage and if so, locate the leaks. While we often do these tests before installing new insulation, we can also test for air drafts separately. After all, air sealing is a valuable service in its own right and before you can plug the leaks up, you have to find them. But although it helps a great deal, it cannot be used to replace insulation. Achieve the maximum positive effect calls for the application of both procedures. We understand that failure to do a detailed air leak test before installing new insulation is risking the success of the entire project.

There are numerous types of insulation products to choose from but one that’s likely most recognized is fiberglass. It’s readily available, inexpensive and provides significant home energy savings when installed appropriately in walls, attics, and exposed floors. Fiberglass is a type of plastic material strengthened by tiny glass fibers that give it greater durability and strength. The glass fibers, in most cases, are made out of recycled glass, which makes this type of insulation material good for the environment.

With a higher R-value, fiberglass offers a greater thermal resistance than many other materials. This is one of the main reasons why it’s an excellent insulation choice. This material has a good deal of air pockets in it and is relatively dense and thick. Fiberglass is also easy to handle, a noise-reducer, non-conductive of electricity and is resistant to fire, moisture, mildew, and mold.

To ensure that fiberglass performs well, the material must touch the surface it’s supposed to keep warm.  The material should be installed with no gaps or voids and the materials must not be compressed to avoid reducing its R-value. At The Insulation Company, our professionals are well-trained and experienced in proper fiberglass installation and we do the work in strict accord with the manufacturers’ instructions in order to obtain a lasting and highest possible R-value for your business property or home. You can get a quote over the phone when you want fiberglass insulation installment but an on-site assessment may be necessary to obtain an even more accurate quote.

Many homes have insufficient attic insulation and in worst cases, none at all. Or a home may have an old insulation product that’s doing a poor job.  Having your attic and ceiling insulated can save you more on your energy bill compared to most other insulation upgrades. This means that attic and ceiling insulation should be one of the first you should focus on when re-insulating your home or business property. A poorly insulated attic or ceiling wastes energy dollars when summer and winter kick in. In summer, the attic is the greatest source of heat gain, and in cold weather, a huge percentage of heat loss in most homes occurs through the attics. Proper insulation helps save energy costs for air conditioning and space heating by preventing the flow of heat in and out of your home.

The Insulation Company can seal air leaks in your attic or ceilings before installing your new insulation. We can prevent the unwanted flow of conditioned air through your roof and ceiling by carefully sealing smaller cracks and crevices using appropriate sealants or caulks, and covering over major holes with drywall, plywood, or another appropriate material.

Fiberglass and Cellulose are the two most common insulation materials used in attics and ceilings. Fiberglass is available in the form of loose fill or blankets/batts. Loose fiberglass is installed using a blowing machine whereas the batts are rolled out and cut o the appropriate length. Cellulose insulation, on the other hand, is a type of loose-fill insulation made from recycled wood fiber or newspaper and treated to make it fire-resistant. Batts are often the easiest materials for a homeowner to install.

Selecting the insulation material for your attic or ceiling is a crucial step but it’s also important that it be installed in a manner that maximizes its performance. At The Insulation Company, we understand how to quickly, effectively, and safely install all forms of batts and blown in insulation in any attics and ceilings. We offer quality insulation services and have a long track record of delivering 100% satisfaction and Los Angeles home and business homeowners.

If you have mold, moisture, or wood rot issues, or the room above your crawl space is uncomfortable, or are wasting money on your utility bills as a result of a crawl space that is uninsulated or in poor condition, let The Insulation Company handle crawl space repair and insulation for you.

Failing to insulate your crawl space can make the process of cooling and heating of your homes living spaces not only slower and less effective, but also more expensive.  Furthermore, it will increase your energy use and hence, your carbon footprint. Sealing attics and around doors and windows is rarely forgotten, but it’s easy to overlook the space just below your floor during a full energy upgrade.

The Insulation Company offers you numerous specific services related to crawlspaces, including, rodent proofing, air sealing, and installation of new insulation. Usually, we combine all these services for a full crawlspace renovation and every time you walk on those warm floorboards in the wee hours of the morning, you’ll be reminded of the great work your insulated crawlspace is doing. The most common type of insulation installed in crawlspaces is fiberglass batts insulation. It is placed on the crawl space ceiling between exposed rafters. Equally, cellulose can also come in batts roll and be installed in a similar manner.  

Once you assign us the task or repairing your crawl space, our first order of business will be to examine it to have an idea of how it’s built. We will then start by cleaning your crawlspace and prepping it for the insulation. Another important element of preparation work is sealing for air and keeping out rodents and insects. We then install the insulation according to the manufacturer’s instructions. We do all this while making sure that it’s firmly secured and fills appropriately in inter-joist or stud spaces. Also, a vapor barrier will be required to slow or stop the evaporation of ground moisture into the air in your crawl space.