Whether you’re in the midst of a scorching summer or a bitterly cold winter, one thing is for certain: you want to guarantee that your home can manage its own environment, keeping a genuinely nice and pleasant temperature in your living area all year round. While there are several strategies to improve your home’s capacity to maintain a comfortable temperature consistently, none offer as great thermal efficiency mixed with unmatched economy as insulation. If you want to improve and enhance your personal comfort and the quality of life for your family by providing a more comfortable home environment, you should consider proper insulation. If you have outdated, damaged insulation or only had the bare minimum placed during the construction or renovation of your house, you may have less insulation than you need for optimal efficiency. If you’re unclear whether or not your home has poor insulation, here is a list of 11 symptoms that will signify that it is.
1. Cold Walls
If you feel you have insulation concerns, the first action you can commit is called the touch test and it is virtually free to try. In order to complete this test, you must touch the walls all around your house. If you discover that the walls are substantially cooler to the touch than the room temperature, or if they feel moist, you may have an insulation problem that will need to be fixed as soon as possible. Cold walls indicate that the heat produced by your furnace isn’t staying in place long enough to keep your rooms warm. Furthermore, as warm air comes into touch with the cold wall, it gets cooled. The air is confined in a properly insulated housing, and a comfortable temperature of both the room and the walls is ultimately reached without any struggle. However, if there are insulation issues, it creates a vicious cycle in which your furnace needs to work extra to maintain the ambient temperature.
2. Holes in Exterior Walls
Hailstorms, accidents, and oddities can all cause damage to your home and leave it with a number of problems. Although homeowners wish that the hole in their roof or siding would mend itself together in due time, the damages that their home has dealt with won’t fix itself and need to be eventually repaired with expert help. The function of walls is to preserve the inside air within the home. So that hole you’ve noticed is an unwanted escape route for the warm furnace air.
Holes smaller than nail heads and cracks that are less than a quarter inch wide can be repaired quite quickly, readily, and affordably with some trusted paste from your local hardware shop. If the building has vinyl siding and the hole is significantly bigger, spackling a piece of spare siding over the fissure can be done. More significant damage to the roof of your home is possible and if this is the case, it is best that you get professional help immediately.
3. Bugs/ Mice
Perhaps the hole in your wall isn’t as obvious or was not created in such a spectacular manner as a hailstorm or other harsh weather conditions. Instead, you could discover that no matter how many traps you set, there are always a few unwanted bugs living in your home and disrupting its pleasant environment. If you begin to notice this, you must figure out how they are getting in, because that is how warm air is escaping your home. One spot all homeowners must check is the gaps where windows or doors meet the wall. If you come across mouse droppings or see them scurrying around, look for the mousehole they’ve dug for themselves. This is where a thermal leak detector comes in helpful, as it may point you to any gaps in the walls that cause a temperature fluctuation.
To fill up minor gaps between window panes and door frames and fix this problem, all you need is painter’s tape, caulk, and a caulking gun, which are all easily accessible and reasonably priced at local hardware stores. Small and medium-sized holes may be fixed with spackling solution and wall repair kits, both of which are reasonably priced and available at hardware stores, as well.
4. Moisture/ Condensation
Internal dampness can be manifested in a variety of ways. Puddles may emerge unexpectedly around your property, or condensation may build on windows and roof of your home. If anything is consistently cooler than the ambient temperature, it, like chilly walls, works against the room’s temperature. Damaged piping in your home may break, freeze, or leak during colder weather, which will be far more expensive to repair. Furthermore, dampness might quickly turn into a more dangerous situation. So, if you notice that there is a build-up of moisture in your home or along the exterior components of your home, it is best that you contact a local and trusted professional today.
5. Mold
If the reappearing build-up of moisture was accompanied by green, grey, or black splotches on the walls, floors, or insulation fibres, you have a mould problem. Mold may be deadly poisonous in the worst-case scenario. It can cause and worsen respiratory problems, especially in people who are allergic to it. Irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, persistent cough and phlegm, shortness of breath, or worsening asthma are all symptoms. Mold begins to form within 48 hours after significant expert investigation and must be dealt with quickly. The moisture of chilly walls and condensation create an ideal breeding habitat for these fungus, which is why they may indicate more significant issues with your insulation.
To fix this issue, you must first identify and treat the source of moisture in the home. If you don’t find the source of this problem , you would be only applying a small bandaid on the issue. Furthermore, you may be able to clean it by yourself, but it is recommended that you get professional help to do the job for you.
6. Drafts
Air always flows to fill in any space and how does this relate to your home? This implies that as warm air leaves your home, cold air will enter and fill the empty space. If you sense a light wind or stream of air on the inside of your home, it means that cold air is entering your room and warm air is departing. You may detect chilly air currents by feeling around closed windows and doors, as well as around light switches and electrical outlets in your home. All of this signifies that you are experiencing draughts and this problem not only makes your living area uncomfortable, but also increases your energy bills. If you are experiencing such a problem, you must address it immediately with the guidance and expertise of a professional.
7. Cold Rooms
If your furnace seems to ignore some rooms regardless of the fact that it’s been on all day, it’s an indication that the warm air produced by your furnace in that area is either leaving too quickly or, in some situations, not flowing in at all. If you notice that certain rooms are leaking air too quickly after you’ve examined all the obvious suspects, it might be an indication that heat is rising out of the room and fleeing elsewhere. To fix such a problem, you must double check if your attic and basement are properly insulated because this is where your home experiences the most significant heat loss. You may also clean the vents of your home, since it is possible that debris may be disrupting the flow of air into certain rooms.
8. More Expensive Energy Bills
There is a common byproduct of all of the problems listed above and that is your furnace works harder in order to compensate for the damages that your home has dealt with. In order to tell if your furnace is working too hard, you can check the amount of money you spend on your utility bills. If you discover that your utility bills are getting higher and higher as the months go by even though you haven’t increased your consumption, it is more than likely that your home is not properly insulated. No one wants to pay extra on their bills, so check your insulation and get it fixed as soon as possible.
The insulation inside your home enhances the comfortability of your living area and saves you money on your monthly energy bills. Like every other part of your home, you must take care of your insulation and routinely check up on it to increase the chances of you finding any problems with it. If you are having any problems with figuring out if your insulation is not working properly, some signs you may want to look out for are cold walls, holes in your walls, bugs or mice, condensation, mold, drafts, cold rooms and more expensive energy bills. If you are experiencing any of this, it is more than likely that your home is poorly insulated. To fix this, call your local, professional insulation services today.