Overcoming Fiberglass Insulation's 3 Main Problems
Video Summary
Overcoming Fiberglass Insulation's 3 Main Problems
The first thing you should know is that fiberglass insulation does nothing to stop air from passing through it. So, for example, this is a piece of insulation I just took out of a wall and you can see all of this black that's on it. This is from dirt that's been passing through the wall every time the wind would blow outside it would pass right through the wall cavity go right up through the insulation and make all of this dirt, and dust and nastiness.
If you let me show you this real quick…If I take my shop vac and put a piece of fiberglass insulation over the end of it and turn it on, you can see that as I run it over this pile of saw dust. It does absolutely nothing and picks this saw dust right up so the air is obviously passing right through the fiberglass insulation. Now if I put a piece of foam board on the end of it, it completely blocks the air. Which is what we want.
In order to prevent that you need to air seal your wall properly. And that really is very simple to do, it only takes a can or two of this Great Stuff or for smaller cracks you can just use some silicone caulk. It's really about that easy.
But in order to get the full insulating power, r-value, that's labeled on the package from your fiberglass insulation you've gotta air seal the cavities. You've gotta get rid of all the gaps and cracks and holes that are already in your walls. Then we don't have to worry about cold air blowing right through the walls, right through the fiberglass insulation and into our house.
Now the second thing you need to know is you never want to compress fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass actually uses air inside of this cotton candy like maze are billions of tiny air pockets. And what happens is the fiberglass insulation divides the wall space into billions of little air pockets and that's what actually slows the heat down. Slows the heat from moving through the wall. If you compress fiberglass insulation, you squeeze all of the air out of it. So you basically make it worthless.
And the third thing you need to know is that fiberglass insulation only works if it actually in contact with all four corners of the wall. If there are gaps, holes or compressed insulation inside of your wall: you're gonna lose a lot of the potential r-value. So when you are cutting fiberglass insulation and you're installing fiberglass, you need to make sure you cut it just a little snug so that it just fits inside of each wall cavity.
When you encounter electrical outlets, plumbing, heat and air conditioning equipment or wires you need to make sure that you take care of each one of those and cut around it or filet the insulation and go over it so you don't have voids behind the insulation or gaps and cracks.
In fact, if you miss just 5% of the wall you'll lose 20 - 25% of your r-value. So those are 3 things you should really know when you're installing fiberglass insulation. Just take a little extra time, take those extra steps and you will maximize the full r-value and reach the full potential of your fiberglass insulation.
If you're sick and tired of spending too much money on your energy bills, stop by my website at HowToHomeInsulation.com. You'll find the videos and information you need to start saving money on your energy bills right now. My name is Corey Binford. Thanks for watching.