Improve your home’s comfort and energy efficiency with Guardian Home Energy’s comprehensive insulation services. We work with homeowners to assess their specific insulation needs, whether it’s upgrading attic insulation, adding insulation to walls, or addressing other areas of heat loss. Our experienced team uses high-quality materials and proven techniques to ensure optimal R-value and coverage. Experience a more consistently comfortable home and lower your heating and cooling costs. Contact us today for a free insulation assessment and estimate!
Heat moves into & out of your home in four ways: conduction, convection, radiation and air infiltration. Heat rises and leaves your home through an under or uninsulated attic in the winter. If your attic is insulated but your walls are not (20-40% of older homes in OC have added attic insulation at some point but less than 4% have added insulation to the exterior walls) attic insulation will only slow down the rate at which heat leaves the house as it will roll along the ceiling (like water in reverse) and escape through the top 24″ of the walls. Air infiltration allows cold, conditioned air to leak through the attic and the walls in the summer as radiant heat continues to conduct through the exterior and common garage walls and radiate down from the attic.
According to studies the average pre-1975, single story, 1400 square foot home currently saves over $500/year in heating and cooling costs by fully insulating their attic and walls. This is in addition to the ongoing annual credit Edison offers of $150-250. As summers continue to get warmer and winters get cooler utility rates (both gas and electric) are expected to continue to rise up to 10% per year. Postponing properly insulating your home will only cause you to spend more on utility bills in the mean time. As the awareness of the need for long term energy conservation grows, proper insulation will continue to become more of a deciding factor for potential home buyers.
Insulation provides more effective sound control than drywall alone. If you’ve ever been in a building that had little or no insulation, you probably noticed that you heard a lot more noise from outside than in a well-insulated building. This is because the sound transmission coefficient (STC) of an insulated building is lower. The STC is a calculation of the acoustic performance of a wall or ceiling, and a higher number is better than a lower number.
House fires, particularly in older homes with aluminum wiring, are far more common than most homeowners realize. According to a recent study Cellulose insulation is 57% more fire resistant than fiberglass insulation and has been credited with providing firefighters with the extra time needed to save residents trapped in a house fire.
Cellulose insulation is treated with Boric Acid, which is a commonly used chemical by pest control companies as it effectively prevents insect & rodent infestations while being non-toxic to humans
Made from recycled newsprint and other recycled paper, and treated with nontoxic fire retardants, cellulose insulation has been a tried and true method of insulating homes for decades.
Its excellent sound insulating properties, its ability to provide an effective 1-hour fire rating, high R-value per inch, and industry leading environmental properties, makes cellulose a perfect choice for insulating attics and sidewalls.
Fiberglass insulation is made from molten glass that is spun or blown into fibers. The recycled content of fiberglass insulation ranges from 0-40%, but that includes waste generated during manufacturing. Fiberglass also doesn’t decompose once it’s put into a landfill. Its most common forms are rolls and batts, which are used in wall cavities and attics.
Fiberglass is non-combustible, but it will melt in a fire, potentially allowing that fire to spread. Numerous tests have shown that cellulose insulation is better at preventing the spread of fire in a building.
Care should be taken when installing fiberglass to wear protective clothing and a respirator, per the manufacturer’s guidelines, to avoid direct contact with, or inhaling of, the glass fibers.
Spray foam insulation are petroleum based products.
They require professional installation, using special equipment to measure, mix, and spray the foam.
Due to their ability to help reduce air leaks, they are often used in selected areas where the reduction of air leaks is critical, although it can be used throughout a structure.
The cost to insulate using spray foam is typically significantly higher than other materials.
Excess sprayed foam insulation from the job site can’t be reused, nor can it be recycled.
Our process is simple. Just contact us to get started.
From there we will provide you with a free home assessment. We then create a plan, provide an estimate, and get to work!
Loose-Fill (Blown-in): Imagine using a big vacuum hose in reverse to blow fluffy insulation into your walls and attic. This method fills up all the empty spaces, even around tricky spots like electrical outlets. For walls, once they’re full, we carefully seal up the small holes we made and even make sure the outside of your walls look like we were never there by matching the texture and paint! For attics, we blow in the right amount to reach the recommended thickness and help keep your home comfortable. A big plus of blown-in insulation is that it does a great job of blocking air from moving through your walls and attic.
Batt Insulation (Rolls): Think of fiberglass insulation like big, fluffy blankets that come in rolls. You’ll often see these in new homes. They’re designed to fit snugly between the wooden beams in your walls and ceilings. In fact, any room additions built after 1975 in California have fully insulated attics and walls with these batts, as required by state code. If your home is older and has thin, original batt insulation in the attic, you can add thicker rolls on top. However, for attics, we usually recommend the blown-in type because it’s better at stopping heat and sound. For walls that are already built, putting in rolled insulation usually means taking down the drywall, which isn’t often worth the cost.
In Orange County, residents are entitled to receive Federal tax credits, rebates from Southern California Gas and credits from Southern California Edison.
Several factors go into determining the amount of the credits including existing level of insulation, total square footage to be insulated, cost of insulation and size of air conditioning unit. Your Guardian Insulation field technician will give you a precise number for these programs, in addition to a projection of savings. Contact us today!
