Homeowners who take really great care of their homes know that you need to pay attention to the interior as well as the exterior in order to keep your home in great shape and your family happy and healthy inside. But even people who are really fastidious about the care and maintenance of their homes can easily miss elements that aren’t quite either interior or exterior, such as their roof insulation.
Why Should I Care About My Roof’s Insulation?
The whole purpose of roof insulation is to reduce the rate of heat transfer between the interior of your home and the outdoor environment. That means keeping warm air in during the cold months and keeping the cool air in when it gets hot outside. So, the better your insulation is set up, the better your home will do at maintaining its temperature the way that you’d like it. Less heat exchange means less heating and cooling loss which means better energy efficiency which means lower heating and cooling bills.
Is Roof Insulation the Same as Attic Insulation?
Although attic insulation and roof insulation are both important in terms of your home’s comfort and energy efficiency, these types of insulation are different and are located in different parts of your home. Attic insulation is the puffy, itchy, fiberglass stuff you might initially think of, which typically lines the floor and walls of your attic. Roof insulation is the stuff that is under the roofing materials but above your attic rafters – equally important, but in a slightly different place.
How Can I Tell If My Roof Insulation is In Good Shape?
Depending on the way your home is built, it may be easy to take a look at your attic insulation, but it’s probably not as easy to get a quick peek at your roof insulation. So, it can be helpful to call in a roofing specialist to take a look at your roof to check on your roof insulation situation. If you’re good at keeping track of home maintenance records, you can also look up what type of insulation was used under your roof when it was most recently repaired or replaced. Different roof insulation materials have different R-values, and this R-value is an indicator of the effectiveness of the roof insulation material.
What Kind of Roof Insulation Problems Should I Look Out For?
If your roof was originally installed by a reliable roofing contractor (and it probably was) then your roof was undoubtedly installed with good insulation. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t the possibility of problems with your insulation now. There are a variety of problems a roofing professional will check for, such as:
- compression of the insulation,
- wetness and/or mold or mildew growth,
- damage to or gaps in the insulation due to infestation or other problems.
What Can Be Done to Update My Roof Insulation?
If you discover that your roof insulation situation is lacking, it can be rectified. If your roof isn’t otherwise in need of a general repair or replacement, the insulation itself can be replaced or repaired. A skilled and knowledgeable amateur can probably repair small damage to roof insulation on their own. But for most roof insulation problems, you’ll want to call in a pro. They can repair or replace small sections of roof insulation without damaging or replacing the existing roof, and they can give you the best idea of how extensive the damage (and any repairs) are likely to be.
Your best plan is to incorporate a roof insulation check into any regular roof inspection or maintenance you have done. And if you discover a problem that feels too big for you to handle on your own, call in the pros, like all of us here at Harper Siding and Roofing in Cincinnati.