The winter season can bring many weather extremes to our community, which prompts all of us to seek the warmth and safety of our homes during the colder months. As the temperatures drop and the snow falls, having a comfortable home is a privilege!
However, homes aren’t just automatically comfortable as the seasons change. Roofs experience wear and tear, siding can crack and break down, and the structure of a home can shift or sag as the foundation settles. When these things happen, air leaks or drafts become more common. Air leaks are a serious problem for homeowners, especially during the colder months.
Let’s dive into why air gap sealing in your attic is essential for the health, safety and efficiency of your home below.
Air sealing is the process of tracking down and sealing up all of the gaps, cracks, nooks and crannies in your attic space. All homes need to breathe, but having too many gaps and access points to the outside is never a good thing.
Air gap sealing controls the airflow not only in your attic space but throughout the rest of the home. If you have uncontrolled air movement in your attic and your living spaces, you will experience a variety of unpleasant side effects like chilly rooms, uneven temperatures and higher-than-normal energy bills.
Attics, in particular, are vulnerable to the elements as they are not designated living areas in most cases. Forgotten spaces like attics and crawl spaces can easily become overwhelmed with drafts that aren’t caught right away. Over time, these gaps can result in as much as 30-50% of your home’s heating energy being lost right out of your attic space.
Talk about some serious wasted energy! Unfortunately, this problem will only continue to get worse as the gaps become more prominent. When heat escapes from your roof, it creates what is called the stack effect.
The stack effect is the result of uncontrolled airflow. As heat escapes out of your attic space, your home experiences a change in air pressure. Warmer air has a lower pressure, so as it escapes out of your home, cold air with a higher pressure will rush in to take its place. This process will happen over and over again as that cold air warms up and rushes out of your attic, where new, colder air will replace it down below.
This stack effect of uneven pressure balances can be detrimental to your home, and will continue to be a vicious cycle until the air loss is stopped or controlled.
One of the biggest benefits of air gap sealing is that it helps control the temperature in your home more reliably. Your furnace system works hard during the winter months, and you want to keep all that heat in your home as long as possible! Drafts and air leaks in your attic will pull that warm air up and out of your home before it really has a chance to do anything effective in your home.
Sealing those gaps helps your HVAC system work more efficiently. As air moves through your furnace system, it is conditioned and then travels through your vents and ducts into your living areas. In well-insulated and sealed homes, this air will slowly circulate in your home before rising into your attic. From there, it circulates out through your vents or attic fan as it should!
You can expect warmer, more reliable temperatures in your home with proper air sealing. In addition, you won’t have to battle with your thermostat as often! You can simply set it and forget it, and your HVAC system will work in tandem with your home to keep you comfortable.
This benefit of air gap sealing goes hand-in-hand with temperature control. If your HVAC system is not rapidly pumping out conditioned air to replace the air that is being lost too quickly up above, your entire furnace system gets a well-deserved break.
It won’t have to run as often or as hard to keep your home comfortable, which means it will cycle less frequently. Less energy use directly results in a more comfortable energy bill each month. You definitely deserve to save more money where you can in your home, and air sealing is an easy way to do just that!
In addition to a more comfortable and reliable home, air gap sealing is also a great way to keep out pests. The colder months encourage insects, raccoons, squirrels and bats to find a warm place to ride out the winter. If you have gaps or cracks in your attic space, you are much more likely to become the neighborhood’s pest hotel. Pests like rodents or bats can easily get into small cracks in your home, and once they are inside, they will certainly wreak havoc on your property.
Sealing up these small holes effectively blocks their entrance, keeping them outside where they belong. Pests can damage wiring, break down insulation, leave droppings and urine everywhere, and can start to negatively impact your air quality. A simple air sealing can keep them out for good!
If you choose to have your attic air sealed, chances are that your insulation will also be inspected during the process. Insulation and air gap sealing work together to help keep your home as efficient and comfortable as possible, so a simple insulation upgrade or a removal and replacement of a deteriorating section is a great way to ensure your air sealing is as effective as possible.
That’s why it is so helpful to choose an insulation contractor that can do both! A professionally trained insulation team that can also handle your air sealing needs will ensure you have all the tools and materials installed to help keep out the chill and pests while keeping you comfortable when it’s cold outside.
Ready for a warmer, more reliable home? Contact the team at Master Attic today at (800) 285-4009 to schedule your air gap sealing.
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