Along with cracks in walls and crawl spaces, a home’s attic is a major source of heat loss during the winter. On hot summer days, warm air can collect in an unsealed attic and heat the inside of your home. Although attic insulation can help mitigate these issues, if an attic isn’t properly sealed, you're likely to have a higher energy bill on your hands, and your home will be less comfortable. Sealing your attic using a complete energy system will help ensure less warm air escapes during the colder seasons and that less hot air enters your attic during the summer.
Air sealing, (not to be confused with insulating), involves checking your attic for air leaks and then sealing these leaks. Depending on the size of your home, its age, and how well it’s been maintained, an attic can develop cracks over time as your home shifts or when bad weather occurs.
Through these cracks in your attic, pests can enter your home, and air can both enter and escape. Since your attic isn’t temperature controlled like your living space, an improperly sealed attic can affect the inside climate of your home by collecting or losing heat.
Air sealing an attic will bring immediate, noticeable benefits to your home.
The goal of sealing an attic is to air seal it from the rest of your home. Doing so helps lower energy costs, and keeps the inside of your home at comfortable temperatures for longer periods. Unsealed attics lead to inefficient HVAC systems because the systems are struggling against outside air to keep your home at a comfortable temperature. Sealing your attic improves energy costs for years to come. In addition, air sealing also helps to reduce what’s known as the stack effect of a home.
The stack effect happens both in summer and winter. Depending on the season, air will flow through a home in a certain direction due to outside air pressure. The stack effect can make it more difficult for a home to retain its internal temperature. An unsealed attic can amplify the stack effect.
Since your attic’s temperature can vary wildly from your home’s, it’s possible for water vapor to form moisture droplets inside of your attic space. Over time, a humid attic can lead to mold or mildew and cause health issues for you and your family. You could also end up with water damage that compromises the structure of your home. Sealing your attic can help prevent this from happening.
Pests cause a wide variety of issues for homeowners. Termites, rats, and mice can inflict costly damage. And sometimes, you may not even realize you have a pest issue until your home is ipmacted. Mice chew through wires, destroy attic insulation, and some can carry disease through their droppings.
While it might seem like mice or other pests could have a difficult time entering your attic, they can do so through leaks in other parts of your home, and they’re also excellent climbers. Mice may even gain entry to your unsealed attic by climbing tree limbs that overhang your roof.
At St. Louis Insulation, before we begin sealing your attic, we offer a free energy assessment to identify the air leaks that are costing your home the most energy. Our attic sealing solutions are cost-effective, high-quality, and will improve your home’s energy efficiency for years to come.
Schedule a consultation with us to learn more.