Exterior Wall Insulation: Top Problems to Look For
If you’ve ever felt like your home can’t stay warm in winter or cool in summer, no matter how high you set your thermostat, then your walls might be the reason. It is not the paint or the drywall, but what is inside the wall, the insulation.
The exterior wall insulation maintains your indoor temperature at a constant. It has the effect of a thermal blanket around your home. However, when there is something wrong within those walls, comfort goes literally out the window.
Insulation contributes to a lot of energy efficiency in Canada since the winters are extremely harsh and summer temperatures can take people by surprise. According to Natural Resources Canada, nearly 40% of a home’s heat loss happens through walls and air leakage points. That is huge.
The well-insulated walls do not allow the exterior air to enter and the interior air to flow out. It also prevents moisture, sound, and even pain. However, things may go bad with time. Perhaps your insulation was not correctly put in. Perhaps it is old-fashioned. Or it got wet or full of pests and was spoiled.
You do not have to pry your walls open to end up suspecting an issue. Always feeling a draft in your house, or your energy costs more than the national debt? It is an indication that something in the wall is t working.
So here are the most typical issues you can have with exterior wall insulation- and the warning signs so you can get them sorted out before it costs you a fortune.
Problem 1: Behind the walls may have air leaks and poor sealing.
Leakage of air is one of the most underhanded problems that exterior wall insulation has. The implication of insulation everyone has in mind when they insulate is that the aim is to prevent loss of heat, but the flow of air is equally important. You may have a piece of your wall full of insulation, but have some tiny openings or crevices along the perimeters of the wall through which hot air is able to escape, and cold air could possibly gain access.
This is how you know your walls probably are not sealed:
- You can experience drafts around using windows, plugs, or light switches.
- There are disparities in room/floor temperature.
- It is as though the device that you use to heat or cool your house never goes off.
- You listen to outside sounds when you shouldn’t.
Leakage of air may occur during installation or later when buildings move and deform. Older houses are plagued by insulation that was probably never properly sealed. That is particularly the case if the fiberglass batts were deployed; they naturally do not form an airtight bond.
In colder places such as Toronto or Calgary, where the winters tend to be below freezing, even the least leak could create discomfort and cost you more on your energy bills. You might be spending more on heating or cooling the air, whose only escape channel is unseen cracks letting it out.
This can be overcome by using the correct material, such as closed-cell spray foam. When sprayed, spray foam swells to fill in all the smallest crevices and cracks and traps heat, as well as keeping the cold air out. This is the reason it is regarded as one of the most effective air sealants in recent insulation techniques.
And Explore: Why Spray Foam Wall Insulation is the Smartest Choice for Your Home
Problem 2: Wet walls and Mold hidden in Wall Cavities
One of the worst things that could creep into your walls is moisture. You may have mold, mildew, and rot without you even realizing it, and this can occur when your outside wall insulation cannot prevent it or outright traps it.
The moisture comes in through air leakages, your siding cracks, or windows and vents. After it penetrates into the wall cavity, it will be able to sit in stillness there. Mold growth can begin to develop in the wood or drywall, not an area you might notice at first.
Health Canada has indicated that mold can cause breathing difficulties, cough, eye irritation, and in other instances, worsen asthma. It can be especially dangerous when it comes to children and the elderly, along people.
Insulations such as fiberglass and cellulose have the ability to soak up moisture like a sponge. With this, the insulating material becomes heavy and slack. It loses its insulating capability and becomes an ideal condition for the growth of mold.
Spray foam is not a water absorber, especially the closed-cell type. As a matter of fact, it makes a firm moisture barrier. Not only does it prevent water from entering, but it also allows your wall to dry up in case there is any humidity within it.
Once you get a whiff of mustiness, see a stain on your walls, or cold and clammy rooms even with heat turned up, then you may well be experiencing issues with moisture in your walls.
This is why appropriate installation and moisture-resistant material count as one of the most important aspects in selecting the external wall insulation in rainy or moist places such as Vancouver or in coastal surroundings.
Problem 3: Gap in the insulation and compressed materials
Insulation cannot really work unless it is used to cover the space intended. However, in real houses, the insulation does not always play nice and fit perfectly within all the wall cavities. Loopholes may be created. Batts can be trimmed short or bulldozed out. Worse still, insulation may get crushed–particularly when wires/pipes are excessive, and they may be running through the walls.
When the insulation is pressed, it fails to work. It also fails to experience the benefit of trapping air through which it obstructs heat flow. An R-value of 20 in a wall could be performing like R-10 or less.
This is how gaps or compression have an impact on the home:
- Rooms close to the corners or outer walls are colder than other rooms.
- Walls are cold as you touch them, and even when the heat is on.
- The transmission of noise between the rooms is easy.
- You keep on changing the thermostat.
These are some of the problems experienced in houses that have batt insulation or blown-in materials installed. A gap as small as a playing card will allow as much air to pass through as a small vent.
Here, once again, spray foam proves useful in solving the problem. It spreads in all crannies, grooves, and crevices. It can not be crushed since it stiffens as it receives. It is used to fill up all the odd angles of older houses or in areas around obstructions such as wires and framing.
Chances are that your exterior wall insulation is experiencing one or more of these problems if your house was built prior to the 1990s. One may want to consider an upgrade that will cover the whole area and make it airtight.
Problem 4: Inappropriate Insulation Type of the Exterior Walls
Insulation is not always made equally, and insulating exterior walls is just not an ideal job for all insulation materials. Air leakage, moisture issues, and energy inefficiency may arise due to the wrong kind of insulation.
This is a couple of the typical pitfalls:
- Fiberglass application in humid or coastal locations
- Systems not completed with a vapor barrier in cold climates. In cold climates, it may be possible to install open-cell foam without a vapor barrier.
- Application of closed-cell rigid foam board with gaps or edges not sealed
Various houses and geographical areas demand various solutions. An Edmonton house has to be insulated against frosty temperatures and arid elements, whereas a Halifax house has to be guarded against dampness and salty air.
What would be the most dependable material to make an all-season, all-climate insulation? Spray foam: closed-cell. It provides a moisture barrier and one of the highest R-values per inch and is also a better air leak sealer. This is why a larger number of builders and contractors in Canada are opting to use spray foam on new constructions and remodeling.
When you are considering exterior wall insulation, it is not just the cost that you should consider. The low-end insulation may save time now, but rebuild in thousands of homes for heating, air conditioning, and fixing.
Most of the problems we already discussed can be avoided by simply making the appropriate choice when deciding on the type of insulation.
Read more: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Insulation for Your Home
Problem 5: Insulation in old houses is either obsolete or exhausted.
Insulation is not a one-and-forget-it element of the house. It goes bad like a furnace or a roof. Older houses, in particular, those constructed more than 25 years ago, often have window insulation behind the walls that is no longer performing to its full capacity, even one of its previous models.
The insulating materials, such as fiberglass, rock wool, and cellulose, do not last effectively over time. They may be settled, moved, or damaged due to moisture, rodents, and even pests.
What shows that your insulation may be obsolete:
- Your energy bills keep rising each year.
- You feel big temperature swings between seasons.
- Ice dams form on your roof during winter.
- There’s dust or strange smells coming from the wall vents.
Just because your walls may still be “looking good from the outside doesn’t matter as much as what is occurring inside. Houses constructed during the 1970s and 1980s cannot utilize types of insulation that match the levels of the current code on energy code. There are also chances that some of them will have even outdated materials.
Modern exterior wall insulation could upgrade your home to current standards, save you money on heating and cooling, and even add value to your home.
Conclusion
You do not need to look at your insulation to realise there is something wrong. Drying and dry rooms, rising bills, rotten odors, or unequal temperatures are an indication that you need to get your exterior wall insulation checked. Air leaks, moisture, use of low-quality material, and outdated insulation are the most frequent but are easy to ignore, and yet they end up being expensive in the long run. Luckily, they can be corrected, too.
Spray foam insulation offers a contemporary, tried and tested solution to all these simultaneously. It is sealing, insulating, protecting, and long-lasting. When you are willing to quit wasting money out the window and instead want to live comfortably, now is the moment to take action. Book an inspection or request a free quote with SPF Solutions anywhere in Canada by contacting us for professional exterior wall insulation services.