Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. How much insulation does your home need and where? It depends on your climate and the energy costs in your area. The basic principle is that you want to keep heat energy from doing what it does best: dissipating to colder areas. The best way is to trap a layer of air next to the heat source. In new framing, sprayed-on polyurethane foam, fiberglass or cellulose do a good job of providing this layer before the drywall goes up. If you re retrofitting your insulation, you can still spray in cellulose through holes cut from the interior or the exterior. To find out what insulation will work best in your home, you ll want to know the recommended insulation r-values in your area. R-value is the measure of a material s resistance to heat flow. The higher the value, the more effective it is. To see the recommended insulation r-values and cost estimates in your ZIP code, visit the Department of Energy s web site. Even a small draft can make your insulation less effective. Seal any gaps around electrical outlets, ducts, windows and doors with foam sealants, caulking or weatherstripping. The most important area to insulate is your attic. Make sure you ve got at least the attic floor insulated with blown-in or batt insulation to your area s recommended r-value, and consider insulating the roof and attic walls as well. This can provide a fully insulated buffer zone to keep heat where you want it and keep the lid on your energy costs. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

Bob joins Buddy Loxley from MAP Insulation to talk installation in the master bedroom. The crew is using R-15 fiberglass insulation from Owens Corning in the home's exterior walls to meet Energy Star standards. The high-density batt insulation is the highest R-value possible for two-by-four cavities. To achieve maximum R-value, it's important not to compress the insulation. It must remain fluffy in order to trap air and prevent infiltration. The crew will install an R-38 insulation in the ceiling. Owens Corning QuietZone interior wall insulation, a sound attenuation material, is placed in the interior walls to reduce noise transfer from room to room.

George Saylor from Owens Corning is on location in this episode to discuss the insulation products that will be used in the Waterfront Warehouse Rehab project. Before work begins, Bob notes the importance of wearing protective gear including gloves, hat, long sleeve shirt, pants, particle mask, and eye protection when working with fiberglass insualtion. Owens Corning has provided a fiberglass insulation that delivers an insulation value of R15 in only three and half inches of thickness. The material's higher density creates smaller more uniform cells of trapped air to provide a greater degree of insulation in a tighter space, making it more efficient. Saylor also explains how to insulate around outlets and other building infrastructure. On the exterior walls, extruded polystyrene insulation is being installed between the studs and wallboard to prevent thermal transfer from the metal studs to the building's interior. The additional material will create a R20 wall. In the living spaces, interior walls are filled with fiberglass batt insulation to prevent the transfer of sound from room to room.

Bob is joined by Mikde Hobson of Westchester Insulation as the crew prepares one of the Mashpee houses for insulation installation. Hobson explains that this is a patented insulation system that uses special fabric stapled and drawn tight across any cavity that needs to be insulated. The crew works with pneumatic staplers to get the fabric in place across all the walls and the joists of the cathedral ceiling. The fabric is not intended as a moisture barrier of any kind and is just there to hold the insulation in place and prevent it from settling. Hobson shows Bob the white fiberglass that will be blown into the cavities. It is white because it is a virgin product, completely free of treatments, binders, or chemicals. Certainteed and Johns Manville both produce fiberglass insulation that is suitable for the Blow-In-Blanket installation. Once all cavities have been enclosed, the insulation contractor cuts a slit in the fabric and inserts a hose through which the fiberglass is blown. The cavity is filled to a density of two pounds per cubic foot which is visible to the eye by a slight bulge in the fabric. At this density, an R-value of 15 is achieved in two-by-four cavities like walls. In attics and ceiling cavities that are two-by-six, an R-value of 38 can be achieved. This insulation is inert and will not support moisture, mold, animals, or insects. It also serves as a sound insulator and can be blown in around drain lines, in interior partitions, and around tubs and showers. Blo-In-Blanket insulation is suitable for new construction or retrofit applications where it is blown in through the sheathing from the outside or through interior drywall to fill wall cavities. Blow-In-Blanket insulation costs about 50 to 60 percent more to install than traditional batt insulation, but offers such energy efficiency that it pays for itself within two to four years.

This NCFI polyurethane spray-on insulation sets up as a rigid product. It will be sprayed in to about 3 1/2 inches in depth and will provide an insulation value of R21. It is sprayed directly onto the back of the sheathing and sticks to it, swelling to 25 times its liquid volume. The foam itself is filled with microscopic bubbles. Since air molecules transport heat energy rapidly from the warm wall to the cold wall, the goal is to stop them or impede their movement with a web of cells inside the insulation. This insulation is also enhanced with Enovate, a Honeywell chemical that is added to the spray to create a new, slower, larger molecule that moves inefficiently to pick up and transfer heat. Heat transfer is therefore retarded in two ways, making for an extremely high insulation value. The foam comes as a two-part product, delivered as a liquid from two drums that mix the components through a sprayer. The liquid is sprayed at a very high pressure, about 2,000 pounds per square inch, to mix the chemical with the hardener and deliver it to the building cavity.

Bob talks with Nick Beasley about insulating his 100-year-old home. Insulation contractorsare installing Pro Pink blown-in fiberglss insulation from Owens Corning. Joe Arrigo from Owens Corning talks about installing insulation in an old house where conventional batt insulation is often not suitable for odd spaces. To remedy this problem, a piece of fabric is stapled in place and then loose fiberglass is piped in through a hose into the space behind the fabric. This spray-in, loose-fill insulation is effective and will translate into big savings in heating costs next winter.

Bob meets up with Joe Sheridan from Energy Guard to learn more about the US Greenfiber Cocoon cellulose insulation application that is taking place in the barn. This is not a do-it-yourself process. A mesh material is first attached behind the wall cavities to hold the cellulose in place until the drywall is applied. The cellulose is essentially ground up newspaper treated during the manufacturing process with borates to resist fungus growth. It's mixed with a litle moisture and blown into the stud cavities. Product that falls onto the ground is vacuumed up and sucked back to the truck where it is remixed and blown back out. While one installer blows the insulation in, a second man follows with a stud scrubber, leveling the cellulose with the studs. The goal is to create a tight fit eliminating air movement through the wall. One can achieve an R-factor of R-13 in a 2 x 4 wall and an R-21 in a 2 x 6 wall, R-factors that will be maintained even in extreme temperatures. Within 24 hours after application the moisture content drops below 25% allowing sheetrocking to proceed. Another benefit of the product is sound attenuation. Upstairs in the attic, Joe's crew is doing a dry application. The cellulose is blown in under pressure. The hose is fed down to the bottom of the cavity and pulled back as it fills up. A proper vent in the ceiling is not necessary because the insulation is so dense that air doesn't travel through the insulation and miosture therefore never gets out to the roof sheathing. The price of the Cocoon product is comparable to fiberglass insulation.

Bob is joined by Jim Remick of Nickerson -Remick insulation contractors. Remick tells Bob that this NCFI-Honeywell insulation technology is more and more in demand from builders and contractors. When the liquid insulation hits the wall, the two chemicals react causing it to expand. This closed-cell foam is a moisture, vapor, and air barrier that sets up in a matter of seconds. It will be 95 percent cured in 4 hours, and 100 percent cure in just 24 hours. Once cured, it will give an R Value of 21, which is exceptional. It can only be applied in open cavities because it expands away from the exterior wall and would completely blow off existing wall treatments. There is no need for an added moisture barrier with this closed-cell insultaion. It will provide twice the insulation value, or R factor, but cost three to four times as much to install as average insulation. But the heat savings should be 30 to 50 percent over any other insulation product, bringing rapid payback for intitial installation costs.

The roof of the new addition is being insulated to retain all the heat generated from the radiant heating system. Paul Johnson of Alpine Insulators reviews the installation process. The first step involves installing netting that is breathable so air can escape once the cellulose is installed. The netting is fire-retardant and stapled in place to hold dense-packed cellulose in place. Bales of cellulose are emptied into a machine located in an on-site truck that shreds the cellulose before pumping it at high pressure into the cavities of the roof. In this case, the insulation cost about $2.25 a square foot. Cellulose is a great thermal insulator and sound attenuator. In the interior partion wall where the bathroom will be located, cellulose will be installed directly against the drywall. Bill Hulstrunk of National Fiber reviews some of the properties of cellulose insulation, which has been around since about 1920 and used extensively since 1970 in both new and existing construction. Borates are added to make the cellulose fire-retardant, and mold and insect resistant. Because of the added borates, a propane torch can be put to the cellulose without igniting it. In a field test, a penny can be put on top of the cellulose and melted without the heat penetrating the material. These borates are naturally occurring and the cellulose itself is made of 83 percent recycled content, making this type of insulation an environmentally conscious, "green" choice. The cellulose in this house is being used in an unvented application. Because the material is packed very tightly, it reduces the chance that warm, moist air will penetrate the cavity and create mold growth.

Bob again meets up with insulation contractor Joe Sheridan in the main house where the Cocoon insulation in being blown into the original plaster walls. To accomplish this, Joe's crew has drilled holes every 16 inches so that they are into every stud cavity. They drill one high and one low to acheive the proper density. First they apply it to the bottom and fill till it's solid in there - about 30 seconds on a bottom cavity. The installer can tell when it's filled from the pressure of the hose. The product will start backing into the hose. With experience you can hear it. Thge goal is to create maximum density in the cavities - leaving no air pockets. When the insulation process is complete a plasterer will have to come in and patch each hole individually.