There are many benefits to owning an older home and on a personal note, I really love them. Older homes have so much style, class, and history to them, you can’t help but think about everything and everyone who lived in the house or passed through the doors.

While older homes often feature high-quality craftsmanship, they aren’t without their challenges.

Many homeowners must face little or no insulation, which can lead to drafts and higher energy bills.… cold rooms in the winter and boiling hot rooms in the summer.  Both the extremes of hot and cold are due to poor insulation and lack of air sealing.

Are you wondering if you can retrofit your home with today’s modern, high-quality, efficient insulation products?

In this month’s article, I want to address the special challenges, as well as some reliable tips, for insulating older houses.

Issues That Can Occur with Older Homes

While today, no one would dream of constructing a home without some type of insulation in days gone by, this wasn’t the case and while older homes are well-constructed, with age, these materials have shrunk or deteriorated, causing them to become less airtight.

Carpenters and masons built older homes to have a natural ventilation system. Unfortunately, natural ventilation is like leaving a window open 24/7/365. This leads to drafts, uneven temperatures, and very high energy bills. FYI, the highest monthly gas bill toping $2,000 for a uninsulated 80 year old uninsulated home 3,200 square foot home.

Even if some insulation was added, later on, problems such as insects, rodents, and water leaks can quickly ruin many types of insulation.

If you have an older home, chances are that it isn’t as comfortable as you would like it to be. With the help of an expert insulation contractor, such as Chicago Green, you can have modern insulation that not only will not damage your home but will make it more structurally sound.

Step #1, Let’s Start in the Attic

When people talk about insulation, the attic is often the first place they think about. This part of the house plays a huge role when it comes to temperature regulation.  This is the first step is the attic is unfinished… if the attic is finished, the question is, do you like how it looks?  Do you want to keep it or do you need to keep it as is?

If you remember your old high school science classes, hot air rises. This means that in the winter, all the money you are spending on heating bills could be going right out to the great outdoors! Many older homes have large attics that make insulation easy to install.  You should watch how fast the snow melts on your roof compared to other homes on your block….  How big are the icicles? (Special note: if someone previously installed a furnace in your attic… foam is your only option!)

If you plan on using your attic space as storage or for living quarters, then you should have spray foam insulation applied to the roof deck to help regulate the temperature of the house and the attic space.

Gaps, cracks, and other irregularities in an attic is often the biggest problem when it comes to traditional materials, such as fiberglass, but when you use spray foam insulation, every crack and crevice will be sealed and covered, so no water, no insect, and no animal will ever call your attic home.