Starting to build your dream home in Perth but not quite sure how to go about installing home insulation? Plan your build efficiently and discover how to properly choose and install insulation for residential homes. Read through our guide detailing all the common mistakes new homeowners make when working on their insulation.
What is insulation?
Insulation is any material used in homes to reduce heat transference, so that the rooms in your home either stay cool during hot summers or stay warm during cold winters.
If your house is poorly insulated, heat from the outside can easily penetrate the walls of your home and warm up the interior. Likewise, the heat you’ve managed to generate with your heater will easily escape outward, leading to a less energy-efficient home with higher electricity bills just to maintain a comfortable temperature inside your home.
Apart from maintaining heat, insulation also helps regulate the transfer of sound. Depending on the material used, your insulation can help protect your privacy and also prevent external sounds from entering your space and disrupting your conversations.
Common Mistakes Homeowners Make With Insulation
Neglecting proper ventilation
When starting to insulate your home, one would think that making sure that air can’t flow is the ideal goal so that heat can’t enter or escape your home.
However, not allowing air to flow through critical areas of your insulation, such as your attic, creates barriers that prevent moisture from escaping. This trapped moisture can steadily build up over time, dampening the insides of your walls and allowing the growth of harmful moulds, which can be a severe health hazard if not immediately addressed.
To prevent this, homeowners should ensure their soffit vents, commonly located underneath the eaves of their roofs, are not blocked so that cool outside air can flow in and push out hot air through your roof’s exhaust vents.
Improper air sealing
Before rushing in to start insulating your house, it’s important to first check for any air leaks along the exterior walls. If air leaks aren’t addressed early before you insulate, draughts can still pass through the batts of your walls, resulting in inefficient insulation.
Unlike intentionally placed air vents, air leaks that are randomly located in your walls can also lead to moisture accumulation, resulting in damp areas and weakened structural integrity.
Incorrect insulation orientation
Before installing your insulation batts, it’s also worth double-checking if it has a paper or foil side, as those that do need to be properly placed to perform effectively..
The paper or foil side is your vapour retarder or barrier and should face towards your living space, because it’s the conditioned side of the wall and where condensation would be present.
Properly orienting your insulation batts will reduce, or even completely prevent, the movement of moisture from your living space into your insulation, which is how mould commonly grows in your home undetected.
Ignoring thermal bridges
Thermal bridges are areas or components in a structure where heat can move through easily. Think of wall studs and how insulation is installed between them, not over their frames. Those frames create a direct connection from your exterior wall to your interior wall, allowing the heat to pass through with less resistance.
The presence of these thermal bridges can lead to cold areas on your wall during winter when you would be heating your room. This would lead to condensation building up along those thermal bridges, easily transforming into mould if left unchecked.
On the other hand, when it’s summer and you want to keep your home nice and cool, there would be hot spots along your wall, making your air conditioning system work more to keep your house cool, which in turn would increase your energy consumption.
Prevent temperature transference via thermal bridges by addressing air leaks, opting for wider spacing between your frames, installing thermal breaks or insulated plasterboards.
Compressing your insulation batts
Some might believe that compressing your insulation batts might help in improving their insulating properties, but compressing them will actually make their thermal insulation worse.
Most insulation materials work by trapping incoming air within the air pockets created by their fibres. Flattening them to make them denser or squeezing them into tight spaces would result in fewer air pockets, making it less capable of blocking both air and sound flow.
Because of this, it’s recommended to plan out how much insulation you need based on your home’s dimensions before starting any project.
Using the wrong R-value
The resistance value, or more commonly known as R-value, of insulation refers to its ability to stop heat from flowing through it. A higher number means more effective insulation capabilities.
Insulation with an insufficient R-value for your area will have a hard time keeping heat out or maintaining heat inside, leading to higher electricity bills just to keep your home at the most comfortable temperature.
When choosing your insulation, it’s best to refer to the National Construction Code to make sure the insulation you’re using is up to standard. Perth homes, under climate zone 5, generally should have a minimum R-value of R4 for their ceiling insulation, while walls have a standard of R2.5 depending on build specifications.
Choosing the wrong insulation type or material
Insulation comes in many types, and using one that isn’t built for your application will negatively affect your home. So while it may appear faster to simply use wall insulation batts for roofing and ceilings, differences in thicknesses and composition will impact how your space regulates temperature in the long run.
Likewise, when weighing your insulation options for your home, it’s also important to consider the material used in manufacturing. For example, opting for insulation materials like wool or cellulose that work poorly in high-moisture environments when building wet areas or humid locations in WA can often lead to clumping and sagging, lowering your insulation’s R-value.
To avoid costly mistakes and fixes later on, we recommend matching the right material to your project and following the specified applications of your chosen insulation.
Cost-Effective Insulation for WA Residential Homes
For quality, eco-friendly house insulation that can withstand and protect your home through WA’s seasons, we recommend Select Insulation’s Ecowool line, trusted by local builders and DIYers.
Proudly WA-owned, Ecowool insulation is manufactured from recycled glasswool without using any harmful chemicals, making it safe to handle before and after construction. With its range of different densities, thicknesses, and dimensions, Ecowool insulation can be used to suit any timber or steel-framed construction, ensuring your build is compliant with local insulation requirements.
Build a properly insulated home in Perth
Though often overlooked, insulation is one of the most important building materials that make your house a comfortable home for your family. Planning your construction carefully and choosing the right products will help you build a home that can withstand the test of time and WA’s harsh climate.
For more guidance on finding the right material based on your project specifications and budget, Westgyp’s team of experts is here to help you out. Having served the builders and DIYers across WA for over 30 years, Westgyp carries the experience and knowledge to ensure your project runs more smoothly, costs less, and exceeds expectations. Contact us today or visit us at our Balcatta warehouse to find the right insulation construction material for your project.