If you are a homebuyer in Albany or or someone considering selling your home, you are likely concerned about the rising energy costs associated with keeping your house warm and cool throughout the year. Much of this is affected by the type of insulation used in a house, especially with your attic insulation.
When we are out doing home inspections in areas like Ballston Spa or Saratoga Springs, we find a number of common defects with attic insulation.
1) Often, we find that the blown insulation is unevenly distributed throughout the attic. There are many people that do it themselves and rent machines to blow the insulation and do not realize that all the insulation needs to be blown evenly to ensure no heat or energy loss.
2) In older homes, we find that insulation can be deteriorated and overtime collapses, along with its R rating. This is very common among fiberglass batt insulation.
3) With the type of weather we see in the winter, ice and snow can cause damage to your roof causing water to leak into your attic and soak your installation. If this happens, or your installation gets destroyed by rodents, it should be removed and replaced immediately.
4) Many people decide to convert a garage or a porch into living space and they neglect to install hook installation about it which is out of code and not safe for your family.
5) We see many homes that have skylights. The shaft that connects your ceiling to the roof requires installation around it as well. This is often something that gets overlooked or the insulation comes loose and doesn’t do it’s job around the shaft .
6) This one is extremely common. If you were to blow in new insulation over old insulation, your vent baffles at the soffit are likely to get covered. This makes your attic less energy efficient and does not allow airflow and ventilation to occur.
If you are considering buying or selling a home and are looking for a good Saratoga Springs home inspector, please call Bald Eagle Inspection Services today!