The Benefits of Adding Vinyl Siding and Insulation to your Home
For many homeowners, siding is something that remains an afterthought until they absolutely need it. However, re-siding is something that can easily be done before your exterior looks like something out of a home improvement nightmare. Not only does re-siding make your home look better, but it also drives up the value of your home, makes it much, much more energy efficient and helps to ensure that your home will remain free of moisture and mold.
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Siding and Insulation Add Energy Efficiency To Your Home
The relationship between siding and insulation is an important one. Even the best brand of siding doesn’t work as it should without the right insulation. The importance of siding and insulation goes beyond just adding a sheath to your home, helping to shelter the interior from outdoor elements. The insulation also acts as a barrier keeping your home free of dirt, bugs and worst of all, moisture, which if allowed to get in, can cause big time mold issues. In fact, there are types of insulation that allow moisture to get in, giving way to mold, mildew and worst of all, wood rot, all of which can contribute greatly to structural damage of your home. A good siding contractor will understand the important relationship between using the right kind of insulation when adding new siding to your home to ensure that moisture remains outside of the home and the structure is properly insulated.
Along with keeping out moisture, new siding and insulation can also help make your home much more energy efficient. Not only is that a trendy political cause, it is a financial reality for many homeowners, who have seen their energy bills skyrocket in recent years. The energy efficiency of your home centers around your R-Value, which is the guideline for how well the insulation of your home can resist the solar heat flowing through it. The R-Value doesn’t just apply to insulation; this can also be used to measure the same guideline for your vinyl siding. Once you have the value for both sets of materials, they are added together to the overall R-Value for your home. The higher the value, the more the siding and insulation resist heat, thus making your home more energy efficient.
Some siding/insulation options to ask your vinyl siding contractor about include:
* Complete wall protection: These systems consist of a custom type of insulation that fits snugly just behind the siding. In fact, the insulation fits the exact shape of the siding, ensuring the perfect fit, with no extra spaces where negative components can get in.
* Permeable house wrap: This type of insulation acts like a blanket on the home, making all moisture simply evaporate instead of taking up residence in your walls.
* Rigid foam: This is a fairly thick form of insulation that provides a dry, tight fit for your home.
There are a number of additional specialty insulation/siding packages available to homeowners. Your vinyl siding contractor should be aware of the various methods and be able to provide some insight on what option would work best for your home.
