3 Reasons to Hire a Handyman for Adding Insulation to the Attic of Your Cincy Home

Adding attic insulation pays off in both summer and winter. During the winter season, it keeps naturally rising heat energy from conducting through the ceiling and warming the attic instead of your living spaces. In summer, attic insulation prevents a hot attic from heating rooms below and keeping the air conditioner in overdrive. Since most houses built over 10 years ago are under-insulated by today’s standards, upgrading insulation is a worthwhile energy conservation measure. Adding attic insulation to your home isn’t rocket science, but is it a job you want to tackle yourself? Here are three reasons why hiring a professional handyman might be a better idea:

• Proper distribution – Unless attic insulation is evenly distributed everywhere in the attic, including all those nooks and crannies that aren’t easily accessible, heat will find a way around it. The positive effect of upgrading insulation can be negated by low spots or gaps in the coverage. Knowing where all the trouble spots for coverage are, not to mention gaining access and getting the right level of insulation to them, is a job for someone with tools and expertise that the average DIYer may not have.
• Blocked vents – Most residential attics incorporate passive ventilation through a network of air vents sized for the square footage of the attic. Often situated in unseen, hard-to-reach places in the attic, these vents can be easily blocked by an inexperienced insulation installer. When proper ventilation is obstructed, more heat concentrates in the attic, stressing the HVAC system in the rooms below. In addition, under-ventilated attics accumulate humidity, as well, that may saturate and ruin insulation with condensation, as well as damage wooden structure.
• Fire hazards – Insulation should never contact a number of common household heat sources in the attic. These include recessed lights, HVAC air handlers and furnace flues. A dangerous fire hazard may result. In addition, loose-fill insulation can migrate under certain circumstances, so installers must take extra precautions to shield fire hazards from potential contact.

For more reasons to hire a handyman for adding insulation to your attic, contact Apollo Home Heating, Cooling and Plumbing. Image via Shutterstock.com