Almost every home has places where energy leaks out. Maybe your AC is sneaking out around your windows and doors. Perhaps your walls are under-insulated. What about the attic? Are you losing hundreds of dollars a year to a leaky attic? The hardest part of making sure your home is energy efficient is identifying those places that let air leak out so you can plug them up and stop the energy loss and lower high heating and cooling bills.

$49 Thermal Scan Attic Evaluation in July

There’s an easy way to find out where your home is leaking energy. It’s called an energy analysis. At A+ Insulation, we use these thermal scans to help homeowners find and fix the energy leaks in their homes. Now through July 31st, A+ Insulation is offering an attic evaluation thermal scan for just $49 through our Angie’s List Big Deal promotion. We’ll come to your home and use thermal imaging to “see” where energy is escaping. Then, we can make an accurate recommendation for your home to save you the most money on heating and cooling costs.

What Is a Thermal Scan Energy Analysis?

Thermal or infrared energy, is light which is not visible to the human eye because its wavelength is too long to be detected. It’s the part of the electromagnetic spectrum we perceive as “heat”. We use specially designed infrared video or still cameras to make images (called thermograms) that show differences in surface heat. Infrared thermographic cameras produce images of invisible infrared or “heat” radiation letting us “see” where the temperature differences are in your home. Images on the video or film record the temperature varying from white for warm regions to black for cooler areas. The resulting images help us determine accurately where insulation or more insulation is needed.

See Where Your Home Is Leaking Energy

A thermal scan or a home energy evaluation detects the intrusion of either warm or cold entering your home in areas that the insulation is either missing or damaged by moisture. We get the most accurate thermographic images when there is a large temperature difference (at least 20°F) between inside and outside air temperatures. July is a great time to get a good reading on your home to be able to beef up your insulation and seal any leaks.

Call us today to take advantage of the $49 thermal scan attic evaluation through our Angie’s List Big Deal offer. It ends July 31st, so call today! Call us at (913) 281-2250 or (816) 268-7511.

At A+ Insulation, we’ve installed insulation in a lot of attics in Kansas City. We’ve also seen what wildlife, particularly squirrels, can do to an attic. It isn’t pretty. Here are some issues to be aware of if you have or have had animals in your attic.

Problems Caused by Squirrels in Your Attic

Squirrels are cute when they’re running around outside or playing in trees, but once they get into your home, the only thing you want is to get them out. Squirrels can cause a lot of unwanted damage to your home. They like to make nests in your insulation. This mats it down and makes it less effective. They also leave urine and feces throughout your attic causing unpleasant odors. If the inhabitants have been there for a length of time, it may be necessary to remove old insulation, clean the area, and install new insulation. Besides mess and odor, squirrels have been known to cause serious damage. They like to chew on all sorts of surfaces – lead piping around plumbing stacks, vents, wires, and of course, wood. They can even chew through and burst PVC plumbing piping, resulting in flooding or water damage. But the biggest danger to your home are wires. A chewed upon and exposed electrical wire is a fire hazard. No one wants their house to burn down because of rodent damage.

Physically Removing Squirrels Is Your Best Bet

Physically removing the squirrels is the best way to rid your home for good. There are many tactics such as mothballs, ammonia, fox or coyote urine, high-pitched sound machines, strobe lights, and more, but they aren’t reliable. Find out where they are coming in and set a trap there to capture the squirrel(s). Once removed, make sure you find and close all entrances so they can’t get back in. Make sure that all roof vents have a heavy steel screen intact, all of the plumbing stacks are screened off (sometimes the pipes are open inside the attic), all of the ridge cap plugs are intact, the gable vents are screened, the soffits are intact, etc. All repairs should be performed with steel and bolts, so that the squirrels can’t chew through them.

How to Deal with Baby Squirrels in Your Attic

One problem you may run into when removing the squirrels is that you may find a mother with babies in her nest. If you’d like to do the humane thing, just wait about eight weeks to remove the squirrels. Babies mature quickly and will be able to survive outside by eight weeks old. The only downside is that you’ll have more squirrels to catch in your traps. Of course, if you don’t want to deal with this yourself, you can always call a professional animal control company. Just make sure you get the entrance(s) fixed or you’ll just be removing more squirrels in a few months.

Related Read: Getting Proper Ventilation for Your Attic

Removing Squirrels in a Nutshell (pun intended)

• Find the nest in the attic
• If there are baby squirrels, wait 7-8 weeks
• Trap the squirrels and remove them
• Identify and seal all the entrances so they can’t re-enter
• Find and repair chewed wires
• Clean the biohazard and remove contaminated insulation
• Replace any insulation that had to be removed
• Add more insulation if it has settled low enough to see the floor joists. (According to the Energy Star website, the recommended level for most attics is to insulate to R-38 or about 10 to 14 inches, depending on insulation type.)

If you need help with attic insulation, call the Kansas City insulation experts at A+ Insulation at (913) 281-2250 or (816) 268-7511. Also, download our Free Comparison of Window Replacement vs. Insulation below!

At A+ Insulation, we understand the importance of insulating your attic to keep warm air in your home in the winter and cool air in your home during the summer. But there’s another secret to attics that many homeowners don’t know – proper ventilation. An attic without proper ventilation not only wastes energy and money, but can cause other problems.

Summer Advantages of Adding Insulation

In the summer, your attic gets hot. Because heat rises naturally, it is critical to have a way for that superheated air to leave your attic. Natural airflow in a well-vented attic moves super-heated air out of the attic, protecting roof shingles and removing moisture as well. The insulation we add will keep that heat from seeping into your house below.

Winter Advantages of Adding Insulation

It may seem counter productive to add insulation for warmth and then purposely allow cold air to enter the attic through vents in the winter, but in the winter, allowing a natural flow of outdoor air to ventilate the attic reduces the potential for ice damming (snow that melts off a roof from an attic that is too warm and then re-freezes at the gutters, causing an ice dam that can damage the roof). It also reduces the moisture in the air that seeps into the attic. If it isn’t well ventilated, the moisture will condense when it hits the colder air in the attic and cause mold, mildew or rot problems.

Related Read: Is Your Home Properly Insulated? Get a Free Home Energy Evaluation.

Make Sure Your Attic Is Properly Sealed

Proper insulation and air sealing also keeps attics cold in winter by blocking the entry of heat and moist air from below. You don’t want to pay to keep your attic warm when no one is ever up there. Conversely, in the summer, you don’t want your cool air to escape to your attic. You want to keep it in the living areas. Keeping it sufficiently sealed will help year round.

Don’t Make This Attic Insulation Mistake

The most common mistake homeowners make when installing insulation is to block the flow of air at the eaves. Never cover attic soffit vents with insulation – use rafter vents and soffit vents to maintain airflow. You want the air to be able to move freely to so it will easily leave your attic.

If you’re not sure your attic is properly ventilated (or insulated), call the attic insulation specialists at A+ Insulation for a free evaluation. Call us at (913) 281-2250 or (816) 268-7511.

If you’ve never had any pipes in your home freeze, count your lucky stars. If you have, you know the hassle and mess it creates. We want to make sure you don’t have to deal with frozen pipes – ever. So here are some simple steps from A+ Insulation to prevent freezing pipes.

Easy Fix for Pipes on Outside Walls

Most of the year, the temperatures in the Kansas City area are mild enough that they don’t cause problems with pipes. But once the temperature drops below 20 degrees, precautions should be taken. When temperatures plummet below 20 degrees, it can cause pipes on outside walls to freeze and burst. Pay special attention to pipes on outside walls. When you know the temperatures are really low, open the cabinet doors in front of your sinks. This allows the warm air inside your home to get to the pipes and raise the temperature of the water inside. All it takes is two seconds.

Trickle, Trickle, Trickle

Another 2-second fix is to turn your faucets on just to a trickle. Let them run overnight when temperatures get to their lowest. The moving water prevents the water inside the pipes from freezing solid.

Don’t Allow Indecent Exposure

Pipes that are exposed will freeze faster than insulated pipes – cover them! Check your basement attic, and garage where pipes can be forgotten about. Again pipes that are near outside walls or in a drafty area will be more at risk of freezing. A+ Insulation offers basement, garage, and crawl space insulation. But, in the meantime, insulating just your pipes is easy and affordable. Pipe insulation is usually a foam or cloth covering that clips right onto your pipe in two seconds to keep it from freezing. Your local hardware store should have a variety of foam and cloth coverings that are designed exactly for this purpose so they are fast and easy to install. (Okay, the two seconds doesn’t cover the trip to the hardware store, but the actual installation is easy peasy.)

Related Read: Insulation Prices on the Rise – Insulate Your Home Now and Save

Outside Faucets Have Nowhere to Hide

Outside faucets are outside, so they will freeze faster too. Double check for any hoses you forgot to detach at the end of the fall season. Hoses will hold water in the pipe and cause it to freeze. You can Install an exterior, insulated faucet jacket. Again, easy to install and affordable at your local home improvement store. Pick one up while you’re there getting the pipe cover above and save yourself the trip.

Don’t Be a Sump Pump Chump

Cold weather brings snow and snow piles up, so don’t forget to check the area where your sump pump drains. Snow can drift and restrict your water drainage. If the drainage area is blocked by snow or flowing into a puddle, the whole system could back up into your basement. Remember to check the area around your sump pump discharge line outside your home whenever it snows more than a few inches.

We hope these tips will help keep your faucets thawed and running this winter. One word of caution, if your pipes do freeze, do not try to thaw them with a blow torch. Too many homeowners have caught their homes on fire attempting to thaw pipes this way. Use a hair dryer instead.

Now that we’ve covered pipe insulation, give A+ Insulation a call if you need home insulation. We can save you big money on your heating and cooling bills.