Search:

Home | Home & Family | Home Improvement & Decor

An article on Home Improvement & Decor and related topics

For additional information and special deals related to some of the items on this article, place your cursor over the double-underlined links. All information supplied by Kontera.com

Choosing Garage Insulation for Toronto’s Climate

By: wsiarticles

The garage insulation in Toronto homes is often neglected. With our colder climate, most people in Toronto are more concerned with insulating ceiling and walls than with insulating their garages. With garages being protected by garage doors, it’s easy to think that garage insulation is not needed or as important as insulation elsewhere in a home. But, even insulated garage doors are not enough to stop the heat and cold of Toronto’s winters and summers from getting into your garage – not to mention that, when your garage door is open, that Toronto heat and cold is getting to your home directly. The fact is, if you live in Toronto, you need garage insulation.

But, even if you know the facts, it doesn’t mean your garage insulation problems are over. In a way, they are just starting. Now you need to find out which type of garage insulation is best for Toronto’s climate.

Toronto and the GTA homeowners are very familiar with house insulation. What many homeowners are not familiar with is the different types of insulation. Toronto’s climate means that different types of insulation, whether its for your garage or elsewhere in your home, will perform differently. When they think of home insulation, most homeowners think of fiberglass batt insulation. It is by far the most popular home insulation in Toronto. When it was introduced, fiberglass batt insulation was far superior to existing home insulations, many of which were little more than shredded paper.

Fibreglass batts are designed to fit between the wall studs and floor/ceiling joists in a home. To insulate your garage you would put fiberglass batts in all the walls and ceiling of the garage that are common with walls and floors in your home. But, regardless of their popularity, fiberglass batts are not necessarily the best insulation for your home or garage.

Insulation is designed to stop the transfer of heat – out of the house in winter and into the house in summer. The ability to stop the transfer of heat is expressed in R-value – the higher the R-value, the more heat the insulation will stop. What most homeowners don’t consider is that the R-value of any insulation only applies to the area covered by the insulation. In other words, fiberglass batts that are placed between studs and joists can’t stop the heat transfer through the studs and joists. If there are any gaps in the insulation, like between the batts and studs, or in hard to reach places, there is effectively no insulation; heat can pass freely.

Because your garage insulation needs to do as much as any other insulation in your home, especially in Toronto’s temperature extremes, any gaps or heat transfer through areas not covered by insulation costs you money.

Fibreglass batts also have a weak point that most homeowners don’t know about – moisture reduces its R-value. Even small amounts of moisture, like from condensation that forms in the walls of a garage when humid outside air meets cooler inside surfaces, can noticeably reduce the R-value of fiberglass batts.

Other types of insulation may be better suited for insulating your garage. Rigid foamboard insulation is unaffected by moisture, but it is very time consuming, if not impossible to cut and place foamboard over every opening.

Loose cellulose fill insulation can be blown into walls, ceilings and floors to cover most gaps, but, if it is not sprayed into absolutely every open spot gaps will remain.

Spray foam is perhaps the best type of insulation for your Toronto garage. Like loose cellulose insulation, spray foam is blown into place. The difference is that, when it is applied, spray foam expands to fill every nook and cranny, so there are no open gaps for heat to pass through. Spray foam is unaffected by water. It will actually reduce the amount of moisture in your ceiling and walls because it expands to seal many of the small gaps through which moisture enters. It’s strong adhesion properties mean spray foam sticks to almost any surface, including metal and wooden structural support members. So spray foam insulates joists and studs just as well as it insulates between them.

One other advantage of spray foam insulation: one inch of spray foam insulation has the same R-value as two inches of batt or cellulose insulation.

If you are wondering about the best garage insulation for Toronto and its climate, it’s tough to argue against spray foam.

Air Seal Insulators specializes in spray foam for home and garage insulation in Toronto and the GTA.

Article Source: http://ezine-articles-planet.com

Contact Air Seal today and begin enjoying all the advantages of spray foam insulation toronto

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Home Improvement & Decor Articles Via RSS!

Additional Articles From - Home | Home & Family | Home Improvement & Decor
Authors, Sign Up for a free account or learn more.
Writers/Authors
Submission Guidelines
Member Login
Submit Articles
Most Popular Articles
Publishers
Article RSS Feeds
Terms of Service


Twitter Power by Joel Comm

Share This Page:

AddThis Feed Button




Sponsors from all over the web


Would you like your site listed here?

Site Information
Link to Us
About Us
Site Blog
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Multi Site Article Search
Links Directory
Is This Site Useful?

If you found this site useful, please consider a donation of any amount to keep our site running.
Thanks for your support!
Site Stats





Yahoo bot last visit powered by MyPagerank.Net

Msn bot last visit powered by MyPagerank.Net


Please Rate and Vote For Us:


Top Article Directory Sites
07

Powered by Article Dashboard