1.     Did you know it’s possible to save money, help the environment and increase your comfort level–all at the same time? By properly weatherizing your home, you’ll create a more temperate living space by cutting down on drafts even as you slash energy use anywhere between 10 and 50 percent. That means significantly lower utility bills and reduced impact on the environment.

2.     Climatize your home, not the neighborhood

By properly weatherizing your home, you’ll create a more temperate living space by cutting down on drafts even as you slash energy use anywhere between 10 and 50 percent. That means significantly lower utility bills and reduced impact on the environment. Of course, weatherization requires time and often a little money. But you don’t necessarily have to mount storm windows or wrap your entire home in plastic. In fact, you can make a great deal of headway with a caulking gun and a few yards of weather stripping. We’ll show you how to assess the current state of your home and take steps to improve its climate–and your comfort

3.     Find leaks

Before you start the weatherization process, you need to assess your home’s needs. Many local utility companies will come to your home and, either for free or for a nominal fee, conduct a thorough assessment of your home’s insulation system. Some companies will even take an infrared photo on a cold winter’s night, which will reveal exactly where your home is hemorrhaging heat. Likewise, they’ll tell you how the summer heat is penetrating the cool refuge that is your home. If your utility company does provide this service, take advantage of it. In the meantime, learn the potential trouble spots for yourself. Some are obvious, but some you might never have considered. Here is a list, in order of importance:

4.     Floors, ceilings and walls:

Even a wall that looks airtight could be an energy sink. Do the touch test: walls, floors and ceilings that feel significantly colder or hotter than room temperature may need attention.

5.     Ducts:

Sometimes heating vents actually suck warmth out of a room, while cooling vents blow in hot air during summer. If you have a central heating and/or cooling system, check all ducts and registers to ensure they are working for you, not against you.

6.     Fireplaces:

When your fireplace is not in use, be sure the damper is closed, summer and winter alike

7.     Plumbing:

Sometimes pipes enter a house above ground. Walk around the perimeter of your house to see where pipes may penetrate outside walls. Perform the touch test in order to detect gaps between pipes and the wall around them.

Note: Be careful to avoid very hot pipes or ducts.

8.     Doors:

Gaps between a door and its frame are one of the biggest heat-loss offenders, and one of the easiest problems to fix.

9.     Windows:

Loose caulking and cracked panes are simple to repair and can make significant improvements. If the glass is cold to the touch in winter, or hot in the summer, you might want to consider a more insulated window system.

10. Wall fans:

When built-in fans are installed (usually in kitchens and bathrooms), contractors often leave invisible gaps between the fan and the wall itself. Again, do the touch test around the edges of the fan to determine a little caulking might be in order. Now that you know where problems may lie, we’ll present some potential solutions. Fine-tune your furnace and air-conditioning system Many people treat their furnaces and air conditioners like workhouses, neglecting them until they stop working altogether. Such treatment may be OK for plumbing and electrical systems, but heating and cooling systems need routine maintenance, just like a car.

11. Air filters

At the very least, you need to replace the air filters in your air conditioners and furnace at the beginning of each season. Otherwise, warm or cool air will never make it past logged filters.

12. Furnace tune-up

If you live in an extremely cold climate, you should also hire a professional to give your furnace an annual tune-up (in milder climates, biannual tune-ups may suffice). Air conditioners should get a tune-up every three years. The cost of the tune-up should easily pay for itself in the form of increased energy efficiency.

And don’t stop at the furnace or air conditioner itself. Your system also includes the ducts and vents that actually deliver warm air where you want it. Beginning with your furnace or central air conditioner, trace the vents that lead to the various parts of your house (ducts usually hug the basement ceiling). Without actually touching the vents (which can be quite hot), feel for air leaks. (See Step 3 to find out how to seal them.) Next, identify all the heating and cooling vents in your house and make sure none is blocked by carpets, furniture or excessive dust. You might be spending big bucks heating or cooling the back of your Lazy Boy. Take care of the simple stuff Before going to great effort and expense, spend an afternoon on do-it yourself tasks. You don’t have to be particularly handy to make a big dent in your heat-loss problem. Replace the filter in your furnace. This is the single simplest, most effective thing you could do to prevent heat loss. Most furnace filters are designed for easy removal and replacement. Look for a slot several inches wide and several feet high. The old filter should come out easily, and the new one should slide right in.

13. Caulking

Caulk loose windowpanes, as well as any other cracks where outside air is entering your house, for example around wall fans and plumbing outlets (See Step 1 to find out where to look). Attach weather-stripping to the edges of windows and outside doors where outside air enters your house. Shut off rooms that aren’t in use, and close heating and cooling vents. (Caution: Do not close off too many vents. You could overwork the furnace by forcing air through too few vents.) Hang heavy drapes over windows that are particularly subject to heat loss. It’s an ancient practice, but it works surprisingly well.

Consider plastic heat barriers for windows. they look like the clear plastic that you might wrap a sandwich in, yet they have high insulation value because they create a pocket of dead air between themselves and the window. You simply tack or glue them up, then take hair dryer, which both removes wrinkles and shrinks the plastic so that it forms a seal window frame. Martha Stewart might not approve of the aesthetics, but it’s a cheap alternative to storm windows.

Seal leaks in heating ducts with a special latex-based sealing compound available at most hardware stores. You just have to goop it on. (See Step 1 to find the ducts themselves.)

1. Insulation

Insulate the attic We all know heat rises, but not everyone thinks to insulate the attic. An unfinished attic can be a heat trap during summer, and it can account for a great percentage of a home’s heat loss during winter–yet it’s the easiest part of the house to insulate. If you’re committed to a more energy-efficient home, and enjoy working with your hands, consider doing the job yourself. Many kinds of insulation are available to the amateur, including rolls, loose-fill and rigid foam boards. Batts and rolls, which are generally sufficient for an attic, are the easiest to use and require little more than a staple gun, a sharp cutting knife and rubber gloves. Batts are made of thick, spongy fiberglass backed with a material that looks like aluminum foil. They’re purchased in rolls between one and two feet wide and four feet long. Batts are easy to attach to the wooden frame of an attic’s ceiling and walls, and can also be cut to fit between joists if necessary. Rolls, which look very much like thick, insulated blankets, require almost no effort at all: you simply roll them out across the attic floor

Depending on size, you can probably insulate your attic in a single afternoon. Just follow these simple steps:

1.     Measure your attic’s floor, walls and ceiling, as well as the distance between joists.

2.     Go to a good hardware store and ask how powerful insulation should be in your region. Buy the necessary materials and equipment, and be sure to ask your salesman for any last-minute advice on installation (always a good idea)

3.     Go home and install the insulation. This may sound like a tall task, but it’s not. Batt insulation only needs to be stapled in place, either to a plat wall or between joists. As long as you have a stepladder and perhaps a friend to help you unroll the batts and hold them in place, you should have no problem at all. Rolls need only be spread out across the entire extent of an uninsulated floor.

4.     If you live in a particularly extreme climate, or your house hasn’t undergone serious insulation efforts in more than 20 years, you may want to consider taking actions that require a professional contractor. These might include installing storm windows, applying insulation to outside walls, or blowing insulation into hard-to-reach places such as crawl spaces.

5.     If you do decide to take such steps, give us a call at 925 575-1541

     Consider professional weatherization Anywhere from an afternoon (for strategic caulking and weather-stripping) to several weeks (for window replacement or other serious insulation jobs). You will have a better idea after the assessment process

6.  For the do-it-yourself weatherizing the raw materials are available at any good hardware store.

1.     Your weapons should include the following:

·         a caulking gun

·         weather stripping

·         a tape measure

·         a fresh filter for your furnace and/or air conditioner

1.     A hardware store should also furnish materials for a simple, do-it- yourself insulation job. The basic materials include: insulation material that can be easily installed in attics or crawl spaces latex-based sealing compound, for leaky heating ducts gloves, for handling fiberglass insulation a staple gun (which you can rent) Make sure your thermostat is protected from drafts. If it’s located near an outside door or close to a particularly drafty window, consider asking a professional to move it to a more insulated room. If this proves too expensive, you can buy a clear plastic cover from most large hardware stores. Covers aren’t a perfect solution, but they do help.

2.     During winter, keep drapes closed at night and on cloudy days. Open them when the sun is shining to take advantage of natural solar heat. During hot summer days, keep drapes or blinds closed as much as possible. A rubbery, moldable material that’s used to seal gaps and hold window panes in place. It generally comes in a tube, from which you dispense it like icing. Weather-stripping: A strip of rubber material used to cover areas such as door or window joints to prevent leaks and provide insulation.

Welcome to our new Blog page.  We will be posting new information here from time to time to keep up updated on misc. information that we find helpful to you.  Please check back from time to time and let us know if you have any questions or comments that you would like to add to this Blog.

Thanks,

Heritage Construction Co., LLC

Maggie & Troy Hart

925 575-1541

Visit us at www.heritageconstructionllc.org